An Analysis of Apple Inc.'s Supply Chain and Human Resource Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of Apple Inc.'s supply chain and human resource management practices. It begins with an executive summary highlighting Apple's success in inventory management, particularly its use of the Inventory Turnover Formula. The report then delves into the supply chain, discussing Apple's global presence, inventory management techniques, and its ranking as a leader in supply chain management. It examines the challenges faced by Apple, such as global economic crises and dependence on logistic service providers. The second part of the report focuses on human resource management, exploring Apple's strategies for hiring, employee development, and retention. It highlights the company's emphasis on maximizing return on investment in HR, fostering employee creativity, and promoting teamwork. The report concludes by summarizing Apple's leadership in both supply chain and HR practices, emphasizing their impact on the company's success. The report includes figures illustrating Apple's supply chain score, supply chain model, and supply chain planning.

BUSINESS EVALUATION

Executive summary
Apple is the American Multinational mobile and technology company which is having its
headquarter at California and company is aimed at developing designing and manufacturing
products and service related to mobile and computer technology. Company is performing very
well in terms of inventory management with use of Inventory Turnover Formula which is much
better than other companies like that of Dell or HP. So for this purpose it becomes essential for
Apple that they are hiring and selecting the best qualified and knowledgeable employees who are
capable to manage the working and operations of firm.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Supply chain of Apple.................................................................................................................2
Human resource management of Apple......................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................6
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................7
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TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Score of Apple in Supply chain.......................................................................................7
Figure 2: Supply Chain Model of Apple Inc...................................................................................7
Figure 3: Supply Chain Planning at Apple Inc................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Apple is the American Multinational mobile and technology company which is having its
headquarter at California and company is aimed at developing designing and manufacturing
products and service related to mobile and computer technology. The company is having its
presence in all over world with about 500 retail stores so supply chain is very good that of
company. Apple is meant to hire the best engineers and scientist from all across world having
very qualified production and marketing staffs which is helping company into managing its
human resources as well.
MAIN BODY
Supply chain of Apple
As Apple is the best company of world and also is the 1st enterprise in terms of most
valuable brand having high level of brand loyalty. Company is producing and selling many types
of products and service like that of iPod, iPhone, Apple watch, App Store, Apple Music etc. All
these products and service of company is been supplied to various parts of world through good
and effective supply chain. As they are selling the products through its own retail store,
wholesalers, App store and other retail outlets and its supply chain is also regarded to as most
valuable one (Martin, Farndale & Stiles, 2016).
Apple could be regarded to as best for its inventions, use of technology and innovative
designing of its products. It is not just the thing which is making company different from rest in
its competition but Apple is also very innovative at handling all the raw materials and inventory.
Apple from year 2010-2013 was ranked as best in world in terms of supply chain by Gartner
which is a research firm. Company is performing very well in terms of inventory management
with use of Inventory Turnover Formula which is much better than other companies like that of
Dell or HP (Apple Supply Chain- The Best Supply Chain in the World, 2018). As per the CEO of
Apple Tim Cook company must be focusing on how to deal or control its inventory as with the
drastic changes into innovation or technology inventory of company keeps on deteriorating
which is a bigger problem for firm and business.
The ratio which company is following would be telling how many time inventory is been
sold in market and in how much time period it is been replaced by new one. Under this Inventory
Turnover Formula more the ratio higher or better would be inventory of company. In terms of
Apple which is performing about 5.5 times better than Motorola and 2 times that of Dell. The
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number of iPad produced in year 2011 all of them were sold which shows that there was no
amount of wastage within company. This is the clear reason as to why Apple is been regarded to
as world leader in terms of innovation, technology, human resource and inventory as well.
There are many techniques of Apple’s supply chain management which is making or
helping company global leader like that of Supply chain model, software systems and brilliant
inventory management. Apple is having very simple supply chain yet it is leading and different
from others in same market which is representing its slogan of “Think Different”. Apple is at
current making its purchase of raw materials and spare parts of products from various supplies
that too from air and water transport so that both their time and money could be saved. Mainly
they are purchasing their raw material from assembling plant which is situated in China (Delery
and Roumpi, 2017).
Then if customers of Apple are ordering their products via online store of Apple then it is
been delivered to them with the help of their partners FedEx and UPS. All the other departments
of company are been working together like that of R&D, sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing,
distribution and then return which is forming supply chain model of company (Morschett,
Schramm-Klein, & Zentes, 2015). The model of supply chain would be easy to understand what
is the point of origin, distribution and the end use or consumption (Apple Supply Chain- The Best
Supply Chain in the World, 2018).. Apple is having various distribution channels like that of
direct selling, retail stores and wholesalers across world while keeping the products at central
warehouse which is at California. Then after using Apple Products Company is giving option to
its customers to return the product back to company so that they could be able to recycle them.
Some challenges in supply chain of Apple are:
 As company is operating at worldwide level so global economic crisis is affecting Apple.
 There are chances of stock becoming outdated or beyond to the demand in market.
