{"id":22079,"date":"2017-11-15T07:15:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T12:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/globalization-with-apple\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T07:15:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T12:15:57","slug":"globalization-with-apple","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/globalization-with-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Globalization with Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple Inc has received a lot of bad publicity for using Chinese manufacturing companies to build most of their products. As a consumer would you be willing to pay at least $100 more for an iPhone to know it was designed and manufactured in the United States? (1)<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s role with International Trade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple along with other manufacturing companies has taken manufacturing overseas to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Many of the upstream components and subassemblies are also manufactured in China and Southeast Asia, so to do final assembly in the United States would create huge logistical challenges. China also has much larger and more nimble factories than in the United States. (2) Labor is starting to become an issue during peak seasons, usually over the summer due to the large number of manufacturing companies looking for labor. Companies are competing for moderately \u201cskilled\u201d labor to meet the demands of product launches. During an iPhone launch contract manufacturers need to hire or re-allocate around 250,000 people to work on finally assembly of the new iPhone. There are also all of the upstream suppliers who are also in need of employees to work on their sub-assemblies and components that go into the finished good. Apple now pays a premium on top of minimum wage to their contract manufacturers to ensure that they receive the labor needed to not delay production. Even with China\u2019s population it is still a challenge to meet the demands of labor when so many companies are competing for the labor. Apple is currently heavily weighted in China for final assembly manufacturing, but if there were any changes in government regulations or tariff rates as stated by President Trump, it could put Apple at a significant disadvantage to getting product to customers in a timely manner and take an enormous hit to margins. (3)<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s current strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple has done a lot for the United States economy and unemployment rate other than moving jobs overseas. For the short term Apple has created a lot of jobs within the United States outside of manufacturing its hardware products. Apple has many other areas of business where it has created jobs within Apple and the rest coming from suppliers and developers. Apple has created over two million jobs within the United States and has spent\"\"<\/a> over $50 billion with US suppliers. (4)<\/p>\n

For the mid term, Apple has started to look at other countries to do their final assembly production. Apple is looking to produce in other countries, not just to reduce costs but to also increase revenues. IPhone market share in India isn\u2019t in the top five smartphones so there is a large opportunity to establish its brand with the worlds 2nd largest populated country. (5) India is a strong candidate because the labor wages are approximately 25% the cost of labor in China, they have the experience and skill to quickly learn the manufacturing process for iPhones, and they have the ability to keep up with labor demands during peak seasons. (6)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook met to discuss Apple\u2019s future of manufacturing overseas. President Trump claims that Tim Cook has promised to build three large plants in the United States. Apple continues to explore its options of where to manufacture based off of costs, complexity, potential and capability. Producing in the United States poses other risks such as speed to market, increased costs, and manufacturing flexibility.<\/p>\n

Recommendations for Apple <\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the Apple management team should make a bigger effort to explain the benefits of manufacturing overseas other than costs. Benefits include international opportunities to its employees, speed to market for its customers to have the latest and greatest technology, and efficiencies in the supply chain with the sub-component suppliers. Apple should also promote the number of foreign workers they have sponsored to work in the United States to add to the country\u2019s diversity and accomplished population.<\/p>\n

I also think that Apple needs to ban together with other manufacturing companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon to contest the current President\u2019s goals of bringing all manufacturing back to the United States and \u201cmaking America great again\u201d. To bring that much manufacturing back to the United States would be a drastic change that would cause the companies to invest a significant amount and money and resources toward the move back and the country may not be able to keep up with the high demands of skills and labor needed to produce all hardware products.<\/p>\n

Key Outstanding Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n