Operation Management of Apple and Samsung

This study compares and contrasts the operation management process of two international organisations, Apple and Samsung, in the smartphone industry. It discusses their production processes, quality management tools, and corporate culture.

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Operation Management
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Table of Contents
Operation Management of Apple and Samsung..............................................................................3
Compare and Contrast the Production Process of Each Organization............................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Operation Management of Apple and Samsung
Management of organisational operation is essential for all the business organisations,
and most of the business organisation is using various competitive strategies to improve their
operation and management (Moghaddam, Seifi, Niknam & Pahlavani, 2011). This particular
study generally indicates the operation management process of two international organisations.
Apple and Samsung generally selected to complete this study in an effective manner. Both
Samsung and Apple are popular smartphone brand, and the brand images of both companies are
very high in the market so that competition is also high. The overall operation processes of these
companies are different.
Apple mainly follows a strong corporate culture in the organisation, and every employee
has their specific responsibilities. The higher management team conduct regular Monday
meeting to evaluate and review every product of this company, and that helps management to
decide for effective research development work (Hill, 2017). At the same time, the senior
management also reviews the existing and upcoming projects of the organisation to increase the
rate of success. The main objective of this company is to provide quality products to customers.
The production process of Apple is different, and many popular suppliers supply parts and
assemble I-phones. According to research, it has been recognised that Foxconn is one of the
biggest suppliers of Apple. Apple i-phone is one of the popular smartphones all over the world,
and the demand for this product is very high so that the organization used premium pricing
strategies for these phones. This company mainly used automation technologies in its product
manufacturing plants, and it also reduces the number of human errors (Clarke & Boersma, 2017).
Automation technology also increased the rate of production so that organisation can fulfil the
customer demand easily before launching of new products the management team also gathers
feedback from the testers and demo users for further development. The Chief Executive officer
of this organisation did not compromise with quality so that the price structure of the device is
very high. It has been identified that this organisation mainly used its own operating systems
such as i-OS and other technologies.

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On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy series is one of the major competitors of i-
Phone. The overall operation of this organisation is different in comparison to Apple. Samsung
mainly assembles third-party hardware and software in their products so that it is possible for
this organisation to reduce the price rate (Clarke & Boersma, 2017). Samsung mainly uses the
Google Android operating systems in its devices and the demand of this operating system is also
high in the market due to various benefits. The product price of this company is affordable for
the general public for that reason the number of sales is also high in comparison to other
organisations ((Moghaddam, Seifi, Niknam & Pahlavani, 2011)). This company works with
effective suppliers and distributors and company also has its distribution channel. The higher
management of this company also reviews its products regular basis and updates their products
by requirements. The organisation spends a massive amount in the research development
process, so that product quality and design also grab the attention of young generations. At the
same time, Galaxy smartphone series have different models so that the higher management of
this organisation gathers feedbacks from each and individual customer with a view to its product
and update the products according to customer requirements.
Apple mainly uses Total Quality Management in the workplaces to achieve corporate
objectives efficiently. Apart from that, the main focus of this organisation is to increase the profit
percentage by expanding their business in different emerging markets (Ferguson et al., 2017). At
the same time, the management team of Apple mainly focused on the performance of each, and
individual employees and the Human resource managers also provide training and skill
development program to improve working excellence (Jang, Shin, Park & Park, 2018). Use
Total Quality management in the organisation also motivates the employees and it also increases
employee retention rate in this company. Proper leadership and guidance to the employees also
improved organisational performance (Ganske, 2017). Use owns hardware and software also
provide the organisation substantial strategic advantages. All the software and hardware of this
company are premium and widely accepted all over the world. The popular organisations such
as LG, JDI, Sony, TDK, Toshiba, TSMC, and CATCHER got the job orders for i-phone 6.
Senior management also makes changes in the organisation based on requirements, and it also
provides the organisation huge competitive advantages in smartphone industry. Use of High end
gadget and software also improved the overall product quality of this organization.

