Question:
Discuss About The Companies In Developing In The Marketplace?
In today’s corporate era, efficient management of quality is essential for long term growth and success of companies. It can be expressed that the competition among businesses operating in the technology industry has become highly intense and now it is no longer easy for organizations to sustain in the marketplace. At present, companies are required to emphasize on improving the overall quality of products and services to attract new customers and retain the old ones. Quality management is crucial for businesses as it increases the degree of customer loyalty and satisfaction (Bellezza & Keinan 2014). At the same time, quality assists corporations to attain their long and short term objectives. However, it can be critically argued that instead of managing quality in products and services only, businesses are required to encourage quality improvement practices in all operations and functions. High quality in products, services, and processes assists companies in developing a strong brand image in the marketplace.
In the present era, small and large scale enterprise uses different types of quality management tools with an objective to enhance their operational capabilities. Some of the necessary tools which business use for carrying out improvement in their process includes cause and effect diagram, check sheet, histogram, control charts and stratification. All these tools support organizations to identify loop holes in their existing process and take corrective measures to eliminate the same. Furthermore, quality processes help companies to manage their overall cost of operations in the best possible manner. On the contrary, it can be argued that management of quality among processes is not an easy task for companies as they are required to carry out changes at regular intervals (Blackston & Lebar 2015). In addition to this, implementation of quality management tools and techniques requires lots of time and efforts.
The present study is based on Apple Inc. which is a technology company founded in the year 1976. In the context of revenue generated, Apple is considered as the second largest company in the world. The company offers different types of hardware and software related products and services to its customers (Eraslan, ?ç & Yurdakul 2016). Its product range includes Smartphone, tablets, personal computers, software, etc. Since its establishment in 1976, the company has witnessed huge success in the marketplace, and there are various factors associated with this success. For example, the brand is famous for its innovations in products, services and it is also considered as the major strength of the brand. Apart from this, the high degree of brand loyalty among customers of Apple is another major factor which has contributed to growth and success of the organization. Brand loyalty has also assisted the organization in getting the competitive advantage over other market players.
Quality can be defined as the essential characteristic or feature of the product which can satisfy the need and demand of the consumer. Furthermore, it can be expressed that there are different aspects which integrate together and form quality. For example, some people refer quality with good design and functionality (Clarke & Boersma 2017). On the other hand, some individuals consider aspects such durability, value for money and consistency while defining quality. The intense competition in the technological industry has encouraged companies to emphasize on quality of their manufacturing process, products, services and other areas of management.
Since its establishment, the products and services of Apple are popular because of their high-end quality which other brands in the market have failed to offer. The brand has been able to attract a large number of customers even with its high price strategy. The rationale behind this is that people perceive that the product of Apple is value for money. The selected business enterprise carries out extensive market research to ensure high-end quality and innovations in its product range. At the same time, Apple has adopted the strategy where it sells its products and services by high-quality user experience instead of selling them on behalf of specifications.
For a global manufacturing company, ensuring and maintaining product quality, in the long run, is not an easy task. Even big brands face issues and challenges linked to quality management and control (Zink et al. 2014). However, in case of Apple Inc., things are completely different as the band always seeks for offering high-quality products to all its customers. It can be expressed that during the process of manufacturing of Smartphone’s also, the high-quality components are used by the organization.
As compared to the other Android phones, the processing of Apple Smartphone is quite useful. Since its establishment, the company has always focused on the overall quality of products instead of emphasizing on quantity. This strategy has played a crucial role in long term growth and sustainability of the brand. In addition to this, high product quality has supported the company to acquire a higher degree of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Apple has always learned from its mistakes, and it keeps improving the overall quality of its products and services offered. For example, during the year 2007, the products or phones of apple were not considered as durable, and the company has worked upon the same. The present products of Apple are considered as highly durable and of high-end quality.
Apple’s product development process is considered as one of the most successfully designed procedures that are implemented by any other firm (Van der Lans, Van den Bergh & Dieleman 2014). The first step in the Apple product development process is the generation of the idea that is launching new phone with distinct feature and quality. At this stage manager expresses to manufacture the new product and discuss brief information regarding the product and its features. Thus, for producing the new phone in series, it establishes design team that makes the blueprint of the phone that how it would look. The design team is separated from the Apple Company and follows their reporting structure that helps them develop the new product (Elmansy 2017).
Once the design process has begun The Apple New Product Process (i.e., ANPP) is put into the action. It is defined as a detailed documentation of every step in product development process. ANPP also focuses on mapping out all the stages of creation and who will work on each of the stages. Along with this, it also determines who are responsible for completion of tasks.
