Apple starts iPhone 15 trial production in China, plans faster India manufacturing

A Foxconn facility

Apple's supply chain is making its early-stage preparations for manufacturing the iPhone 15, with trial production of the 2023 models said to have started in China, though one change may also benefit production in India.

The production of high-end and popular devices like the iPhone requires intense scheduling and preparation. As part of the 2023 releases, it appears that Apple is gearing up for mass production by performing an initial trial version.

HonHai's Shenzhen Guanlan factory in China is reportedly entering the New Product Introduction (NPI) process, which is used to allow assembly partners and the supply chain to work out how to actually manufacture Apple's new iPhone models, reports UDN. Apple's NPI typically occurs in the first quarter of the year.

NPI is important, with the trail production used to create a bill of materials, test machines used in manufacturing, establish a quality monitoring process, and to find any potential issues that could impact the full production run.

In an unusual move for the NPI process, Apple will be working to reduce the gap in time when mass production starts in India compared to China. While the usual lag means Indian facilities start production of new models six to nine months after China, the plan is to shrink the time down to a few weeks.

Apple is keen to shift production away from a China-centric approach to one that relies on multiple manufacturing bases around the world. With India serving as one such potential base of operations, Apple may shift as much as 5% of production to the territory in 2023.

However, NPI has been a problem in the past for India, with Apple already mastering the process with China. In part, this is due to Apple having established vigorous controls to maintain confidentiality with Chinese suppliers, a field it still needs to work on in India.

If Apple can shrink down the time it takes to perform NPI in India from months to weeks, that could give Apple a valuable way to massively increase production of its major products in the future.

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5 Comments

wood1208

said about 1 year ago

Pro models are bit heavier than non-pro. Hopefully, replacing with titanium will help reduce weight. For NPI issue in India, Apple can start new model/product production early in China then after product announcement, ramp up in India.

waveparticle

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

Reliance on foreign labor to produce goods for our domestic market is just putting off the day of reckoning for global corporations. When Japanese workers demanded middle class wages, manufacturing went to Mexico and South Korea. Koreans wanted to buy what they made, and wages increased, shifting manufacturing to China, Indonesia and India. As those economies lift their workers into the middle class, the last cheap labor pool, Africa, is next. Once they develop and boost their workers into living wages, what happens? We'll have no one to subsidize our lifestyles with their cheap labor pools, and we'll have to pay the real cost of the goods and services we use. And that's the end of the line for $1,000 iPhones, $10 shirts, $300 TV sets, affordable home computers, and many other things.

Better start saving now, if you're under 40 years old.

You need to write to your congressman to cut down federal spending especially in national defense. LOL

waveparticle

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

waveparticle said:

JP234 said:

Reliance on foreign labor to produce goods for our domestic market is just putting off the day of reckoning for global corporations. When Japanese workers demanded middle class wages, manufacturing went to Mexico and South Korea. Koreans wanted to buy what they made, and wages increased, shifting manufacturing to China, Indonesia and India. As those economies lift their workers into the middle class, the last cheap labor pool, Africa, is next. Once they develop and boost their workers into living wages, what happens? We'll have no one to subsidize our lifestyles with their cheap labor pools, and we'll have to pay the real cost of the goods and services we use. And that's the end of the line for $1,000 iPhones, $10 shirts, $300 TV sets, affordable home computers, and many other things.

Better start saving now, if you're under 40 years old.

You need to write to your congressman to cut down federal spending especially in national defense. LOL

National defense is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on Americans. No one outside the Pentagon (and most inside) knows the ratholes those trillions of our treasure have disappeared into. And we just keep pouring more and more into those black (ops) holes. Eisenhower knew a thing or two about national defense:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_for_Peace_speech

Washington DC has the fourth most millionaires in US cities. The assistants of congressman/woman will find a good paying job after departing.

waveparticle

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

waveparticle said:

JP234 said:

waveparticle said:

JP234 said:

Reliance on foreign labor to produce goods for our domestic market is just putting off the day of reckoning for global corporations. When Japanese workers demanded middle class wages, manufacturing went to Mexico and South Korea. Koreans wanted to buy what they made, and wages increased, shifting manufacturing to China, Indonesia and India. As those economies lift their workers into the middle class, the last cheap labor pool, Africa, is next. Once they develop and boost their workers into living wages, what happens? We'll have no one to subsidize our lifestyles with their cheap labor pools, and we'll have to pay the real cost of the goods and services we use. And that's the end of the line for $1,000 iPhones, $10 shirts, $300 TV sets, affordable home computers, and many other things.

Better start saving now, if you're under 40 years old.

You need to write to your congressman to cut down federal spending especially in national defense. LOL

National defense is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on Americans. No one outside the Pentagon (and most inside) knows the ratholes those trillions of our treasure have disappeared into. And we just keep pouring more and more into those black (ops) holes. Eisenhower knew a thing or two about national defense:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_for_Peace_speech

Washington DC has the fourth most millionaires in US cities. The assistants of congressman/woman will find a good paying job after departing.

You aim too low. It's not the assistants who make big money after getting ousted or retiring. It's the congresscum themselves who get paid millions lobbying (bribing, if you will) their former colleagues. And let's not forget retired generals and admirals who go to work lobbying for defense contractors. Now that's REAL money!

Their methodology is actually very simple: creating an enemy. The Americans cannot resist. This is the spirit of Western culture. For example, when I point out untruths of China news, immediately someone here lied about me as a CCP operative. The hatred in western culture is rampant. This is the root reason why there are so many shootings such as the Idaho University killings of four students and killer is a PhD student in criminology. The killer may have a small grievance toward one of the student, But he blows it up. The foreign elites will not discuss this domestic crime. Because the thinking of the killer is the same as their hatred toward China.