Discuss About The Employee Retention Strategies In Industries.
Operations management is the management area which is concerned with the designing and controlling of production process and redesigning of the business operations in the manufacturing of products and services. Operations management also bears the responsibility of ensuring that the operations of the business are efficient and effective in in making less use of resources and meeting customer requirements (Heizer, 2016).
This assignment focuses on the design and technology driven company Apple Inc. and highlights the operations strategies adopted by the organization. Moreover, it examines the sustainability approaches adopted by the company based on the triple bottom line approach and explores the opportunities and challenges faced by the company in terms of sustainability. This assignment also suggests some improvements which can be considered by Apple for improving its overall operations in the future.
Apple Inc. is a multinational design and technology driven company of America having its headquarters situated in California. It designs, develops and makes the sales of online services, computer software and consumer electronics. The online services provided by Apple include the iOS App Store, the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Mac App Store and iCloud. The software offered by Apple include iOS and macOS operating systems, Safari web browser, iTunes media player, iWork and iLife productivity and creativity suites and some professional applications like Xcode, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro. The hardware products of Apple include the most popular iPhone smartphone, Apple smartwatch, iPod portable media player, iPad tablet computer, the Apple TV, the Mac personal computer and the Home Pod smart speaker (Grady, 2009).
Apple was founded by Ronald Wayne, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the year 1976 for the purpose of developing and selling the personal computer of Wozniak named Apple I. Apple Inc. was then incorporated in the year 1977 and witnessed a significant impetus and growth in revenue for the company (Apple, 2018).
Being a design and technology driven company, Apple makes the use of most innovative technology in the market. Design is used as an integrative resource by Apple for bringing innovation more successfully and efficiently. Furthermore, it uses the strategy of developing the leading edge products. Firstly, it understands the emerging technologies and then makes the identification of unmet consumer needs. Apple then aims to utilize innovative technology in fulfilling those unmet consumer needs. The market capitalization and profitability of Apple is above the industry average. It is considered to be the most innovative company due to its continuous spending on research and development (Jaruzelski & Mainardi, 2011).
Operation strategy can be defined as the methods which are used by an organization for the purpose of achieving its objectives. A company becomes capable of examining and implementing effective and efficient systems for utilizing personnel, resources and work process (Slack, 2015).
A number of researches have been conducted by Apple across the world and has resulted in a variety of strategies. Its worldwide activities related to manufacturing and distribution has been realigned that assists Apple in supporting the aggressive plans for lower manufacturing costs, speedy delivery to the customers and development of new products. The key elements of the new strategy are the reduction of workforce and relocation of production centres. This realignment is the result of a study. The study pursued the alignment of the operations of Apple with the new plan for the products of the company such that the products can be delivered to the customers on time and there is the overall reduction in the manufacturing costs in the long- run. The study further indicated that Apple can remain innovative and competitive if it integrates the manufacturing functions with the distribution functions. This strategy is basically for supporting the success of Apple in the industry in future (Hill & Hill, 2017).
From the beginning, Apple has adopted the strategy to introduce innovations in the technology along with increasing the capability of launching new technology in the market (Pisano, 2015). Apple’s operations strategy is highly based on differentiation as it offers high quality products along with exceptional designs. The products are also easy to use and secure and are offered with personalized service and high quality bundled software. Some standard interfaces are also incorporated in the Apple products such as USB ports which have made the Apple products less closed systems and grant a strong operating system to the users. Apple products have gained competitive advantage due to the personalized services offered by the organization. The relation of this fact is directly with the introduction of new stores not due to the reason of being a sales location but for the purpose of controlling its image and for providing an excellent service (Lee & Tang, 2017).
The layout design and strategy of Apple places emphasis on the expectations of the customers. The decision area of the management of operations is addressed through the use of innovative office layouts that have the capability of encouraging the efficiency and creativity of workflows. Creativity is considered to be the critical factor among the employees that are involved in the design and development processes of the products at Apple Inc.
