Apple

The supply chain management or the SCM is considered as some crucial activities that are important for controlling, planning and execution of the flow of the products. The supply chain starts from acquiring of the raw materials to production of the desired products and finally in this supply chain the actual product got delivered to the final customer (Giannakis & Papadopoulos, 2016). The main aim of the supply chain processes is creating streamline and a cost effective product so that it can be delivered to the customers in most possible cost effective way.

The supply chain management includes integrated planning and execution of some crucial processes that are very much important for optimization of the flow of the materials financial capitals and information is such of the areas which consisting sourcing, demand planning, inventory management, production and storage. For the processes of supply chain both of the specialised software and business strategy is required to gain an effective market competition in the market.

In the current context it has been analysed that main products which need to be managed by the procurement department of the Apple Inc. is the iPhones department (Christopher, 2016). The iPhone sector is most important sector for the business of Apple Inc. as most of the revenue of the organisation comes from this sector. For perfect business operation and business procedures management of the iPhone sector by the procurement department is very much important in this context.

In the iPhones there are various of important parts and for this parts, Apple is dependent on various of other organizations. In this list of organization the most important organization are the Qualcomm, Samsung and Glu Mobile. Here Qualcomm provides modem for Apple, where Samsung provides displays for the iPhones. Glu Mobile provides some important hardware to the Apple.

The current supply market for the Apple is quite well and most of the suppliers are happy in this business process among them. Apple currently uses only sourcing type of business where it depends on the other manufacturers of the service and delivery of the parts of the iPhones. In this case sourcing is important competiveness and for the cost structure of the large businesses. Due to sourcing, Apple is capable of high amount of parts purchase and for that production of the iPhones has been increased.

The current supplier section by the Apple is very well as all the selected companies are one of the best in their corresponding business area. Also, development practices and programs in this organizations are well defined.

Here Apple is facing supply related issues in two of the most important parts which are the displays and the processors. Here the main issue regarding the display is that shortage of the main supply and modem supply is facing issues due decreased business relationship among the organizations.

The current sales market for the Apple Inc. is the mobile device consumers worldwide. One of the main reason that Apple is a huge company is that its presence in almost every country in the world. Through this a large amount of customers has been targeted by Apple. The current key customer in this context for the iPhones of the Apple are the electronics consumer and the smartphone consumers (Mangan, Lalwani & Lalwani, 2016). In the case of gender Apple is more focused on the males rather than the females. Here the targeted age group is the 35-44.

Demand forecasting is very much important for the organizations for a better supply of the products to the market. Different organizations uses their different styles of demand forecasting techniques. The Apple forecasts the demand of its iPhones by analysis of the past sales details of their iPhones. With the previous sales records in this aspect Apple also analyses the current market environment. By analysis of these two factors, Apple is capable of demanding the forecast of the sales accurately. Considering demand forecasting for other organization, it is quite different from the Apple (Darr, 2019). This happens as business style of those organization is different and for that different forecasting is important.

The inventory management techniques for Apple is one of the best inventory management system. To achieve this the Apple has implemented a centralised type of warehouse for their products (Zhang, Liang & Gao, 2017). The products were distributed all over the world by the 154 key supplier of Apple. Also, a strong and strategic relationship is managed by the Apple with its vendor. By this effective inventory management can be achieved. Different products is managed through different kind of inventory management system as targeted market for different products are different.

Currently there is a demand related issue in the supply chain of Apple. There is a shortage in the supply chain of the displays. Recently after the launching of iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS max apple did not received positive feedback from the market. Currently, their overall sales are decreasing and for that issues are there in the inventory management system.

The bullwhip effect is a typical type of channel of distribution through which the yield supply chain efficiencies are forecasted. It mainly refers to the increased swings in the inventory for responding to the demand of the customers. One of the major reason that the bullwhip effect occurred within the supply chain of Apple due to their announcement of iPhone XR, XS and XS Max. This phones failed to become as successful as their predecessor. Due to this false supply claim is created in the organization and also there was a fluctuation in the demand (Schoenherr & Speier‐Pero, 2015). Here advanced software technologies can be used as the remedies of bullwhip effect. Due to the bullwhip effect in this context Apple faced several problem in the manufacturing and in the inventory management.

In this context, Apple has used various of technologies for management of the supply chain within the organization. All of this technologies helped the Apple to overcome the issues regarding various of challenges in the supply chain management. In this case, the key technology that is used by the Apple for the supply chain management is the warehouse management system (Mangla et al., 2019). Through this technology Apple was able to track its central warehouse easily. Through this technology the supply chain capability of Apple increased as tracking each and every components become very much easy in this case.

In this case the main practices which is used for the collaborative nature in the processes of supply chain are the encouragement in innovation and establishment of the team specific goals. Team goal establishing is one of the major factor in this case. This can be implemented by proper communication among the employees of the organization. This practice can improve the supply chain of the organization.

In this case for Apple, first the sourcing is done at United States. Following that assembly of the parts is done in China. Then all the product goes for the warehouse storage and from there it goes to the distribution channels (Coyle et al., 2016). In case any type of defective product the product it taken return from the consumer’s end.

