SHR039-6 Operations Management: Apple's Quality & TQM Analysis

This report provides an analysis of operations management at Apple, focusing on quality management and its impact on the organization's strategic goals. It discusses Apple's operations, quality management plan, and the application of Total Quality Management (TQM). The report highlights how Apple ensures quality through supplier management, certifications, and environmental policies. It also explores the use of frameworks like Six Sigma to improve quality and achieve strategic objectives. The report concludes that effective quality management is crucial for Apple to maintain customer satisfaction, improve performance, and achieve its goals in a competitive market. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

2020
Operations Management
Case studt of Apple
student details

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 1
Executive summary
Operations management is an aspect which required to be considered by the management so
that the stakeholders of the organisation can be provided with effective and satisfied
customers within the industry. The operations management includes various aspects
including maintaining the internal and external quality at the organisation. Apple is a
multinational organisation and effectively focuses on the quality within the organisation as
well as the quality of the products and service that is being provide to the customers. The
organisation ensures that the materials supplied to the organisation are of high quality also the
manufactured products meet the industry quality and safety measures. Adopting TQM within
the organisation results in developing effective plans and strategies through which the
organisation will be able to manage and maintain operational effectiveness within the
organisation. Apple has effectively achieved its market efficiency and has resulted in
improved performance through the quality management within the organisation. As the
quality management within the organisation effectively leads towards the improved
performance of the organisation and achieving of the strategic goals of the organisation.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 2
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Operations Management at Apple..............................................................................................3
Quality Management Plan..........................................................................................................4
TQM and the strategic Objectives of Apple..............................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 3
Introduction
Quality Management is an important aspect of operations management in the current
industry, as, with the introduction of improved and advanced technologies, the needs and
preferences of the customers within the industry has also changed. As a result, the customers
within the industry require that the organisation provide them with the quality products at an
effective price within the industry (Palm, et al., 2014). Apple is an America based technology
company focused on the manufacturing of customer electronic products and technology-
related products. The organisation has developed a vision to provide its customers with
products and service to satisfy their needs and requirements (Reuters, 2019). The report is
effectively focused on analysing the quality requirements at Apple and evaluating the impact
of quality management on the organisation’s strategic goals and objectives.
Operations Management at Apple
Apple is a multinational organisation dealing in smartphones, electronic devices and personal
computers. The organisation is among the business leaders within the smartphone, also the
industry is highly competitive. Therefore, to maintain its position within the industry and to
attract and retain the customers within the industry it is required that the organisation focus
on maintaining the product as well as focusing on managing the operational issues at the
superior or subordinate level. As the workers within the organisation also require a safe and
secure workplace and on the other hand the company has the moral obligation to provide its
customer quality products for the price that they have paid to the organisation (Mollah, 2015).
Apple is a service-oriented organisation and has quality process within the organisation to
ensure that the quality is being maintained within the organisation. To effectively maintain
operational effectiveness, Apple ensures that the suppliers to the organisation are providing
the goods or raw materials which meet the industry quality standards and also identifies that
the suppliers are contributing towards the social responsibility within the industry. Such
practices ensure the product quality as well as improves the organisation’s image within the
industry, by improving operational effectiveness. Along with ensuring the quality of the raw
materials supplied Apple has certifications and ratings to ensure that the products developed
by the organisation are as per the industry standards and are safe for the use by its customers
within the society (Apple, 2020).

