Apple Inc Business Processes

Running Head: BUSINESS PROCESSES OF APPLE INC.

BUSINESS PROCESSES OF APPLE INC.

Business Processes of Apple Inc.

INTRODUCTION

Processes are at the core of how every business operates, and the greater understanding of what they are, how they function, and their impact. Whether employees are purchasing or onboarding orders, data should constantly move across the office in a specific order to get done. With this in place and mind, this is where mapping of business processes is introduced. Business Process Mapping (BPM) is a powerful technique that is highly utilized in visualizing the activities of a business by considering the relevant standards, responsibilities, and roles. Business process maps illustrate how inputs and steps are related to producing a service or an end product (Nwogugu, 2015). This includes when a worker’s leave is approved or when a specific product or good undergoes the packaging process.

Additionally, the BPM provides a visual way of understanding, analyzing, and improving on specific areas upon the current working method. This strategy utilizes flowcharts, charts, and symbols to answer questions like the tasks in the process? Who does each job? And when does each charge occur? Business process mapping is essential in any organization or business for them to run efficiently. Without a visual representation within the organization and predictable processes, company employees will be left to guess, and mistakes will emerge (Nwogugu, 2015). If a business doesn’t process its activities through mapping, every individual and department is forced to create their assignment and sequence. This eventually causes blame, confusion, and chaos when the owners of the task are not assigned.

Various businesses in different industries such as advertisement, manufacturing, and retail set their other business processes to aid in achieving objectives and goals. This paper explores the BPM process through the eyes of the world’s leading tech firm, Apple Inc. Apple is an American multinational information technology company that deals with widespread products ranging from wearable devices, television products, computers, tablets, and their luxurious Apple iPhone (Barley et al., 2020). This international tech leader was a computer hardware and Software Company by Ronald Wayne, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and 1976. Since its inception, the firm has gradually developed other technological products by establishing a series of retail stores, which the company uses to provide a better purchasing experience for its customers (Nwogugu, 2015). When Apple designs new products and decides on the pricing of their products, they bear in mind the high competition in the tech industry and navigate through this with their high bargaining power.

Apple Inc. has its headquarters at 1 Apple Park Way Cupertino, in California, United States of America. Its products include iPhone, Macintosh, iPad, Home Pod, Apple TV, iPod, AirPods, Apple Pencil, and Apple Watch (Bergvall-Kåreborn, & Howcroft, 2013). The company also has additional services offered worldwide. These services include iCloud, Apple Music, Apple Music 1, iTunes Store, Apple Pay, and App Store. Apple Inc. has created employment for about 147 000 people by employing them.

The company’s target market emphasizes marketing its products and services to individuals with few varying characteristics. Apple’s primary target market is individuals in the upper and middle classes. This is primarily because this demographic group can afford their brand’s higher premium prices for its products (Aljafari, 2016). This group is ready to pay a little extra for the quality offered by Apple products. Moreover, they have the income to achieve this. The brand also targets individuals who enjoy and love music. Some of these products are all focused on the ease of downloading music and iTunes stores. Individuals who want music and would like to purchase, store, or share it are quickly drawn to Apple Products.

Apple Inc. has numerous processes that make up the whole activities, from hiring products to taking them to the market. In this case, the focus of the business process will be on how the company sits down and decide to come up with new modern features of their new products (Bergvall-Kåreborn, & Howcroft, 2013). Apple’s primary goal is to create products and services that enrich the day-to-day lives of its consumers. This only involves the development of categories of entirely new products and maintains continuity in the innovation in these categories.

RELATIONSHIP MAP AND EXPLANATIONS

Relationship mapping encompasses the conception of a visual drawing portraying essential persons inside the commercial environment, in addition to their responsibilities and inspirations, grounded on specific objectives and aftermaths (Bergvall-Kåreborn, & Howcroft, 2013). A relationship map helps to high point critical units in the processes of corporate and maneuvers and the type of connections that co-exist amid several gatherings, regardless of its personals or the entire organization. Relationship mapping can make cultured processes stress-free to comprehend and assist you to contemplate more tactically concerning your policy and approach. To develop a new product, Apple Inc. depends on a structure that middles on functional proficiency. The company’s primary belief is that individuals with the most experience and expertise in a certain domain should be in charge of the decision-making processes in that domain (Aljafari, 2016). This is based on the idea that the company is constantly competing in market disruption rates, and technological changes occur quickly. Therefore it should mainly depend on the intuition and judgment of conversant individuals with the technologies that cause the disruptions. Moreover, the company is committed to offering products of high quality if cost targets, and the overall short-term gains override the criteria used to evaluate leaders and investments.

