Evaluating Apple Inc.'s Planning and Control in Operations Management

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s logistics and operations management. It begins with an introduction to the field, emphasizing its role in coordinating the flow of goods and services from origin to consumption. The report evaluates Apple's planning and control activities, examining long-term, medium-term, and short-term strategies. It delves into the stages of business planning and control, including sequencing, loading, scheduling, and monitoring. The report then discusses how Apple's planning and control align with its performance objectives, such as maintaining brand quality and maximizing sales, and offers recommendations for improvement. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of effective logistics and operations management in ensuring the production of high-quality products and services.

LOGISTICS
AND
OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................3
TASK ...................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Evaluating the company planning and control activities, taking into context the below:.........3
2. Analysis and providing the business planning and control activities stages with the use of a
diagram detailing the below ............................................................................................................5
3 Discuss how the organisations planning and control activities align with the organisation’s
Performance Objectives and provide recommendations.................................................................6
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Logistics and operations management refers to the administration of the flow of things
between the point of origin and the point of consumption so as to accomplish the different needs of
customers and company. It further refers to the entire supply chain from the acquisition of raw
material, through manufacturing to the location of consumption. It is important aspect that help in
planning, employing and controlling the efficient and effective flow of goods and services
(Logistics and operations management 2014).
In this report, various aspects of logistics and operations management will be studied in the
context of Apple Incorporation. It is a international technology firm based in California, US since
1976. It is a lavish brand best-known for scheming, fabricating and selling computer software and
hardware , user electronics, mobile handsets and internet services etc. The critical evaluation of
methods of planning and organizing efficient operations and networking will be provided.
Thereafter, analysis of the issues of controlling component functions will be provided. Thereafter,
discussion about the way company must plan and control functions aligned with the its performance
objectives.
TASK
1.1 Evaluating the company planning and control activities, taking into context the below:
The planning and control are the important aspects that determine the success of a company.
It can also be defined as cooperation between what the market needs and what the company
resources can present. With the help of proper planning and control, Apple Inc. can assure
availability of proper system, procedure and decisions which provide various aspects of supply and
demand in collaboration (Christopher, 2012). There are various benefits of planning and control to
the cited company . First of all it assure that there is proper use of production capacity by effective
scheduling of the techniques and processes that trim down the idle time and over use (Planning and
Control. 2014). The planning also support in maintaining proper stock level so as to avoid over and
under stocking. On the other hand the effective control help in avoiding wastage of resources. Also,
it facilitate in maintaining benchmarks of quality and consistency through the manufacturing life
cycle. There is significant different between planning and control. The former is a systematization
of what is predicted to happen at whatsoever duration in the future while it does not assure that
event will really happen. On the other hand control is the procedure of coping with alteration.
 Long term Planning and Control: It is kind of planning that is usually done for projects of
durations 5 years and above. In this respect the operations executive make plan regarding
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what they want to do; strategic aims and objectives. They further determine requirement of
resources for attaining the stated purpose (Dyckhoff, Lackes and Reese, 2013). The main
consideration here is on planning aspect as there is little requirement of control as such. In
long term planning,operations manger predict the demand which is detailed out in collective
terms. Also, planning can be done regarding the expansion into new market or introduction
of new technology to attain the core competence in market. The key objective behind long
term planning by operation executives is to attain financial objectives. In this respect,the
budget is planned so as to outline the cost and profit objectives of business (Maraghy. and
et.al., 2013). The long term planning is aspect of attaining perfect match between
capabilities of Apple Incorporation and its emerging environment to attain a desirable
position within the competitive market. For instance Apple Incorporation will make plan for
5000 customers without needfully going into the detail of specific needs of those customers
 Medium term Planning and Control: The mid term planning refers to developing short
duration objectives and actions. This planning is done for 1 to 5 years by lower level
management. Therefore,plan contain significant amount of details. The medium term
planning looks forwards to measure the total demand which the functions must meet in a
partly disaggregated way (Bowersox and Cooper. 2008). The contingencies must be
determined in medium term planning which permits little deviations from the plan. The
contingencies here act as accumulated resource and thus facilitate planning and control in
short term. In addition to this aspect, resources must be ascertained which can be used to
attain short term goals. Thereafter, objectives in medium term planning and control are
determined in both financial and operational terms. For instance,company ascertain the
different types of demand (Narasimhan, 2004). The corporate customer can be distinguished
from that of household customers and how products and services can be provided to assure
their satisfaction level.
