Product Modification Is A Crucial Task For Apple: IPhone 7 Case Study

Introduction to the product of Apple-iPhone 7

Discuss about the Scenario of Product Modification Is A Crucial Task for Apple?

Apple is an American company having its branch in Cupertino, California and it is in operation since 1976. It is an organization, which designs, develops and sells computer software and consumable electronics. Its hardware unit has products like iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac book and smart watch (Apple.com 2016). The chosen product for Apple Inc is iPhone, which is selected for modification in their applications. The iPhone has several versions but the chosen version will be iPhone 7 and the comparison made will be from iPhone version 6s Plus. The iPhone has a huge list of features which other smart phones does not have, and the company will try to maintain its reputation by introducing new features in the iPhone 7.

The report reflects on the features of the product, which is selected for further modification. It also summarizes the importance of the process design on the product, iPhone 7. Using the process design of iPhone 7, its aims and objectives are identified. Different stages are analyzed to illustrate its designing concept. Finally, an analysis is done to identify the impact of performance objectives on the design.

Apple will come soon with its new product such as Apple iPhone 7. Apple Corporation prepares to place its greatest orders on the iPhone 7 with 90-95 million units’ sets, which is to be manufactured in China. The quality of camera of this Apple product is DSLR-quality camera. As per the latest news, it is seen that the users can enjoy 3D movies as well as video games in this Smartphone (Apple iPhone 7 2015). Apple is also introduced new features and processor in their new Smartphone, which is speedier as well as reliable as compared to other Apple products. It will help to make the business operations of Apple smoother.

The importance of design for iPhone 7 is very much as the customer wants a state of the art product and the features implemented in it should be more tech savvy. The process design determines the overall structure of iPhone 7 and the process included in designing it, implementing latest features, which are not carried out in any other Smartphone before (Heaslip 2013). The primary emphasis is in the designing of both the software and hardware of the iPhone 7 by determining the feedback provided by the customers for the iPhone 6s plus.

Importance of process designs on Apple iPhone 7

It is observed that the designing of electronic things keeps changing with time because of the new modifications needed on the design and features of the product from time to time (Bell et al. 2014). Precisely the market analyst, sales personnel, and operational manager must determine the marketing of iPhone 7 and its uses. The assumption of maximum cost can be generated in the initial phase of the iPhone 7 developments and manufacturing by the process design. The process design and product or service design is interrelated, and the operations performance objective is related to objectives of process design.

Almost every types of production or manufacturing processes fall into these four categories. The production of iPhone 7 should also go through these four processes.

 Conversation: The conversion process includes the primary step in which the blueprint of the iPhone 7 is converted into the design (Galliers and Leidner 2014). This step is the most crucial step as this helps in analyzing the maximum cost of manufacturing the iPhone 7.

Fabrication: The process of fabrication is used to manufacture more units of iPhone 7. The components or parts of iPhone 7 are produced in the decided quantity.

Assembly: The parts which were manufactured are made of components or in a unit and then it are assembled for making the completed product.

Testing: The final manufactured iPhone is tested for further analysis and to check that it does not have any loopholes (Bajdor and Grabara 2014). This step contributes to the iPhone 7final completion as it detects the issues, which can be caused after the user uses the iPhone 7, and if a serious issue is seen then the product is again sent to the conversation process.

Apple iPhone 7 has a noise cancelling technology which makes its operational process unique. The operations objectives of modifying iPhone 6s plus and making a new version that is the iPhone 7 translate directly to the product process design (Dima et al. 2014). As the process is managed at the operational level, so it is necessary to follow a set of objectives for the process designing of iPhone 7 in a detailed way. The resources needed to prepare a product may not be utilized all the time because not all the activities require resources all the time and the capacity of the resource may not have demand for it. The frameworks in which Apple products are developed are as followed:

Types of processes

Designing of apple products: The designing does not include any drawbacks such as cost estimation or budgeting. Rather the designers are given full facilities regarding equipment and services they want (Seber 2012). The industrial designing studio is the base of Apple as all the process starts from there. The designs cannot be viewed by every employee of Apple as it is shared with some dedicated members only.