The HR and job design strategies are based on the emphasis on excellence by Steve Jobs. Therefore, the HR strategies are changed from time to time for reflecting a more social workplace in Apple for increasing the morale of employees. Apple Inc. has mastered in HR and job design strategies for the purpose of ensuring continued support for its leadership in the industry. As far as the area of supply chain management is concerned, Apple makes the use of automated processes and regular supplier monitoring to evaluate the productivity and capacity of the suppliers and their compliance with the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct. These automated systems are considered to be the main strength of approach adopted by Apple to supply chain management (Giannakis & Papadopoulos, 2016).
The operations strategy of Apple with regard to inventory management is related to making the use of a variety of methods of inventory management like serialized method for the controlling and tracking of Apple products. First in first out (FIFO) method is used by Apple for ensuring the sale of old models before the release of new models in the market. The inventory management of the stores is managed by the respective Apple Store managers (Gong, 2015).
Manual and automated processes are used for scheduling activities in the production and supply chain processes. It also has a dedicated maintenance teams for addressing the maintenance needs of the organization (Christopher, 2016). Moreover, the operations strategy of Apple involves the monitoring and evaluation of productivity after considering the benchmarks, standards and criteria for the diverse activities and global size of the business.
The term sustainability can be defined as the socio- ecological process categorized by the pursuit of a common ideal. In other words, sustainability is a process that involves change in which the direction of investments, exploitation of resources and the orientation of institutional change and technological development are all in harmony and enhance both existing and future potential for meeting human aspirations and needs (Crane & Matten, 2016).
The management of sustainability is an important aspect for the businesses as a business plays an important role in the society it operates in. Undertaking effective sustainability approaches not only improves the reputation of the company among the consumers and investors but also brings the company into the limelight of media. In other words, undertaking sustainability measures by a company makes it a sustainable enterprise, leads to the progress of the company and allows it to reap benefits for the society and for their own selves (Weber & Wasieleski, 2018).
When Apple undertakes its activities, environmental impact is created which in turn harms the environment. However, Apple keeps into consideration that those products are created that are best in the entire world and are also best for the world. Hence, it gives adequate importance to the environment. It continues making efforts towards its environmental priorities. Apple seeks to contribute towards creating less impact in the climate change. It makes the use of renewable resources at all its facilities including retail stores, offices and data centres. Relentless innovation is used in each of its activities including its environmental activities. Apple also applies leading researches of the industry and makes investment in their own renewable energy projects which in turn lowers the emissions from their facilities to 1% of their exhaustive carbon footprint (Arndt & Ewe, 2017).
The triple bottom line approach is used as a framework used by organizations for the purpose of evaluating their performance from a broader perspective in order to create greater business value. The triple bottom line approach allows an organization to think beyond the traditional bottom line of the business. It takes into account social, economic and environmental aspects. Therefore, it consists of three Ps: people, planet and profit.
Social Sustainability- social sustainability is concerned with the profits made by the business in terms of human capital including its position within the local society. The long term sustainability of the human capital of business is measured by the social bottom line. This is due to the understanding that a desirable workplace will have the capability of operating in the future as the workforce of such an organization will be striving to be a part of it (Carroll, Primo & Richter, 2016).
Apple tries to undertake social sustainability by considering humanity as plural and not singular. It encourages the role of females in the organization by increasing their participation in diverse teams for making innovation possible. In other words, women are given importance equal to men. Apple does not make any discrimination among its employees on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. It also raises voice for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) rights and freedom across the globe. It is rated as one of the best places to work for LGBTQ Equality. Apple also believes that every person has the right to get equal opportunities irrespective of the diverse backgrounds. Therefore, there is both inclusion and diversity in the organization (Page, 2017).
Environmental Sustainability- the environmental sustainability of a business considers that it should have a minimal impact on the environment and should consume least natural resources in order to become a successful business (Bhattacharya, Korschun, Sen & Routledge, 2017).