 Short term Planning and Control: It is planning that implies the use of disaggregated
anticipation or existent demand. It further make intervention to resources to rectify
deviations from plans. These plan are prepared for less than a year and are framed to
develop particular action steps that assist the long and medium term plan. In short term
planning changes cannot be done easily as large amount of resources. Demand in short term
planning is assessed per month of entirely disaggregated basis (Naylor, 2002). By short term
interference, operation executives will be effort to balance the quality,
swiftness,reliability,adaptability and cost of their operations on a ad hoc basis. The regular
comparison is done among the output against the plan and take corrective actions.
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2. Analysis and providing the business planning and control activities stages with the use of a
diagram detailing the below
Its inception that planning and control are tow major tools that assure the success of a
functional unit. The proper planning help in making all the arrangements to develop the products
and services within the provided time and cost. The proper planning assure availability of supply of
raw materials, constituent and parts at the proper time. It is important aspect that enable company
to focus on the production process (Nilsson and Gammelgaard, 2012). It further help in
coordinating with the supply and distribution of human resources and raw material to various task.
The proper planning and control assure economic and proportionate use of available resources for
production. The main concern is to attain the required production objectives in terms of quantity,
quality, time and location (Stages in Planning and Control. 2013). It is important for Apple
Incorporation to use systematic approach to facilitate planning and control of activities. The
different stages included in business planning and control are discussed as follows:
Sequencing:It is to plan the order of the operation by procedure, regarding the fixed orders
through the Operation Order Release Planning. It is to understand the progression status of the
operation, to consider the priority, setup time, and etc., and to make an operation sequencing list. In
manufacturing aspect,sequencing can be termed as systematic arrangements of the use of particular
resources in the system. It further outline the order in which various functions at workplace will be
performed. The Apple Incorporation can use different types of sequencing to manage their
production activities (Orwig and Brennan, 2010). They are physical constraints sequencing, short
processing time, customer priority, due date, first in first out of last in first out etc. They are further
detailed out as follows: Due date: The work with the earliest due date must be performed first. This approach is used
by entities whose performance is judged by the lateness. First in first out: According to this aspect, the raw material purchased first must be used
initially. Customer priority: This aspect enable in setting precedence of the customers as per their
worth to business. Therefore, top priority customers must be served first (Rastogi, 2010).
 Shortest processing time: According to this aspect the work with the shortest processing
time requirement is performed first. The main concern is to minimize work in process
inventory, normal lateness in work.
Loading: This refers to assignment of jobs to process centre. Broadly, there are two kinds of
loading in the production process; infinite and finite loading. The work is assigned to a centre on the
basis of what is required over time within infinite loading. On the other hand, the finite loading
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schedule in detail each resource using the setup and run time needed for each order.
Scheduling: It is the procedure of arranging,controlling and optimizing the work and work burden
in manufacturing process. It is important process that help in allocating resources like,plant and
machinery etc(Sezen, 2005). There are various kinds of scheduling that can be used to apportion
physical resources,plan manpower, raw material use along with manufacturing process. In this
respect,mostly forward and backward scheduling are used. Here, the former involves planning the
business operation from the data resources became accessible to decide the transportation date or
the due date. While, the backward scheduling means planning the task from the due date or needed
by date to decide the time of commencing and making modification in needed capacity.
Monitoring and Control: The outcomes of the executing process is compared against the plan on
case of mismatch , corrective action must be taken so as to make alteration in plan itself or the
method in which plan is being done. Therefore, by monitoring and controlling the project is
measured against the project plan (Bowersox and Cooper. 2008).