Initial phase of developing iPhone 7: This is the initial phase of developing the iPhone 7 by implementing new features and designing its look and it includes the processes which should be followed for the successful integration and development of the iPhone version 7 (Grabara et al. 2014). In this phase secrecy is maintained, the employees are locked in a building, the working barriers are removed, and even the physical barriers are removed.

Apple new product processes (ANPP): The designing of the iPhone 7 is carried then the ANPP is prepared or carried forward. This phase includes the product development life cycle in detail. This initiative was not carried forward by Apple as this was introduced to Apple by Macintosh. This phase marks the detailed process for completion, creation and employee work allocation.

Products are reviewed every Monday: This is a new concept by Apple implemented to improve the production process as every Monday the executive team conducts a meeting to check the development of every product they are making during that time (Tariq et al. 2014). This step ensures proper flow of all the iPhone 7 production processes and Apple can achieve it because they make very fewer products at the same time.  The Products which are not reviewed are rolled back to next Monday for the review.

Engineering program manager (EPM): This phase is concerned with two individual persons the program manager of engineering and the overall supply manager. They are the ones who have the duties to make the production fruitful. The engineering program manager has more control of the iPhone 7 than the global supply manager (Heaslip 2013). The EPM and GSP post are retained by executives who spend most of their times in China.

Once a product is built it is again designed, then built and tested: The iPhone is such a product, which is followed by millions of, people even the journalists and there is a high chance of the information getting leaked by one of the employees in exchange for money. The Apple has sort out ways to overcome these problems by building the iPhone 7 and then sending it to redesign and then again sending it for manufacturing (Power et al. 2015). The beta device is taken back to Cupertino for its evaluation, comments by the engineering program manager, and is brought back as soon as possible for the next step of making the product. It incurs a lot of costs but seeing the standard of Apple and its fame this is worth it.

Aims and Objectives of the Apple iPhone 7 using process design

Packaging room: This is the place where the iPhone 7 is packed in the marketing building and a dedicated section is there for the packing. The preparation includes the overall assembling of the iPhone 7, and an employee is kept full time to check the boxing way.

Launching is controlled by the road rules: It is a type of document which is allocated before the launch of the iPhone 7 and the person who gets it is the directly responsible person (Hazen et al. 2014). The document contains a list of every important process of the product development till the iPhone 7 launch. It is seen that Apple makes a decision which incurs more cost but delivers a product worth that cost.

The steps involved in the iPhone 7 designing process are analyzed. The iPhone 7 has new features in comparison to the previous version that is iPhone 6s plus (Song and Parola 2015). The new specifications or the features incorporated in the iPhone 7 are:

1. Sapphire glass
   
   
2. Button-less design
   
   
3. Wireless charging
   
   
4. Improved iSight camera
   
   
5. Dust and water proof
   
   
6. OLED display
   
   
7. No inbuilt audio jack

Concurrent engineering

It is a process in which product is developed simultaneously by running the different stages at the same time. This process decreases the product development time and the marketing time which leads to reduced cost and improved productivity (Morgan et al. 2016). For making iPhone 7, the process of concurrent engineering is used because it takes less time and the product can be released to the market very early.

Six phases of product design

The designing of iPhone7 has six stages which are incorporated to make it. The designing process is the primary outcome of the entire processes involved in making the iPhone 7. The six phases are discussed below:

Planning: This stage is the beginning of iPhone 7 development and the vital details of the designing, features and materials are considered in this phase (Krajewski et al. 2013). A proper overview of the product is created as to what new features should be added, which features should be used to design it and which materials should be utilized for its casing.

Concept development: The basic concept of developing the iPhone 7 is discussed in this phase. The features which will be modified and used in the iPhone 7 are reviewed, and the material that should be used and why it should be utilized is considered (Krause et al. 2014). The concept of using various features and elements and why it should be used are discussed.

System level design: In this phase, the hardware and software of iPhone 7 are developed. The designing of the overall system is done, and blueprint of the system level design is made.

Detail design: The detail design phase is to implement all the design together for making iPhone7.

Testing and refinement: After the final product is made it is tested and if there are any problems in its integration then the refinement of the iPhone 7 is done.