The sustainability approach adopted by Apple in this regard includes the use of 100% renewable energy in all its facilities. Furthermore, it considers the natural resources of the earth to be precious and therefore has found out ways of using them again. It has developed efficient recycling technologies and a number of other innovations. In other words, it makes sure that less of the earth’s resources are utilized in the manufacturing of its products. It extracts such valuable materials from the old devices that are perfect for the development of new products. It has also developed a disassembly robot named Daisy which helps in recovering more materials without affecting their quality. Daisy is the recycling robot of Apple (Vezzoli & Manzini, 2008).
For packaging its products, it makes the use of more recycled products and responsibly sourced materials in order to cause less harm to the environment. It also protects the sustainable forests for the purpose of covering the virgin paper used by them. Apple also hold itself accountable for each and every drop of water used by them and seek ways for conserving water and discharging waste water in a safe manner.
Economic Sustainability- the economic sustainability aims at creating a business that results in the strengthening of the economy. It simply does not mean the traditional corporate capital of the organization but also takes into account the impact caused by the business on the economic environment. As a consequence, it will continue to exist in the future due to its contribution towards the overall economic health of the community along with the supported networks. Moreover, awareness is also important among the businesses of its traditional profits as it plays an important role for its survival. But it should not be the only motive of an organization (Schwartz, 2017).
For becoming an economically sustainable enterprise, Apple has made a donation of $500K towards the anti- poverty initiative SF Gives. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, has made public commitment to charity. For fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, Apple has also raised $70 million for The Global Fund (Dormehl, 2014). In other words, Apple is trying to make every possible step in order to eradicate poverty from this world. Further it aims at the job protection and betterment of the employees along with considering the political pressure to create jobs in the economy. It issues supplier responsibility report from time to time for the purpose of reviewing the labor conditions in its facilities. In other words, Apple aims at the overall development of the economy by way of undertaking measures that considers the benefit of the employees and the overall society it operates in.
Apple faces a number of challenges and opportunities in terms of sustainability. For planning their actions on time, Apple needs to make prior identification of such challenges and opportunities related to sustainability. The potential challenges and opportunities is integrated into a multi- disciplinary, company- wide risk management processes. The use of a systematic method is made for the purpose of assessing
The brand ‘Apple’- Apple has emerged as the strong brand with a good reputation. Any event or action that has a negative influence on the reputation or the brand including the lack of social acceptance can create a challenge for the industry benchmark position. This in turn can also result in impacting the capacity for growth of Apple. The positive and continuous development of Apple as a strong brand with good reputation has emerged as a great opportunity for the sustainable growth of Apple and for creating a positive viewpoint among the stakeholders.
Health and Safety- the identification and prevention of health and safety challenges is of prime importance for Apple. It also ensures a thorough investigation of every accident and takes the required action for its prevention in the future. Health and safety is the major challenge for the sustainability of the organization as it is the design and technology driven company. Therefore, a number of major processes are undertaken in the manufacturing of the products which can cause major accidents in the organization. Due care is paid to the health and safety of the employees by Apple by providing them with health and medical insurance programs. The safety of the employees travelling around the world is ensured with the help of travel insurance programs, travel security and safety guidelines and travel information system (Mathur, Broeck, Vanderhulst, Mashhadi & Kawsar, 2015).
Financial Markets- It is the economic responsibility of Apple to provide benefits to all its stakeholders through conducting the business operations in a profitable manner. For continuing its operations in a secured manner, it requires the availability of sufficient funds at all the times and under all circumstances. Negative impact on funding can arise from a number of economic uncertainties that take place across the globe. Therefore, Apple needs to convert such challenge into an opportunity by offering latest innovative technologies to the consumers so that the profits keep on increasing in every successive quarter (Durant & Fiorino, 2017).
Employees and Competencies of Apple- Apple consider its employees to be crucial for the organization. Therefore, it ensures that they are capable for securing the competitiveness and development of business. Succession planning for the important positions in the organization along with the resource and competencies planning is considered to be important in Apple Inc. For maintaining sustainability, it becomes a challenge to attract and retain competent talent in the organization for achieving growth and global presence targets. On the other hand, the inclusion and diversity strategy adopted by Apple acts as a sustainable opportunity as it has raised its standards in the minds of its existing employees. This in turn will help Apple in attracting diverse individuals towards the organization and will provide it the opportunity of selecting best of the talent from across the world (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015).