Usually, a design team working on a particular project of the company is cut off from the other tasks of the company. Sometimes, the company goes the extra mile of implementing physical restrictions to prevent any interaction between the team members and the other staff members in the company. The team may also be removed from the hierarchical organization of the company. Instead, they stay committed to the designing and innovation process and report directly to their executive team (Aljafari, 2016). The company is usually keen on doing this to allow adequate team time and chance to focus every attention on the design rather than the company’s daily running. The product development team receives the Apple New Product Process (ANPP) information to start working on the new idea, project, or design. This provides information in a detailed format at every stage of the designing process. Moreover, the elaboration is done while paying close attention to detail. The main agenda behind this ANPP is to establish a clear definition of every creation stage the product has to go through, whoever will be responsible for the delivery of the end product, who gets to work at what stage, and where, and the expected period of completion of the product.

The executive team of Apple Inc. holds regular meetings on Mondays. These meetings are usually intended to examine all the products designed by the company. One of the critical successes is that Apple doesn’t work on numerous new products simultaneously. Instead, they concentrate their resources on a few projects that have the potential of bearing good fruit. If the meeting is held and the product was not or cannot be reviewed, it becomes the top priority agenda of the subsequent meeting. This generally elaborates that every company’s product has to be inspected at least once in two weeks by the company’s executive team.

Consequently, any delay in decision-making processes is reduced, thus enabling the company to be lean with its design approach. The global supply manager (GSM) and the engineering program manager (EPM) control the products move through the design and production processes. They are usually found in China as the company does little manufacturing of its own. The company primarily depends on outsourcing contracting to do such processes for them. This approach has a significant advantage in marketing, and it is an approach emulated by different electronic manufacturers nowadays (Bergvall-Kåreborn, & Howcroft, 2013). The EPM and GSM also must ensure that the brand’s products are appropriately delivered to the market in the right shape, way, and correct cost. While they may disagree, both of their guiding principles are always in the product’s best interest.

Apple Inc.’s design process is not over when the manufacturing process starts, but it repeats the design throughout the manufacturing and development. The product is created, tested, and undergoes constant reviews, allowing the design team to improve the design and features of the brand’s products and rebuild them repeatedly (Bergvall-Kåreborn, & Howcroft, 2013). These cycles may take up to weeks and may sometimes run over the whole developmental lifecycle of the product. The extra you devote to the scheme, the more likely you will construct an unbelievable market-changing product. For Apple to maintain its quality reputation of their products, when the invention is thorough, the EPM will take all of the test devices or some and take them to the headquarters.

After that process, then the products are taken to a packaging room. This is the most protected and guarded area in Apple, and it is the same place where samples are unboxed. The safety is set to prevent leakages to the rest of the universe before the intended time to present it to the world. Finally, the closing step is the launching of the product (Aljafari, 2016). When the merchandise is considered as worthy as it can be, it enters an auction plan. This will explain all the actions and roles that must be taken before a marketable unveiling.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL MAP AND EXPLANATION

Cross-functional maps, also known as swim lane charts, show constituents’ departments in an organization, their performance roles, and the inputs and outputs of every step. In comparison with the relationship maps, cross-functional maps have got more information than a relationship map. But it has less information compared to the flow chart (Aljafari, 2016). Apple Inc. has got different departments that enable their processes to be executed with ease and swiftness. These departments include supply chain, research and development, marketing department, innovation and development sector, management department, and executive department comprising the company’s executive members. Under management, their processes involve corporate budgeting, communications, corporate governance, and strategic planning.

There are four ways to measure performance: productivity, efficiency, outcomes or effectiveness, and output or workload. Under productivity, measures can be defined as events that improve effectiveness and efficacy (Barley et al., 2020). It binds all together cost, labor, properties, and outcomes. Efficiency actions display the association concerning the performance of work done and the required assets to accomplish the given task. These measures are primarily conveyed in terms of the cost of the unit.

Additionally, workload dealings designate the quantity of work completed or the received number of services. It indicates what was done but does not express how well the task was done. And finally, the effectiveness measures (Barley et al., 2020). They imitate the worth of work done, tying all the work, properties, and outcomes. Since Apple Inc. focuses on the quality of their products and delivery to their customers, then the two applicable measures of performance are adequate measures and practical measures.

PROCESS ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION

Apple Inc. identifies products in which producers are more focused on adding more features than making the product more straightforward for people’s use. Additional features create a higher demand during the initial days. However, it can also increase the complexity of the product, making it challenging for the clients to use. Hence, the company follows steps that make features that are relatively simple to use by their consumers. It follows the identification of the ability of the developed product to have a great competitive advantage in the long run (Nwogugu, 2015). This involves checking if the current vendors offer incorporated platform products and other services. Once the product has every competitive advantage, the company designs a prototype with relative sophistication and simplicity. These two principles are the main hall makers of the brand. Apple Inc. mainly outsources its products’ production to its subsidies in various countries across the world. This allows it to establish a fraction of the total production cost compared to Europe and the US. The final business process of the brand is a revisit of the products at consistent intervals involving factors such as costs.