Tag Archives: iPhone

Apple makes “significant progress” with green supply chain ambitions

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Apple’s efforts to create a greener supply chain resulted in significant progress in 2017, according to the tech giant.

Since 2007, almost 15mn supplier employees have been trained on their rights, including 3mn just last year.

All iPhone final assembly sites around the world have now been certified as zero waste to landfill, while more of Apple’s products were made using renewable energy, while also reducing overall energy usage and carbon emissions.

In a release, Apple said its suppliers implemented energy efficiency improvements that reduced more than 320,000 annualised metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2017.

Apple claims it “goes deeper into the supply chain to find issues and fix them” more than any other company in its industry and each year it will do more to raise the bar and protect the people who make Apple products as well as the planet.

Last year Apple launched a programme to help improve health awareness for women at its suppliers, so they are better prepared to take control of their health and share that knowledge back to their families and communities.

The programme started at facilities in India and China and provides information and access to services, including self-examination for early cancer detection, nutrition, personal care and maternal health. Apple aims to reach 1mn women at its suppliers around the world by 2020.

“We believe that everyone making Apple products deserves to be treated with dignity and respect and we’re proud that almost 15mn people understand their workplace rights as a result of the work we’ve done over the years. We’re going further with health education programs and new opportunities for advancement at our suppliers,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO.

“A new preventive health care curriculum is encouraging women to focus on their personal health, and hopefully share that knowledge with their families and communities. Our goal is to reach 1mn women by 2020. We know our work is never done and we’re committed to raising the bar every year across our supply chain.”

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To Woo Apple, Foxconn Bets $3.5 Billion on Sharp

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The Apple iPhone transformed the technology industry by popularizing the smartphone and blazing a path to a mobile future. But to do it, the company needed an important ally: a penny-pinching Taiwan-based factory operator named Foxconn.

Employing hundreds of thousands of workers at vast facilities in mainland China, Foxconn figured out a way to assemble the iPhone at a cost low enough that middle-class Americans could afford it. The business offered low profit margins, but the work buffed Foxconn’s financial results and cemented its status as the world’s largest maker of hardware for companies like Apple and Sony.

Those relationships are now shifting — and Foxconn is betting heavily to keep up.

On Wednesday, Foxconn said it had struck a deal to acquire control of the Japanese screen maker Sharp for $3.5 billion, after weeks of negotiations and high-profile setbacks.

The deal, for a 66 percent stake in Sharp, is intended to make Foxconn a more attractive partner for Apple. The American technology company uses Sharp screens, which could give Foxconn added leverage in dealings between the two.

The screen is an especially lucrative piece of the smartphone, costing as much as $54 each, according to estimates by the research firm IHS. Sharp provides roughly 25 percent of the iPhone displays, IHS said.

Still, the Sharp purchase will saddle Foxconn with an ailing business that will take considerable money and effort to turn around, some analysts say. Reflecting those problems, the purchase price is $2 billion lower than a deal the two sides struck just last month, after Sharp disclosed the potential for costly problems — nearly $3 billion in potential liabilities — down the road.

But Apple has been diversifying its supply chain, giving some production contracts to other assemblers and component makers. And Foxconn is grappling with China’s rising labor costs and a slowdown in the global smartphone market.

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More iPhone 5c Supply Chain Rumors

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More iPhone 5c Supply Chain Rumors

This article talks about a major challenge to supply chain planning. To have ample supply of iPhone 5s and 5c, how many does Apple need to plan and what is the production mix between the 2 models?

Steve Jobs‘ idea was to take the simple route by planning for one iPhone model only and focused on getting the best product to consumers. Tim Cook takes a different but traditional approach by introducing two models instead of one. He hope a cheaper model of 5c would attract more buyers, at least from the Asia. At least, this what the production plan tells us at the moment. The production plans for more 5c than 5s.

Contrary to what Tim expected, consumers would rather spend money buying the expense model 5s with new technology than buying the cheaper model 5c with previous generation of technology. This is why Apple needs to dramatically decrease 5c production and increase 5s production. This shows a supply chain planning mistake. It totally mis-calculates consumer demand by having a wrong product mix.

Check out this article for the challenges that Apple is facing and how we can help you to manage your supply chain.

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