Streamlining Success: The Operations Mastery of Apple Inc.

This research is credited to Ahmad Fuad Al Hattab

Introduction

Apple Inc. is an American technology-based company with its headquarters in California. Over the years, Apple has been considered a multinational organization due to its ability to develop and sell quality electronic products ranging from phones, computers as well as software (Thao & Tsanthaiwo 2017). Apple is one of the biggest technology companies, alongside Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

The company, which was founded in 1976, has grown over time to include the production of numerous products and increasing distribution all over the world. The size and revenue of the company totaling to an annual income of $265 billion in the year 2018 make it the world’s largest tech company (Kubilay 2019). This success can be attributed to various factors, including the ability to convert available resources into quality products, effective processes, and the utilization of high technology to produce goods and services, as discussed in this paper.

Operations

In an organization, the operation function is aimed at enabling the company to get all its tasks done, including producing quality goods and services for consumers. Therefore, the operations function has the role of ensuring that the end products meet the market criteria (Heizer 2016). While the marketing function helps to identify the needs of customers, the operation function focuses on making plans and strategies that will aid in meeting the consumer's demands and expectations.

Operation management therefore entails managing resources that are used to produce the end products that a company presents to its customers. For operations to be effective, various inputs are put through a transformational process that yields the outputs (de Sousa Jabbour et al. 2019). These inputs are divided into two categories, including transformed and transforming resources.

The transformed resources include those that are used up during the process of creating goods and services and such as the materials used, the customers who have been transformed in a certain way, and the information used in the process. On the other hand, the transforming resources are those that play a part in the creation process but are not used up; for example, staff and facilities such as machines and buildings (Zakaria 2014).

For Apple Inc., operations management is based on ten decisions that relate to different aspects of the operation process that entail inputs, processes, and outputs. Some of these decisions revolve around the location of stores, the design of products, the management of inventory systems, and capacity, among others. The decision area is the design of goods and services, which the company handles through various processes and officials (Gardner et al. 2016).

For instance, during the production of Macs, different VPs from the company have to coordinate to ensure that the end product is of high quality and meets the set standards. Quality forms the second decision area through which the company ensures the standard or products and control is maintained. The senior VP in charge of operations works with other senior VPs to ensure that all products are compliant with the set standards.

The process and capacity design decision area ensure that the human resources management strategies put in place facilitate maximum workforce support. Besides, Apple Inc. works with suppliers who are provided with a Code of Conduct and directives for process design to enhance efficiency. The fourth decision area is the location strategy, which involves the location of different retailers and stores.

Apple Inc. is known for limiting seller authorization to certain areas, with most of their stores being located in urban and prime locations. This selection of location is vital for the company since it increases traffic as well as exposure. The layout design and strategy are also an essential area of operation, and Apple ensures that these are tailored to meet customers’ expectations.

This area is addressed by having innovative office layouts that provide customers with focus on products as opposed to décor (Quarterman Lee 2012). Apple Inc. emphasis on the principles of excellence as stated by Steve Job to cater for the job design and human resources decision area.

However, Apple has also mastered other trends relevant in HR to ensure that the transforming resources function is effective. Scheduling and maintenance are also essential decision areas, and Apple provides effectiveness by using a combination of automation and manual processes to ensure all machines and information systems are running smoothly.

Importance of Performance Objectives

The appropriate allocation of resources is vital for any organization’s operations. As such, it becomes essential to record, review and monitor different aspects related to operations performance, which aids in organizational competitiveness. There exist five objectives that are used by organizations to measure their operational performance.

These objectives include speed, quality, dependability, flexibility and cost (Yusoff & Husnina 2018). The evaluation of these objectives ensures that efficiency in terms of using few resources and effectiveness, which entails meeting customers ‘requirements, is met. Quality refers to the act of being right and can be measured through reliability, durability and performance of products.

For Apple, quality is vital since it plays a significant role in meeting the customers’ expectations, establishing their reputation and managing their costs effectively. Since Apple produces quality products, it can highly price its products than competitors, and this creates a differentiation point for the company. Speed refers to the time difference between when an operation is started and its end.

