Assignment No. 3

a.- What do Apple employees mean by ‘deep collaboration’?

That products develop faster in Apple because the way that they work is collaboratively, in parallel. All departments (design, hardware, software) work at once in the same product. Which a revolutionary product arises as part of a deep collaboration and teamwork.

b. What did you find most interesting about the articles?

In the Apple of your ear article, I found that the I-phone had many new features including 3-way-calls and a keypad for texting rather than touching a number pad a few times to get the letter of the text. The features of voice mail is different where you find out who called by looking at the keypad, then you press the button on the caller who you want to view the message. I also found how Jobs was able to create atleast four products without having a college degree. In “How Apple Does It”, one interesting aspect I found is that how all the departments work at once designing hardware, and software.

c. What is special about Apple’s iPhone?

Appearance:

-iPhone 3G’s slick, slim and black appearance that captures every gadget and cellphone lovers out there.

-Its 3.5-inch screen display for watching videos and other multimedia is another plus to its appearance.

Technical ASpects

-iPhone 3G is like a small internet-enabled PC on your pocket providing fast wireless internet connection through the fast 3G wireless technology.It’s like an All-In-One device providing, cellphone capability with iPod wide screen and now designed to provide net surfers to browse the internet through this small device directly from their pockets.

-Touch Screen control making it more futuristic and super dooper cool. The interface that I only see from movies now on a phone unit.

-Now, iPhone 3G provides map services through its GPS, Wifi and cell tower technology.

3. For the company you have chosen, answer the following on your team blog:

What type of product flow do they use?

Batch Flow - Medium Variety and Volume. Apple's Family of products are neither many or too few. Whether a Macbook or iPod, there's always a choice for more memory or bigger screen. Therefore it is not all unique, but it also doesn't have too much variety.

What type of customer order do they process?

Apple use the three types of customer order MTS make to stock, MTO make to order, and also ATO assemble to order.

Which cell do they fall into in the process characteristics matrix?

Apple falls under the Batch Flow Process because they are more medium volume and medium variety. Apple has a good variety of products, but mainly cell phones, PC’s, and mp3 players. They don’t have a lot of different types of products, but a lot of varieties to certain product lines. However, Apple does have traits of other processes, such as Continuous and Assembly Line Process because it’s a high investment, for example, coming up with the iPhone was a high investment,a nd they do produce a large batch at a time, but its just distributed so fast and amongst so many retailers, that it falls under this flow.

What are some of the factors influencing their process selection?

The first decision for Apple is to figure on what market to sell too. Ipod is the mp3 player that every person born after the baby boomers knows how to uses so that the market for Ipod. The Mac computer system is usually market towards artists and computer scene people. The two major influences on these are how much the market is willing to buy these high luxury items at the present economic times. The capital require to build these products is tremendous along with the labor that goes into them. Apple does a lot of research and development on all there products. The initial building of the products takes considerable person-hour too. Apple is one of the largest technologically advance companies so the customers usually are ones that want to the top of line technologically advance product. Apple also needs to be able to market there products even after they become obsolete in a way. Also, some of the factors influencing process selection: Apple employess work on each department simultaneously where there are no stages of production. Each piece gets done by all the employees at the same time.

Can they adopt any of the mass customization methods discussed?

Apple is the perfect candidate for mass customization of the computer base products. The iphone has over thousand applications so the customer should be able to select what ones go on the application at the initial start. On the back of the iphone have the serial number emblazon into the back casing for add thief protection. The first two suggestions for the iphone can also be apply to the Ipod. If the customer orders the Ipod online they should be able to change the front casing color from something other then black if it plausible. The Mac series of computers could have two divisions one that makes standard computer that sells in every electronic store. The other the same as what Dell way of purchasing a computer is like. The option is right there for customer to chose then the computer built and ship out as soon as possible. The thing is to make the customer feel like the product made just for them with a special uniqueness that no other Apple product is like it.