After that the Executive team weekly reviews every product of Apple that company has in process phase (Chen et al. 2015). This general meeting or review helps the squad to accomplish their goals by evaluating small division of the procedure on a weekly basis. Therefore, the production process of new product development would be completed within the two weeks.
With the start up of the production process, both the responsible people that are Engineering Program Manager (EPM) and Global Supply Manager (GSM) together known as EPM Mafia will overview the production process of products in China. Both the managers will discuss the process and make the decision that will be best for the product.
After the manufacturing of beta product at China EPM and GSM bring the product to Cupertino that is at the Apple Campus so that executive may review the product. At this testing stage if executive remark the product then it will be sent back to China so that product may have required modification (Panzarino 2012). Hence, this process will be repeated again and again so that product must attain the high quality standard.
After that Packaging of Apple product is designed and the room is dedicated to devising packaging. The room for packaging has high security where prototypes are unboxed. Along with this, intensive testing has been performed so that it may provide the best experience to consumers.
Therefore, the last step in the product development process is to generate Rules of the Road manuscript that assesses the entire process and each object within it. Along with this, it also explains the actions and responsibilities that need to be considered before the launch of a product.
It can be expressed that the present product development process which has been adopted by Apple has different issues which need to be identified and resolved as soon as possible (West & Mace 2007). Ineffective planning/ forecasting can be termed as one of the most significant problems which lie within the existing process of product development. In the present era, companies are required to invest a substantial amount of human, technological and financial resources in the process of new products development. Furthermore, the process is also considered as very risk as the risk associated with failure of a new product in the market is very high.
Apple has faced issues due to ineffective forecasting in the process of new product development. This can be justified by the example of iPhone 5 when the company adopted the strategy of pre-booking before the launch of products. However, it can be critically argued that the company was not able to meet the demand of iPhone 5 as it was exceeding higher than what it was expected (Ramaswamy & Ozcan 2016). Apple was required to delay the delivery of product, and the company also canceled the pre-order booking of iPhone 5. It can be expressed that the overall brand image and degree of customer satisfaction were adversely affected by the problem of ineffective planning/forecasting in Apple’s process of new product development.
The product development cycle of Apple phones is very lengthy, and this is considered as another major problem which the company is required to resolve. This issue can be justified by the fact that iPhone 5 was launched on 21st September 2012 and after this, Apple took almost two years of time to launch iPhone 6. Customers of the company are required to wait very long for its new products, services, and this sometimes results in creating dissatisfaction among people in the market. Nowadays, people get bored by their Smartphone in every six months or 1 year (Page 2013). Furthermore, individuals also desperately wait to buy Smartphone with new features, processing, and technology.
However, in case of Apple, people are required to wait for years to buy the new product or phone produced by the company. It can be stated that even the degree of brand loyalty is affected adversely because of Apple’s lengthy product development cycle (Cho, Fiore & Russell 2015 ). At present, Samsung is considered as the biggest competitor to Apple, and it launches new products with direct competition to Apple in every six months. For example, Samsung launched Galaxy S6 as the direct competitor of iPhone 6. Sometimes, existing users of Apple are do not prefer to wait for one year or two to buy the new product, and they are attracted to Samsung which has a short product development cycle.
Another fundamental problem linked with the product development process of Apple is that it is very costly (Payne 2017). The cost incurred in the development of products is very high, and this encourages Apple to go for a high price strategy. It can be expressed that high price strategy has created obstacles for the company regarding attracting more and more customers. At present, the brand’s target market only includes people who belong to the upper class and upper middle class of the society. It means the segment of the middle class or middle-income level is still unexplored by Apple and at the same time, Samsung has got the opportunity to capture high market share in this segment.
Certain recommendations need to be implemented within the product development process of Apple so that it may quickly improve the process and maintain its quality. The recommendations are as follows-
The improved product development process of Apple will emphasize on shorting the period of product development and reducing the cost of operations. It has been identified that the company takes an enormous amount of time to develop and launch its new products (Lewis 2016). However, the new process will focus on creating and launching the new product in the gap of every six months. The result of this is that the company will be able to maintain a high degree of satisfaction among existing customers. At the same time, it will be able to attract new customers in the long run. The new and improved process will opt for reducing the cost of operations and selling the product at economical prices. The company will operate with two different product line, and here the products with high price and moderate prices will be offered to the people in the marketplace (Klingebiel & Joseph 2016).
From the above carried out research on Apple Company, it has been identified that the market segment of the middle class or middle-income level is still unexplored by the brand. Thus, the organization will be looking forward to launching new range of phones with moderate prices through its new product development process. The benefit of this is that Apple will be able to attract more new customers and enhance its existing market share. The company will be looking forward to setting up a manufacturing unit in other growing markets such as India. It will help the brand to lower down the cost of operations and reduce its dependency on one particular market which is China (Laugesen & Yuan 2010).