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 4
Apple has also developed environmental policy so that the products produced are as per the
quality standards along with ensuring that the product does not lead towards harm to the
environment, and has established a structured environmental management system to manage
the impact of the operations on the environment. Along with the policies developed the
organisation has effective leadership that is focused on ensuring stable and effective
management of activities within the organisation and the policies developed within the
organisation are focused towards such approaches (Cao, 2018).
The operational issues within the organisation includes the lack of leadership or the quality of
the service or the product that is being provided to the customer within the industry.
Therefore, it is required that the management focuses on quality management along with
developing strategies to achieve the overall success within the industry. As with the
introduction of the globalisation, the market has become boundaryless, due to which Apple to
compete within the international market, also with the development of such market the
preferences and requirements of the customers within the industry has also changed, and to
maintain the market share and to compete within the industry it is required that Apple focus
on effective management within the organisation (Aljafari, 2016).
Quality Management Plan
The quality management plan is developed within the organisation so that the management,
as well as the leaders within the organisation, can effectively work towards maintaining
quality at the organisation. The quality management plan act as a guide to the management
which includes quality standards that are required to be followed within the organisation, and
the process through which the organisational goals and objectives can be achieved. The
organisations focused on the quality management within the organisation is required to focus
on Total Quality Management, which ensures that the quality is being effectively maintained
within the organisation (ASQ, 2020).
Total quality management (TQM) effectively ensures that the organisation’s quality
management plan is focused towards ensuring quality products and services to the customers
within the industry, effectively involves the employees within the process, promotes a culture
within the organisation focused on maintaining quality requirements within the organisation.
As the quality of the product can be ensured if the stakeholders of the organisation are
effectively involved within the process. To ensure the quality management within the

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 5
organisation, the management within the organisation are required to focus on the
frameworks of the TQM (Kantardjieva, 2015).
Six Sigma is an effective operation management framework which helps the management in
developing process through which the organisation can effectively focus upon developing an
effective quality management plan that helps the organisation in achieving the operational
goals and eliminating the issues within the organsiation. Six Sigma effectively focuses upon a
structured process including DMAIC process i.e. Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and
Control. The framework focuses that the organisation is required to define the current
requirements in term of the quality required within the industry, depending upon the industry
requirements it is required that the organisation focus on analysing the internal capabilities of
the organisation (Smętkowska & Mrugalska, 2018).
The framework effectively focuses on analysing the organisational capabilities with the
industry requirements to identify the gap within the process, accordingly the organisation is
required to focus upon developing strategies so that the organisation quality can be improved,
and at last the framework suggests that the organisation is required to focus on maintaining
the activities and ensuring that the work is being performed as decided within the
organisation. Utilising such frameworks within the organisation helps in effectively
improving the quality within the organisation and to provide the customers with effective and
satisfying services within the industry and to achieve a competitive position within the
industry (Conger, 2014).
TQM and the strategic Objectives of Apple
The quality management of the organisation is effectively linked to the organisation’s goals
and objectives, as the customer satisfaction and the organisational performance within the
industry also depends upon the quality management of the organisation, therefore the
organisation is required to effectively focus on the analysing the organisation’s quality
management and the goals and objectives of the organisation. Apple strategic goals are to
provide its customers with the best service experience and innovative and upgraded products
and service, therefore to achieve the objectives it is required that the organisation focus on
maintaining the quality within the organisation (Moorman, 2018).
The quality management at Apple helps the management in effectively maintain quality
within the organisation, which results in improved employee satisfaction and works as a

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 6
source of motivation for the employees within the organisation, as a result, the employee
contributes towards organisational goals and objectives. As the goal of Apple to provide the
customer with best service experience; therefore, to achieve the goals, Apple ensures that the
products used within the manufacturing are of high quality and are manufactured as per the
industry quality standards (Chen & Ann, 2014).
The organisation’s environmental policy developed has a positively influenced Apple’s
image within the industry also has resulted in improved product quality and the contribution
of the organisation towards climate change within the industry. The quality management at
the organisation effectively focuses on developing a process through which the activities
within the organisation are guided and ensured that the quality is being maintained. TQM
effectively focuses on the continuous improvement of the quality as well as the activities
within the organisation and provides an ethical approach towards the management within the
organisation. Therefore, the results of applying TQM effectively within the organisation
results in effective results and achieving the overall strategic objectives of the organisation
(Sadikoglu & Olcay, 2014).
Apple has effectively focused on analysing that the employee engagement is essential for the
ensuring the quality within the organisation, as a result, Apple has effectively focused on
hiring and retaining employees within the organisation and providing them with the quality
work environment, and focused on developing a culture focused on the improvement within
the organisation in terms of the product as well as service so that the organisation can focus
upon its customer satisfaction and the competitive factors within the industry. With effective
quality management within the organisation Apple is achieving the goals and objectives
within the industry (Narayan & Ramu, 2018).