Emerging markets- Apple is able to maintain and develop the presence across the globe in the emerging markets which in turn creates an opportunity for the organization. The business development of Apple is linked with their capability of expanding their operations in new and quickly emerging markets. However, it also faces challenges in relation to the operation in these markets. Such challenges include certain business limitations as a result of their reputation as an ethical and responsible corporate citizen (Ross, Beath & Sebastian, 2017).
Environment- environment and climate change comprise the biggest challenge and opportunity areas of sustainability for Apple. Such challenges and opportunities are transferred by the customers to the organization and are therefore linked with the technology, products and research and technology development. It makes the use of energy-efficient technologies in production and also undertakes the recycling of old pones for extracting usable parts from them. The global challenge related to water is also being considered by Apple by making the least water consumption during the production of its products. It converts the environmental challenges into opportunities by promoting recycling, reducing emissions and meeting more rigorous environmental standards (Song, Bhadbhade & Huang, 2016).
Apple Inc. is undertaking the best of the operation strategies and sustainable practices but still there are some areas for improvement. Proper consideration of such areas can further enhance the productivity and image of the organization.
As far as the operations strategies of Apple Inc. are concerned, it can further limit the resources to be used for covering all the requirements of the strategy. The objectives of the company can be achieved by bringing coordination in the strategies related to designing, distribution, supply chain management, etc. When all the activities will be interrelated, it will become easier for conducting its proper management. Lack of coordination increases the chances of failure of the strategies. Moreover, it should be ensured that the operation strategies are object oriented and does not go against the objectives of the company. Consultation should be encouraged at every stage of the organization such that wrong decision making is avoided (Pattnaik, Jena & Pradhan, 2017).
Apple has made a number of efforts when it comes to sustainability such as eliminating the use of harmful toxins such as mercury and PVCs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products. It has made its packaging smaller, undertakes recycling processes and makes its products exceed the energy star specification. However, it still has a long way to go. Even if the new products are launched by the company in solar power factories and conveyed with energy efficiency, they will still require to be charged in electric grids which are powered by natural gas or coal.
The only possible way in which Apple can have sustainable products is through the development of a new business model which has the capability of closing the loops in the life cycle of the products. Such model will be of great use for working with the products that are developed for lasting for a long time and offering services rather than new devices (Moloney, 2017).
The ‘planned obsolescence’ adopted by Apple is making the products difficult to upgrade and repair thereby causing harm to the environment. Therefore, it needs to change the current model and require showing greater ambition and transparency. Innovation should be made in the existing technology so that the products can have increased lifecycle such that they are not required to be changed in less time. This will reduce the impact on the environment (Faghihi, Hessami & Ford, 2015).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that Apple is a design and technology driven company which regularly attempts innovation for maintaining its top position in the market. The operation strategy of Apple is concerned with the formulation of aggressive plans that supports innovative products with low manufacturing costs which can speedily be delivered to the customers. The HR and job design strategies are based on the emphasis on excellence by Steve Jobs. The layout design and strategy of Apple places emphasis on the expectations of the customers. The operations strategy also considers the inventory management for efficient performance along with the adoption of manual and automated processes for scheduling activities in the production and supply chain processes.
Moreover, sustainable approaches are followed by Apple Inc. which takes into account the three aspects of the triple bottom line i.e. people, planet and profit. It uses environmental friendly techniques for production and recycles the old products for extracting useful parts. It prefers inclusion and diversity in the organization by providing equal treatment to every employee. Also, it undertakes steps for the benefits of the economy such as providing donations for eradiating poverty, etc. At the end, this report provides certain suggestions for improvement which should be considered by Apple for further refining its operations and will ensure its success in the long run.
References
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