Production ramp-up: The final version of iPhone7 is made so its various unit productions can be started. 

The performance of the iPhone 7 is the primary motive of Apple as they are spending too much money in making it and various versions are made to get the best from the full version and incorporate it together in a single design. Both internal and external perspective is maintained to improve the performance objective on the design and it can be done by considering these factors.

Speed- The development of iPhone takes a long time as various versions are developed to make the best product hence speed is not a factor.

Dependability- The performance of the iPhone 7 will be dependent on the design as it is the basics of making any product from the blueprint to the final product. 

Quality- All the models are made then implemented and finally tested; this process is repeated various times so that every version is checked properly and it is applied (Lutz et al. 2014).

Flexibility- The phases included in the designing process have a lot of importance as this is the process which will benefit the company after the iPhone 7 is launched.

Cost- The cost is quite high as the final version of iPhone is made after developing several versions.

Promotion: As a product manager of Apple, need to build awareness of the new product by providing adds through several media such as paper, poster, TV channels, social media network, etc. The development of iPhone 7 should be done in a more precise way to decrease its making time.

Introductory Marketing: Customer always drive the effort. Therefore, in terms of achieving success, need to listen to customers. It will be the most appropriate way of improving the new product in market.

Conclusion

It is concluded that the product modification is a crucial task as it needs a lot of time and more understandings of the previous version of the product. In this case, the iPhone 6s Plus is modified and make a product which is more tech practical understanding than the previous version. Therefore, the iPhone 7 is made to incorporate more features and make the design better than the previous version. The process design is done so that the product evaluation can be done. The full stages of the product development are listed from the beginning to the end. The overall designing is done using high quality materials to incorporate better look.

References

Apple iPhone 7, 2015. Apple iPhone 7 News. [online] Apple iPhone 7 News. Available at: https://appleiphone7news.wordpress.com/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2016].

Apple.com,  2016. Apple. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/ [Accessed 17 Mar. 2016].

Bajdor, P. and Grabara, I., 2014. The Role of Information System Flows in Fulfilling Customers’ Individual Orders. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 7(2).

Bell, J.E., Bradley, R.V., Fugate, B.S. and Hazen, B.T., 2014. Logistics Information System Evaluation: Assessing External Technology Integration and Supporting Organizational Learning. Journal of Business Logistics,35(4), pp.338-358.

Dima, I.C., Grabara, J. and Modrak, V., 2014. Sustainable Logistics and Business Competitiveness. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 15 (2), pp.148-156.

Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Grabara, J., Kolcun, M. and Kot, S., 2014. The role of information systems in transport logistics. International Journal of Education and Research, 2(2), pp.1-8.

Heaslip, G., 2013. Services operations management and humanitarian logistics. Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management,3(1), pp.37-51.

Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes and supply chains. Pearson.

Krause, D., Youngdahl, W. and Ramaswamy, K., 2014. Manufacturing–Still a missing link?. Journal of Operations Management, 32(7), pp.399-402.

Lutz, H., Birou, L. and Kannan, V.R., 2014. Analysis of higher educational offerings in operations management. International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 5(4), pp.297-310.

Morgan, T.R., Richey, R.G. and Autry, C., 2016. Developing a reverse logistics competency: the influence of collaboration and information technology. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(3).

Power, D.J., Sharda, R. and Burstein, F., 2015. Decision support systems. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

References

Seber, B.P., 2012, November. Product Designing, Engineering, Manufacturing of Innovative Products at the Request of Large Retailers. InASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition(pp. 1717-1718). American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Song, D.W. and Parola, F., 2015. Strategising port logistics management and operations for value creation in global supply chains. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 18(3), pp.189-192.

Hazen, B., Huscroft, J., J. Hall, D., K. Weigel, F. and B. Hanna, J., 2014. Reverse logistics information system success and the effect of motivation.International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 44(3), pp.201-220.

Tariq, M., Shahzad, K. and Lama, S., 2014. Building workforce capacity to operate a web-based logistics management information system (LMIS). Journal of product Policy and Practice, 7(1), pp.1-2.