The nine step framework for supply chain integration are:

1. Definition of problem and plan.

2. Creating Baseline Model.

3. Validation of Baseline Model.

4. Quick wins and quantify of key drivers.

5. Scenario identification and creation.

6. Scenario optimization.

7. Iterate and consolidate.

8. Driving the change.

9. Creation of reputable process.

Considering the current supply chain of the Apple it can be actually considered as a Triple A supply chain (Ayers & Odegaard, 2017). This supply chain supports all of the adaptability, agility and the alignment that are very much important for the business process of the organisation.

The main procurement which is currently used by the procurement of the Apple are spend under management, procurement ROI and the procurement cycle time (Lockamy, 2017). The supply chain sustainability practices that are used by Apple is mapping the supply chain, communicating the expectations and developing capacity building and training programs.

From the analysis of the Apple Inc. it has been assessed that the sustainability practices for the supply chain management has been perfectly implemented and integrated across the organization. Perfect sustainability has been implemented within the organization that they will be able to create new products with not many of wastages (Fleming, 2019). Through this way, Apple has successfully integrated sustainability in their supply chain model.

Considering the procurement of Apple it is quite effective strategy which helped the organization to sold millions of iPhones. The main procurement strategies which has been implemented by the Apple are the:

· Risk Diversification: Here the growth of the iPhone started from a cheaper model and from that base model Apple increased their complexities of their design and with that Apple frequently revisited supply chain partners and the supply chain strategy. In this case it has been assessed addition of a new supplier will be very much beneficial for the organization as it will be providing better flexibility to them and by using that they will be able to react faster in case of supply chain disruption (Stadtler, 2015). Through this a strong commitment has been taken towards an ethical and safe process of manufacturing.

· Management of Capacity: Currently there are various of market competitors of Apple including Google and Microsoft. Google uses android for their phones which is available in open source. The iOS of Apple is linked closely with the design of the hardware, thus it is important to manage the capacity issue of the handset as well. Thus to get success in big markets Apple needs to increase the overall production. Utilizing a second supplier will be helpful in such cases (Fujita & Hamaguchi, 2016).

· Innovation of Supplier: A new supplier might be willing to invest in the capital to fund the growth. Thus for increment in the share of the business of the Apple, operational efficiencies need to be improved. This will differentiate Apple from its market competitor.

From the supply chain analysis of the Apple it has been assessed that these are having various of primary activities related to it. The main primary activities are the:

· Inbound Logistics: Apple is very much popular brand in the current context. Due to this reason Apple is consisting many of the top suppliers which makes the supply chain of the Apple very much flexible. Also, Apple is consisting very much high bargaining power over its suppliers. Also, Apple has set a quality standard for their suppliers to that Apple will be able to make only high quality of products.

· Operations: Currently, manufacturing operations of iPhones is done several of places across the globe and China is biggest of them. With China there are also some Asian country also in which manufacturing of the iPhones is done. As labor cost in the Asian country is quite low manufacturing cost for the Apple reduces. Also, Apple is trying to remove toxic type of substances from the manufacturing units for better sustainability.

· Outbound Logistics: Currently, Apple is consisting a huge channel of distribution of both the indirect and direct channels. It can be found in both the online and in the offline markets. Also, the distribution channel of Apple is increasing more. Due to this fact Apple is consisting a better supply chain management.

The supply chain of Apple can be improved in various of ways. The main processes through which improvements can be done are discussed below:

· Cost awareness can be raised within Apple for a better supply chain management.

· Organizational transparency need to be improved more for the Apple to get a better supply chain management (Meixell & Luoma, 2015).

· The return management need to be improved in this case for Apple for a supply chain management.

· ERP systems are one of the most crucial solution for improving overall progress of the organization. Here an effective ERP system can help Apple to improve the supply chain management of them.

· Vendor plays an important role for perfect management of the supply chain. Thus Apple need to ensure that the vendors performing very well. For this factor Apple need to closely monitor the performance of the employee and through this the supply chain of the Apple can be increased.

· The ERP system can be also used for management of the inventory in real time. Through this handling of inventory and the information regarding it will become very much easy (Wang et al., 2015). Thus in this case also better supply chain management can be gained.

· Standardization of the processes can done in this case to bring improvements in any type of supply chain management. This will increase the efficiency of the supply chain management while the cost and time is decreased. Standardized system of tools can be also implemented in this case for increasing encourage, accuracy and the teamwork. Thus the supply chain will be improved in this case.

The above discussed improvement programs will assist Apple to fulfill organizational vision, mission and strategic goals. Here it has been assessed that ERP system bring improvements in the supply chain management and help to make a sustainable supply chain management. Through the implementation of ERP system the strategic goal of the Apple Inc. can be fulfilled (Shi & Ma, 2016). Also, in this case the standardization of the processes can help the Apple to achieve vision statement of the organization. The mission statement of the Apple Inc. can be achieved in this case by cost awareness and organisational transparency in this case. In this case the cost awareness should be there within the employees of the organisation.

From the above discussion it can be concluded that Apple Inc. is currently facing various of problems regarding the supply chain within the organization. Here various of issues that are present in the current supply chain management has been discussed. Here, first the supply related issues has been discussed. Following that operations related issues has been discussed in this report. Following that, integration related issues and information related issues has been discussed within this context and lastly, sustainability issues within the organization has been discussed. With all of this factors, Apple’s supply chain model and the procurement has been discussed within this report. Also, improvements regarding the supply chain has been discussed here and how this can assist the Apple to achieve vision, mission and strategic goals has been discussed.