3 Discuss how the organisations planning and control activities align with the organisation’s
Performance Objectives and provide recommendations.
The proper planning help in guiding the efforts of all the organizational members towards
the strategic aims and objectives. The Apple Incorporation objective is to provided best quality
products and services to customers in order to maintain the strong brand name in the market. It
further aims at maximum sales of offering in market so as to increase it profit margin. The proper
manufacturing planning changes sales anticipation into master manufacturing schedules , determine
raw material and manpower needs etc. thereafter, it also facilitate in developing plan for
contingencies (Dyckhoff, Lackes and Reese, 2013). Production control oversee the performance of
manufacturing schedules so that flow of work through the production division is on time and
without break. Control also hold back raw material stock list at levels that neither stop undue
amounts of operational capital or results into deficit that disrupt manufacturing. At the very time,
processed products stock are organized so that they does not become excessive nor fall so low that
they fail to meet demands and so that back orders to pile up. Therefore, by proper planning,
company can meet the needs of customers as when they arise.
RECOMMENDATION
To assure proper availability of raw material in appropriate quantity so that manufacturing process
can be carried out smoothly.
The management of Apple Incorporation should use techniques like, Six Sigma, Benchmarking etc
to assure consistency in its offerings. This will further help in maintaining quality of its offerings
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The company should take effective actions to control the cost incurred in production. Such as
minimizing wastage through proper control etc.
Loading and scheduling machines must be done according to the manufacturing needs. Machine
loading bring forth right information on standardized method of working, scrap allowances,
machine-time need and capacity of physical assets (Logistics and operations management 2014).
Scheduling is a time-table for performing the job on the accessible physical resources so that
conveyance dates are kept up.
The organization must keep spare capacity to manage with rush orders.
The budget for the entire production process must be made so that in no case cost enhance the
potential profits.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that logistic and operations management is
important aspect that help in manufacturing proper products and services in the suitable quality and
quantity. There are different types of planning and control activities which are considered by
company. It involve long medium and short term planning. Thereafter, there is systematic process
that must be adopted to facilitate the planning. The various stages of planning involves, sequencing,
loading, scheduling, monitoring and control. Thereafter, it has been identified from the report that
with the help of proper planning and control, management of Apple Incorporation can facilitate the
attainment of performance objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bowersox, D. J. and Cooper. N. M, 2008. Supply chain logistics management. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Christopher, M., 2012. Logistics and supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Dyckhoff, H., Lackes, R. and Reese, J. eds., 2013. Supply chain management and reverse logistics.
Springer Science & Business Media.
ElMaraghy, H. and et.al., 2013. Product variety management. CIRP Annals-Manufacturing
Technology, 62(2), pp.629-652.
Narasimhan, K., 2004. Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and
Management. Managing Service Quality, 14(4), pp.342 – 343.
Naylor, J., 2002. Introduction to Operations Management. 2nd ed. Harlow: Financial Times
Prentice Hall.
Nilsson, F. and Gammelgaard, B., 2012. Moving beyond the systems approach in SCM and
logistics research. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. 42(8/9)
.pp.764 – 783.
Orwig, A. R. and Brennan, L. L., 2010. An integrated view of project and quality management for
project-based organizations. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. 17(4/5),
pp.351 – 363.
Rastogi, K. M., 2010. Production and Operation Management. Laxmi Publications, Ltd.
Sezen, B., 2005. The role of logistics in linking operations and marketing and influences on
business performance. Journal of Enterprise Information Management. 18(3) .pp.350 – 356.
Online
Logistics and operations management 2014. [Online]. Available through: <
http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/business/ms/>. [Accessed on 23d November 2016].
Planning and Control. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<http://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/hip_gb_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/
0273756192.pdf>. [Accessed on 23d November 2016].
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Stages in Planning and Control. 2013. [Online]. Available through:
<http://kalyan-city.blogspot.in/2013/02/stages-or-steps-in-production-planning.html>.
[Accessed on 23d November 2016].
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