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This makes Time Cook my dream date. Seriously, and I hear he swings my way too. There are many ways to innovate in business and technology and design get a lo

by nika 16y ago

This makes Time Cook my dream date. Seriously, and I hear he swings my way too. There are many ways to innovate in business and technology and design get a lot of time in the spotlight. Operations, especially of a very large enterprise, with thousands of suppliers which also demands highly precise manufacturing and quality control, while having operations spread around the globe, and a public awareness factor that makes it vulnerable to any "Watchdog" who wants to make news... running a less-than-30-days-inventory system is playing on the Nth level. Can anyone name anybody who has done something like that? Amazon's distribution network is a lot easier, as they control all the infrastructure. Dell doesn't have the volume or quality requirements or focused product lineup (which reduces substitution- eg: if dell is out of a particular laptop model, they have others to substitute, apple doesn't have that luxury.) It is no wonder Apple is doing long term contracts for supplies like this. Some have accused them of cornering the market, but this is not like cornering the market on Silver (look up Hunt Brothers) -- as anyone with reasonable technology can make a substitute for electronics components which are fungible commodities for the most part. This is just good management of a very sophisticated manufacturing network. Dude deserves and Oscar in Operations!

regularfry 16y ago
I'd be tempted to say that automotive just-in-time processes are, if anything, more impressive in terms of the industry integration. There you'll have hundreds of suppliers coordinating so that custom builds roll off the production line in an arbitrary order, with no more stock in hand than there are builds in the system for the next shift or so. I've seen it at work at BMW, and it is frankly terrifying to consider what the supplier contract terms must be like; if any one of them has a screwup as simple as packing their parts onto a transport in the wrong order, it has major cost implications.
- dtegart 16y ago
  I worked for a supplier. We had some teething problems once on a new vehicle. We ended up helicoptering parts to the final assembly plant, so we wouldn't shut it down.
- idlewords 16y ago
  Yeah, I was going to say, look at Toyota. They pioneered a lot of this stuff and are still at it.
wazoox 16y ago
At one point this operational oomph was Dell's strongest point with which they crushed the competition. Until everybody imitated them, which they couldn't prevent because they were in the totally commoditized PC market anyway.

by nika 16y ago

regularfry 16y ago

I'd be tempted to say that automotive just-in-time processes are, if anything, more impressive in terms of the industry integration. There you'll have hundreds of suppliers coordinating so that custom builds roll off the production line in an arbitrary order, with no more stock in hand than there are builds in the system for the next shift or so. I've seen it at work at BMW, and it is frankly terrifying to consider what the supplier contract terms must be like; if any one of them has a screwup as simple as packing their parts onto a transport in the wrong order, it has major cost implications.

dtegart 16y ago
I worked for a supplier. We had some teething problems once on a new vehicle. We ended up helicoptering parts to the final assembly plant, so we wouldn't shut it down.
idlewords 16y ago
Yeah, I was going to say, look at Toyota. They pioneered a lot of this stuff and are still at it.

wazoox 16y ago

At one point this operational oomph was Dell's strongest point with which they crushed the competition. Until everybody imitated them, which they couldn't prevent because they were in the totally commoditized PC market anyway.