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 7
Figure 1Apple performance (Source: (Seeking Alpha, 2020))
Conclusion
The operation management at Apple analyses that with the increasing competition within the
industry and with the introduction of new technologies, Apple is required to focus on the
quality management within the organisation as well as maintaining the managerial
effectiveness so that the customer can be provided with quality and satisfied services. Apple
has effectively analysed that to maintain the quality within the organisation, also Apple is
required to ensure employee engagement and developing leadership strategies through which
the organisation can ensure the management of operational activities. Apple has developed a
network of suppliers who provide quality products within the industry. The Six Sigma
framework help the organisation in developing strategies through which the quality within the
organisation can be maintained and the strategic goals of the organisation can be achieved.
The effective management has resulted in achieving the profitability within the industry and
to focus towards maintaining the customer base within the industry.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 8
References
Aljafari, A., 2016. Apple Inc. Industry Analysis Business Policy and Strategy. International
Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 7(3), pp. 406-441.
Apple, 2020. Product security certifications, validations, and guidance for iOS. [Online]
Available at: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202739
[Accessed 20 March 2020].
ASQ, 2020. WHAT IS A QUALITY PLAN?. [Online]
Available at: https://asq.org/quality-resources/quality-plans
[Accessed 20 March 2020].
Cao, P., 2018. Apple’s Environmental Responsibility Report touts improving energy
efficiency, sustainability, more. [Online]
Available at: https://9to5mac.com/2018/04/19/apple-enviormental-responsibility-report-2018/
[Accessed 20 March 2020].
Chen, C.-M. & Ann, B.-Y., 2014. Efficiencies vs. importance-performance analysis for the
leading smartphone brands of Apple, Samsung and HTC. Total Quality Management &
Business Excellence, 27(3), pp. 227-249.
Conger, S., 2014. Six Sigma and Business Process Management. Handbook on Business
Process Management, Volume 1, pp. 127-146.
Kantardjieva, M., 2015. The Relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and
Strategic Management. Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 3(5), pp. 537-541.
Mollah, M. S., 2015. A Critical Analysis of Employee Job Satisfaction: A Case Study of
Apple UK. European Journal of Business and Management, 7(7), pp. 176-199.
Moorman, C., 2018. Why Apple Is Still A Great Marketer And What You Can Learn. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2018/01/12/why-apple-is-still-
a-great-marketer-and-what-you-can-learn/#74640fed15bd
[Accessed 20 March 2020].
Narayan, S. & Ramu, M., 2018. A Study On Organisation Culture Of Apple Company.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, Volume 5, pp. 3797-3808.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 9
Palm, K., Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H., 2014. The challenge of integrating innovation and quality
management practice. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 27(1), pp. 34-47.
Reuters, 2019. Apple. [Online]
Available at: https://www.reuters.com/companies/AAPL.O
[Accessed 20 March 2020].
Sadikoglu, E. & Olcay, H., 2014. The Effects of Total Quality Management Practices on
Performance and the Reasons of and the Barriers to TQM Practices in Turkey. Advances in
Decision Sciences, pp. 1-17.
Seeking Alpha, 2020. Apple Is A Sell At $300, Pure And Simple, But We Will Do It
'Diagonally' After All. [Online]
Available at: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4315894-apple-is-sell-300-pure-and-simple-
will-diagonally-after-all
[Accessed 19 March 2020].
Smętkowska, M. & Mrugalska, B., 2018. Using Six Sigma DMAIC to Improve the Quality of
the Production Process: A Case Study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 238(1),
pp. 590-596.