The Importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Quality Control in Business

Apple is one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. They are best known for their iPhones and iPads. It started as a personal computer company in 1976. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone which would bring the company to an entirely new level of success. Since the first generation iPhone, there have been 12 different iPhone iterations released. The most recent of which is the iPhone 65 and iPhone 65 Plus, Apple‘s September 9’“ event, unveiled 2 new iPhones, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, with upgraded hardware and software.

Since the event took place and preorders went live around the world, Apple stated, “We are on pace to beat last year’s 10 million unit first-weekend record…” (Riley). This does not mean that Apple will be able to ship all 10 million devices on launch day. Understanding and applying supply chain management (SCM) concepts is critical when issues arise.

According to analysts, there may be a supply issue from the company Minebea which provides Apple the backlight module for the phones (Whitney).

This module lights up the screen so it will have a bright and vibrant display in any light setting. If a critical component such as this, is unable to be manufactured to meet demand, this will affect all areas of the supply chain management. Apple‘s plan in case anything does happen is to have a backup supplier, For backlight modules, Minebeas is their primary supplier, Since there may be issues with them unable to produce enough, Apple has also contracted company, Radiant, to manufacture the same module so as to relieve some of the manufacturing delays (Whitney).

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This also affects the ‘Source’ step of SCM, By having two sources for a component, if for any reason one company cannot perform due to manufacturing issues, the other company can try to offset the delay by increasing their production Delays in the source will cause delays in ‘Make’ and ‘Delivery’ steps Without a critical module the entire product cannot be assembled and thus cannot be sold. Quality control ensures the product meets company standards and is presentable to customers Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus suffered what is now known as ‘Bendgate‘t Bendgate is the iPhone bending in customer’s pockets’ (Haselton). This all comes down to quality control Apple stated that only about nine customers complained about this issue, but even so, these devices should have been tested before being released (Haselton).

Quality control is very important, not only does it affect the company’s reputation, it affects sales as well With the new generation of iPhones about to be released, will Apple have solved the bend gate issue? According to MacRumors.com, Apple have tweaked the design of the new phone and strengthened its weak points (Rossignol). The efforts of supply chain management and quality control is to ensure that products are made efficiently, to reduce costs, to meet production schedules, and to satisfy customer expectations. On September 25, we will find out if Apple’s supply chain management issues are resolved and if their quality control have eliminated bend gate.