14 DAY TRIAL // If Apple’s management over partners was strict until now, sources in the company’s supply chain say Tim Cook is now even more serious about operations across the company’s entire line of part vendors.
Citing the usual unnamed sources close to suppliers for Apple, the Taiwan-based DigitTimes informs that “Cook has adopted even stricter management over its supply chain than before, and in addition to conducting inspections more frequently, the time spent on the inspections is also a lot longer.”
Apple is spending extra resources in order to manage costs and product quality even better than before.
It is not clear whether or not the discovery of a fingerprint inside one MacBook prompted increased pressure from Cupertino to get things done by the book, but the sources in question sure seem to indicate that this was one of the key reasons:
“...before the new MacBook products were released, Apple discovered a finger print was mistakenly printed on one internal component and demand a recheck of whole production line to resolve the issue, forcing the supply chain to spend extra time to deal with the problem,” the sources reportedly said.
The same people added that the high standards would also set a new threshold for other companies looking to do business with Apple:
“With Apple adopting higher standards over product quality, the sources expect the strategy to become a challenge to suppliers' production line management as well as a threshold for players wishing to enter Apple's supply chain.”
Apple has never been soft on supply chain partners, but the company always showed interest in lending a helping hand as well. For example, after the wave of suicides reported at Foxconn factories, Apple quickly jumped in to ensure better working conditions across all factories.
Foxconn for its part allowed reporters inside the facilities for the first time ever this year.