What Time Does Apple Update Their Inventory

Over more 40 years, Apple Inc. has evolved from a small, garage-based calculator manufacturing firm into a engineering science giant and trendsetter.

All of this happened thank you to people who stood backside the make. Specifically, Tim Melt has fabricated Apple a global leader in supply chain management. In this article, we will focus on the logic behind Apple's supply chain management as well equally explain how it works and what makes it and then efficient.

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to the position of an Apple CEO in guild to bring the company from bankruptcy back to profitability. A year later, Melt, a supply concatenation expert, joined Jobs to help reinvent, speed upwardly and simplify the Apple tree supply chain. It was the best decision for the visitor at the time, because now the Apple supply concatenation is considered to be i of the near powerful, efficient models ones in the world.

Actually, between 2010 and 2013, the supply chain of Apple tree was repeatedly named the best in the world, according to the Gartner research company. During this period, Apple'due south acquirement had grown from 21.7% to a stunning 51.5%. Too, by 2011 it took Apple tree merely 3 days to complete the entire inventory management bicycle and sell its inventory.

So let's see which strategies Tim Cook – who is now the CEO of Apple – was using to reach such tremendous results.

Apple tree Supply Chain Strategy by Tim Melt

Focus on not-seasonal products with life-cycles that exceed 12 months.
Cutting down the number of storage locations, leaving only one central warehouse in California.
Efficient synchronization of information between the primal warehouse and Apple's stores and customers.
Cut down the number of key suppliers that are involved in manufacturing, shipping and storage.
Maintain long-term and strategic relationships with suppliers.
Outsource the manufacturing to China, thus reducing the manufacturing bicycle time from 4 months to two months.
Cut downward the number of SKUs to predict the demand more accurately and ensure lightning-fast Apple inventory turnover.
Implement renewable energy sources, making up to 87% of their free energy used worldwide.
Brring in extraordinary Apple inventory management practices, which allow the visitor to cut down on inventory costs, reduce waste and avoid overstocking.

Now let'due south detect out how Apple supply concatenation works.

Apple is famous for its simple and accurate supply chain planning processes. Here is what they consist of:

Research and Development. At this stage, the company develops new technologies, designs new products, licenses the intellectual holding and purchases third-party businesses.
Concept testing. This activity involves market research, product testing and quality assurance.
Pre-launch. During the pre-launch phase, the company fixes the found issues, provides software for the new products and makes prepayments to the suppliers.
Launch. After the launch, the company makes the demand forecast for the next 150 days.
Quarterly reviews. During the quarterly reviews, the company checks the inventory levels, analyzes the product life-cycles, adjusts the need forecasts and monitors the electric current sales levels and costs trends.

And this is how the supply chain management Apple processes take place:

Sourcing. At this stage, Apple acquires components and materials from their suppliers, and then ships them to the outsourced associates plant in China.
Manufacturing. The products are manufactured at the assembly plant in China.
Warehousing. The manufactured products are shipped from China directly to the consumers who order them online (drop shipping) by using the services of third-party shippers such as FedEx or UPS. They tin also exist shipped to the central warehouse location in California.
Distribution. The products are distributed from the primal warehouse location to retail stores, wholesalers and network carriers.
Return. At the stop of a product's life-bike, the consumers tin can participate in the recycle/reuse program and transport the products back to nearest Apple stores or specialized recycling plants.

Such simplified supply chain management has brought Apple tree much success. I of company'southward secrets is that it treats its hardware products – MacBooks, iPads and iPhones – every bit perishable inventory with expiration date. For example, the inventory for certain food products demand to be refreshed as apace as possible, and this is as well true for Apple products. Have you always heard of, seen, or stood in queues in Apple stores every year when a new iPhone was released?

If yes, so yous can encounter that the company is really capable of achieving such fast inventory turnovers. They combine innovation and sleek design with revolutionary supply concatenation strategies that can serve equally a role model for a range of technology companies.

We hope that now you are inspired by the supply chain of Apple and maybe someday your business will go the side by side Apple.

Adam is the Assistant Managing director of Operations at Dynamic Inventory. He has experience working with retailers in various industries including sporting goods, automotive parts, outdoor equipment, and more than. His background is in e-commerce cyberspace marketing and he has helped design the requirements for many features in Dynamic Inventory based on his expertise managing and marketing products online.