To carry out and manage changes within the product development process, Kotter’s eight step change model will be taken into consideration by Apple. The entire process of change is mentioned below as:
Increase the urgency for change- In this stage of change management, Apple is going to identify the critical threats and problems associated with its existing process of new product development. Furthermore, the company will also be exploring the key opportunities available in front of the business enterprise.
Building the dedicated team of change management- In this stage, the company will start the process of convincing all its employees that change is now essential for long term growth and success (Hofmann et al. 2014). In addition to this, change leaders within the company will be identified, and they will be assigned with the responsibility to implement and manage variations in the best possible manner.
Creating a vision for change – Here, Apple will be developing values which will be center and core to the entire process of change management. The company will be communicating its future vision and objectives in this stage of change management process.
Communicating the need for change – Apple will be using various types of informal and formal communication tools to inform all its stakeholders about the need and significance of the change in product development process (Hoog & Strzempka 2010). This stage will help stakeholders to understand the fact that why changes in process are so essential. Meanwhile, it will also assist in getting adequate corporation from external and internal stakeholders.
Empowering staff with the ability to change – In this stage of change management process, the employee working in Apple will be empowered with different authorities and responsibilities. All the barriers and obstacles faced in the change management process will be removed by the company at this stage (Goetsch & Davis 2014).
Creating short term goals – Here, the company will be recognizing and appreciating the efforts of employees for the accomplishment of short term goals. This strategy will act as the biggest motivator and will encourage workers to give their best in making the changes permanent within the product development process.
Staying persistent – In this stage, the company will be focusing on ensuring the fact quality of products and service is not affected due to the changes in product development process. It can be stated that at present, the products of Apple are in high demand because of high quality and any degradation in existing quality will result in creating dissatisfaction among customers. The brand image and value of Apple will also get adversely affected because of degradation in quality. In this stage, the company is also going to set various objectives and goals with regards to improvement in quality (Groover 2016).
Making the change permanent- This is considered as the last stage of change management in which the changes made will be incorporated into the overall corporate culture of the brand. Here, the organization will emphasize on making the changes stick permanently within its new product development process.
Quality plays a significant role within the organization as it assists in meeting the requirement of customers. With the above possible changes in the process, it has been reviewed that it would meet the expected quality outcomes of Apple. The company does focus on meeting the quality standards of their phone as they are considered as the premium brand that offers quality electronic products in the market (Ferraro, Kirmani & Matherly 2013).
It has also been expected that Apple Company would be launching their smart phones in the short span of time that is mainly in 6 months. Thus, with the up gradation of the technology company is required to bring new technology to their product so that it would directly meet the requirement of customers. Apple has also stated that they would not compromise or degrade their quality standard with engaging in the new product development process. Along with this, above possible change in the product development process would expect in attaining quality outcomes regarding increasing their research and development activities (Johnson 2012).
With the increasing research and development activities within Apple, Company manager can easily initiate the new feature or attribute that would be introduced in their new product. Along with this, it has also been expected that with research and development activities it also outcome in introducing new or upgraded technology for their operating system so that it may easily attract the customers and their requirement (Flanagin et al. 2014).
In addition to this, from the above recommendation of implementing quality control process, it has been expected that employees would consider the quality standard while performing their activities (Sallis 2014). Along with this, for the expected quality outcomes employees within the company should be provided with appropriate training and development activities. With training and development employees must come to know regarding the quality and quality control process for overcoming the associated risk (Dennis 2015). With the above recommendation, the company also expects that an individual performance within the business must be above the standard. At the same time, for the success of Apple in electronic market quality is considered an essential tool that meets the expectations of customers.
Conclusion
From the above carried out report, it can be concluded that Apple is one of the leading brands in the market and it has been successful because of its quality. Nowadays, quality management practices have become essential for long term sustainability and in getting a competitive advantage over other market players. It can also be inferred that the existing process of product development within Apple has particular problems which need to be resolved by the company on the priority basis. The process of product development within Apple consumes lots of time and resources. For example, people are required to wait for years to buy new products of Apple. This has resulted in developing a high degree of dissatisfaction among existing users and has also discouraged new customers to purchase the product of Apple Inc.
It has been recommended that Apple should emphasize on reducing the time consumed for development and launch of new product. Furthermore, it is also suggested that the brand should focus on the setting new manufacturing plant in developing economies of the world. The improved process will have a short span of product development, and the company will be looking forward to launching new product in almost every six months. This strategy will help in maintaining the interest of customers and retaining them for the long run. It can be concluded that Apple will be using Kotter’s change management model to ensure that modification in its existing product development process is carried out in the best possible manner. Apart from this, it is also expected that the organization will not make any compromise in product quality.
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