Speed can be described externally to mean the period from when a customer orders a product and when it is delivered, and internally to indicate the time from when materials are obtained and when the finished product is manufactured. For Apple Inc. speed plays a significant role in their competitive ability since there is a need to take the shortest time to produce good quality products that customers can access from all the stores at any time.

The wait time between when a client orders their products and the delivery period creates customer satisfaction, hence the need for Apple to have more convenient stores that will reduce the waiting period and improve service quality. Flexibility, on the other hand, entails the ability of a company to change in terms of volume, mix, delivery and product.

This objective is vital for Apple since technology is a dynamic aspect. To maintain dependability, the company must make changes that will help them produce quality products that are up to date. Dependability refers to the ability of an organization to deliver goods and services on time and as promised. Due to competition from other companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Samsung, the dependability objective is hence vital since it helps the company gauge its performance compared to its competitors.

Hence it can apply the best strategies to stay above everyone (Krajewski et al. 2017). The cost of producing products and services is dependent on the effectiveness of all other objectives. Reduced costs of production would be necessary for Apple since this translates to increased profits and revenue.  

Product-Process Matrix
​
A product-process matrix is a tool that is used to analyze the existing relationship between the product and the technology life cycles. This matrix is used by organizations to understand the strategic options that the organization has (Ahmadand Schroeder, 2019). The product-process matrix comprises two aspects, including the product and process life cycles.

​The production process involves moving through a series of stages, such as highly flexible, increasing standardization, and automation, among others. Other components of the product-process matrix are the volume, variety, and types of products manufactured.

From the given product-process, it is evident that most of the products that Apple Inc. manufactures today are in the last quadrant of the matrix. This means that the company has different types of products that have gone through the various stages of the product life cycle and are now produced at high volumes and are of high quality.

Apple Inc. has been making these products, including the wide range of iPhone; hence there is continuous flow with repetitive tasks involved. These characteristics are paramount to the costs involved since the production of high-quality products helps to reduce costs. The combination of these characteristics also impacts on flexibility since the company can adjust to customer requirements before the products reach the final stages in the quadrant (Bozarth & Handfield 2016).

Layout and Flow Technology

A layout refers to how an organization arranges its working area, equipment and departments within physical structures such as service facilities, warehouses and production areas (Kovács & Kot 2017). The goal of the layout is usually to ensure that people, materials and necessary equipment interact with each other.

There exist different forms of layout technology that are utilized by organizations depending on their functionality. A product layout, which is also regarded as a straight-line layout, is used when highly standardized products that are on constant demand are made. The machines used in production are arranged in a predetermined sequence, and materials enter from one end of the line and products received from another end of the line (Geldermann et al. 2017).

Therefore, as products travel the line, the output of one area becomes the input of another station. For Apple Inc., using this form of layout aids in shaping the design of operation since it facilitates efficiency, and it's easier to achieve capacity utilization. With a product layout, it is also easier to alter it to a U-shaped layout, which increases communication and flexibility of workers.

Quality Improvement

Apple Inc. is among the best performing companies in the world. However, despite this success, it is important to undertake various strategies that will see the company maintain production of high standard products that meet customers’ demands. To achieve this, I would recommend continuous evaluation of all processes involved, especially in operations which largely contributes to the quality of outputs.

Since there are other companies in the market that are doing quite well, it would be vital for Apple to constantly undertake benchmarking projects which aids in quality improvement. Lastly, it is essential to maintain flexibility, which enables the adoption of new products and designs relevant to consumer demands.
 
Conclusion

Apple is the largest technology company whose success is attributed to producing numerous quality products. The processes used in the company, including operations management, also play a significant role in this success. The company utilizes ten decision areas to cover both the transformed and transforming resources as well as the outputs. The performance objectives are essential in helping the company to improve its services as well as the quality of their products. Also, the product layout used by Apple makes the production process more efficient and faster.



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