 Apple is mostly depending upon logistic service providers through their outsourcing
partners.
Human resource management of Apple
Apple Inc. is having best supply chain of its kind as studied in above part covering all
management and mapping of its supply chain on global level. But all these things seem
impossible without the contribution of its human resource department which is impacting Apple
and its global presence. Apple at present is having about 1.2 million employees all around the
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world including both part and full time with annual sales of about $65 billion. This department is
meant to recruit and select the best form of employees around the world through its effective
policies and practice. As the employees of company are meant to manage all its operations
starting from manufacturing to R&D and marketing department as well. The practice and
policies of HR would be different for all companies of world but for huge business like that of
Apple where they need to deal with number of competitive firms all around the world.
So for this purpose it becomes essential for Apple that they are hiring and selecting the
best qualified and knowledgeable employees who are capable to manage the working and
operations of firm (Baldwin & Lopez‐Gonzalez, 2015). One of the major strengths of HR policy
of Apple could be included as it aims at maximising return on investment which it does on HR
hiring and their development. All the managers at Apple would be focusing on how other
employees of company are getting their training and development program done. It is the
responsibility of managers to effectively deal with other employees who are working under them.
Apple is having strategy to make all employees creative and innovative which is the success
story of company. It is not just the invention or technology which is making Apple global leader
but main reason behind is the operative HR strategies.
Apple is having great sense of identifying talent and capability of their employees
working for growth and development of organisation in market. The main success behind the HR
strategies is that of recruitment of employees. Apple is always in search of committed, qualified
and hardworking candidates so that they are been able to get high quality of workers. Company
is also having strategy of recruiting from other competitive firms like that of Samsung this is
called to as pirate raiding. Apple is having different strategies in regards of employees and their
day to day working like firm is not focusing on balance in life of their workers instead they lay
stress on hard work for them.
Apple is mainly concentrating on talent management and they are not believing in
providing training or development of them as they are inspired to do their work according to
their talent. They are enabling employees to have strong self-reliant and then developing their
skills so that they could manage their work by own (Monczka, Giunipero, & Patterson, 2015). In
terms of retention of employees in Apple is following practice of economic reward including
receiving stock grants on half yearly bases only if employee is contributing for betterment of
company. In this way at the time of retirement of that employee wealth for them could be created
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and thus they would be reaching to individual goal accomplishment stage. The ability of
employees to think and create innovation on fast and quick bases is strong element of HR
strategy to let them grow. With the help of this ability only company was able to move to music
industry with putting start by computers and then becoming world leader in smartphone.
Apple is also emphasizing its employees of various teams to be able to work as one by
making team from other projects (Christopher, 2016). In these terms of developing thinking
power of employee Apple is conducting 2 types of different meeting every week. One of them is
normal discussion meet which includes refinements into their meeting while the other which is
termed as go crazy meeting. In this type of meeting employees are free to discuss anything which
are passing into their mind which would be related to any topic and this is gaining attention of
whole world.
CONCLUSION
By this report it is very much clear that Apple is not only the world leader in terms of
making profits, innovation but it is also leading world with its techniques and practice related to
supply chain and HR.
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REFERNCES
Books and Journals:
Christopher, M., (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Monczka, R.M., Giunipero, L.C. & Patterson, J.L., (2015). Purchasing and supply chain
management. Cengage Learning.
Baldwin, R. & Lopez‐Gonzalez, J., (2015). Supply‐chain trade: a portrait of global patterns and
several testable hypotheses. The World Economy. 38(11). pp.1682-1721.
Delery, J.E. and Roumpi, D., (2017). Strategic human resource management, human capital and
competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?. Human Resource Management
Journal. 27(1). pp.1-21.
Martin, G., Farndale, E., & Stiles, P.G., (2016). CoMorschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H., & Zentes,
J. (2015)rporate governance and strategic human resource management: Four archetypes
and proposals for a new approach to corporate sustainability. European Management
Journal. 34(1). pp.22-35.
Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H., & Zentes, J. (2015). Strategic international management (pp.
978-3658078836). Springer.
Online:
Apple Supply Chain- The Best Supply Chain in the World. 2018. Accessed through:
<https://www.tradegecko.com/blog/apple-had-the-best-supply-chain-in-the-world-for-the-
last-four-years-here-is-what-you-can-learn-from-it>.
HR Strategy at Apple Make Their Employees Creative and Innovative. 2018. Accessed through:
<http://management-training-guru.com/2013/12/hr-strategy-at-apple-make-their-
employees-creative-and-innovative/>.
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APPENDIX
1.
Figure 1: Score of Apple in Supply chain
[Source: Apple Supply Chain- The Best Supply Chain in the World, 2018]
2.
Figure 2: Supply Chain Model of Apple Inc
[Source: Apple Supply Chain- The Best Supply Chain in the World, 2018]
3.
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Figure 3: Supply Chain Planning at Apple Inc
[Source: Apple Supply Chain- The Best Supply Chain in the World, 2018]
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