Bloomberg Businessweek goes behind the scenes to reveal Apple’s secret to dominating the market through extremely tight supply-chain management and operations.
Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of [laser equipments worth $250 thousand each] to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company’s MacBook Airs, Trackpads, and wireless keyboards.
The company locks up air freight costs and schedules far ahead the rest of the industry, giving it dominance in worldwide shipping.
Apple realized it could pack so many of the diminutive music players on planes that it became economical to ship them directly from Chinese factories to consumers’ doors. When an HP staffer bought one and received it a few days later, tracking its progress around the world through Apple’s website, “It was an ‘Oh s—’ moment,” recalls Fawkes.
That mentality—spend exorbitantly wherever necessary, and reap the benefits from greater volume in the long run—is institutionalized throughout Apple’s supply chain, and begins at the design stage.
Apple locks up parts and equipments too and as a result competitors must wait for months to manufacture their products
Before the release of the iPhone 4 in June 2010, rivals such as HTC couldn’t buy as many screens as they needed because manufacturers were busy filling Apple orders, according to a former manager at HTC. To manufacture the iPad 2, Apple bought so many high-end drills to make the device’s internal casing that other companies’ wait time for the machines stretched from six weeks to six months, according to a manager at the drillmaker.
At this point, Apple can’t afford to lose Tim Cook. There’s really nobody who could take the helm of Apple from Jobs other than his former COO. Cook is swift, clinical, and ruthless in operations but he also knows his shortcoming, products, which is why that aspect of the company goes to people like Jonathan Ive and Scott Forstall.
This tightly knit team is what makes this piece of news all the more important. Without all hands on deck, Apple would crumble and competitors will eat them. Apple may have lost a crucially important playmaker but as long as the company locks up its other MVPs, the rest of the team will fall in line.
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