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On the other hand, the engineers of this organisation struggle to provide customers the
best quality products and services to gain more customer satisfaction. Management also
established a quality management system in the organization that helps employees to execute all
the projects in an effective manner (Jang, Shin, Park & Park, 2018). At the same time use of
automation and other improved technology also helps to maintain product quality. The HR
managers also evaluate the performance of each and individual employees and motivate them to
improve their performance further for better quality products and services. Senior management
of Samsung electronics also conducts technical training and skill development program with the
employees to triggers research development works (Jeong & Shin, 2017). Not only mobile
phones but this organisation also manufactured other electronic product such as Television,
Refrigerator, Laptops, power banks, memory card etc. so that overall organisational position is
high enough to expand the business in another market.
Six-sigma refers to the discipline, data-driven process and continuous improvement
approach of an organisation and that provides the company with higher advantages by
eliminating the product defects (Ganske, 2017). Apple mainly used this approach to improve its
products further. At the same time, Use of lean process or six-sigma also helps management to
evaluate the products effectively. The six sigma process is much higher quality control tools that
can help this organisation to achieve the goals effectively. Use of various statistical tools also
ensures product quality by detecting issues during the manufacturing process (Greenwood,
Oliver, Lawrence & Meyer, 2017). The production managers have the responsibilities and power
to decide with a view to quality management, so the use of these quality management tools also
reduce the chances of mistake leads to better production as well achieve corporate objectives.
Good quality products also increase customer satisfaction that means they also increase
organisational sales volume and profitability.
Apart from that, Samsung also uses lean process in their organisation to get advantages in
the competitive smartphone industry. The Number of Smartphone Company is increasing day by
day due to high public demand (Chan, Lacka, Yee & Lim, 2017). This organisation also uses
these tools to improve its product quality more. Six- Sigma is one of the primary business
objectives of Samsung for that reason it also grabs the attention of more customers. Six-sigma
implementation also provides the organisation high competitive advantages in operating market

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(Keahey, Riteau & Timkovich, 2017). This tools also provides management all the statistical
data that represents product quality and if there is an issue than production managers take instant
decisions to mitigate all the problem that is related to product quality. Use of these quality
management tools increased the organisational performance more leads to increase the number
of loyal customers as well as corporate financial profitability.
Compare and Contrast the Production Process of Each Organization
The business process, technologies and production strategy of Apple and Samsung is
different from each other. Apple mainly uses own hardware and Software in iPhones but
Samsung use third-party software and Hardware in Galaxy smartphones for that reason Samsung
able to provide the products in affordable rate leads to grabs the attention of more public as well
as increased sales volume (Keahey, Riteau & Timkovich, 2017). Another side Apple is unable to
reduce its price due to its high-quality software and hardware. Apple manufactures it’s all parts
and production manager has the responsibility to maintain product quality. The senior
management of Apple organised team meeting every Monday to review its products and that
helps them to decide with a view to product development (Jeong & Shin, 2017). Another side
Samsung mainly uses social media to gather feedback from the customers, and this feedback
triggers the research development work of this company. According to research, it has been
identified that both the companies are using automation technologies for production and both the
companies are using different quality control tools to maintain their product quality as well as
organisational brand image.
Apple is more focused on the security system so that it provides a high-quality security
system to its device, but in the case of Samsung, the security is less. Both the company uses
high-quality sensors and parts to attract customers (Chan, Lacka, Yee & Lim, 2017). Apple
upgrades its system and software by requirements, but Samsung is dependent on Google because
it uses the Google operating system in its device. Both the companies are in leading position in
global Smartphone market. These two organisations make changes in the company to upgrade
the overall technology. Apple and Samsung, both organisations, maintain a strong corporate
culture and that is vital to enhance organisational performance further (Greenwood, Oliver,
Lawrence & Meyer, 2017). Use premium technology also reduces the excess labour cost.

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Effective market research and identification of customer buying trend also helps these companies
to get success rapidly in the operating market.

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References
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Ferguson, N. T., Samsonov, Y. A., Kinshumann, K., Chandrashekar, S., Messec, J. A., Novak,
M. F., ... & Ben-Zvi, N. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,578,017. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent
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Ganske, S. A. (2017). Samsung v. Apple, Life Technologies v. Promega, SCA Hygeine Products
v. First Quality Baby Products, TC Heartland v. Kraft, Impression Products v. Lexmark,
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Hill, T. (2017). Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing
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Jang, J. H., Shin, J. H., Park, H. S., & Park, Y. J. (2018). U.S. Patent Application No.
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Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (pp. 39-46). ACM.

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Moghaddam, A. A., Seifi, A., Niknam, T., & Pahlavani, M. R. A. (2011). Multi-objective
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