New Product Development at Apple

Question: Critically evaluate methods of planning and organising efficient operations and networking. Analyse the problems of controlling component activities and of controlling quality . Critically discuss methods of project evaluation and of scheduling resources. Answer: Introduction The product and the services are the most important part of an organization. In the organization, the product and services are considered as the main source of innovation. In this report, the Apple Company and its newly launched product iPhone 5 is selected for the thorough analysis. To highlight the main products available in the company, the portfolio is required. The portfolio is an aspect in which the complete description of the product is defined. The different types of products with their price are shown in the portfolios, which are mainly offered by the company. As the technology and the competitive environment is increasing day by day, so with this, the demands of the customers are also increasing. So, it is the responsibility of the operation manager to analyze the portfolio to search the aspects which may helpful in launching the new products. Through this, the required changes can also be identified. The report shown below mainly covers the methods of planning and organizi ng the operations, common problems related to the components, evaluation of the project and scheduling resources and many other aspects related to the products. Major Aspects of the product This section is helpful in showing the complete information about the process, importance, aims and objectives of the product. The initialization of the product modification up to the completion of the modification is defined in this section. In this section, the modification of the existing product will be defined (Agarwal, 2012). The product which is considered for the modification is iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 is considered as the innovative and newly launched product of the Apple. The product is equipped with the most advanced features and also provides the customers with the different facilities. Though the product is launched in very few countries, but the customers seem to be interested in the product. The customers also provide with the suitable feedback to the manufacturers (i.e. Apple) for improving some of the features of the product (i.e. IPhone 5). So, this product is selected because there are chances of improvement or modification in this product (Sanadze, 2010). Importance The product is considered as important, because it is highlighting the innovating techniques through the products. By this, it becomes easier to generate the most appropriate revenues and the financial platform of the company also strengthens. The product is also capable of giving the strong competition to the competitors on the global as well as the local level. Due to the process, the product can able to achieve the high speed, management of the operating system can become easier and different applications in the iPhone can easily be operated. Aims/Objectives The major aim behind designing the iPhone 5 is to prepare the product in such a manner so that the product can able to compete with the competitors who are introducing the same featured products with the lowest price in the market (Ascroft, 2013). As the product is created with the innovative technique and the new aspects, so the products also follows the well -defined design structure. By this, the chances of issues and problems may easily reduce. Another aim for selecting the process from the product is that the different steps followed in the designing of the products are helpful in providing the suitable solution too. Stages of product/Service The process of designing the product (i.e. IPhone 5) shows various stages or steps. To modify the product, it is essential to identify them. On the basis of the customer feedback, the process of the modification can be completed very easily. The stages are almost similar in all the countries. But, the basic difference is related to the manufacturing of the product in different countries. In contrast to the U.K, the important steps like the paired design meetings, pixel perfect mock -ups and the Pony meetings are taken into consideration. Synthesis, analysis, selection, basic engineering, detail design are some of the important steps which are helpful in completing the designing phase of the product. The special steps in creating the products also provide the positive input to the products. Methods for planning and efficient operations While developing the product, it is also essential to identify the suitable planning and the efficient operations too. By this, the evaluation may also become easier. Managing the efficient operations and networking is not considered as an easy task. The appropriate functioning of the iPhone 5 is essential, because it is considered as the brand name (Francis, 2015). To highlight the major facts related to the working of the iPhone 5, the planning and the efficient operations are required. The Apple is the master in providing the aspects related to the Quantum strategy, so that the products can be developed in a most appropriate manner. For the operation related to the product, the efficiency in the product is also considered as the major aspect. To perform the operational management, two types of methodology are mainly defined. These are the vertical and horizontal manner of the operational management. It depends upon the requirement of the company that which type of product they mai nly prefer. Generally for designing of the product and for performing the modification, two different theories related to the operational management are used. They are TQM and Lena and the Globalization, Green and the Supply chain management. Both these theories are helpful in providing the operational perspectives to the organization. The TQM is well focused towards the creativity and the continuous improvement in aspects through the learning process and the second theory, mainly focus on the globalization and the supply chain management (Jones, 2012). Through these theories, the organization tries to maintain the flow of the product and also provide the positive perspective to the operational management. But, with the positive influences there are some negative influences too, which can hinder the growth of the product. The suitable flow of the operational management and the identification of the most suitable theory for the modification of the product are tough to find out, so at this stage, the operational management seems to be in a critical phase. The networking is also considered on a very wide level. There are various networking aspects which the company may use to provide the suitable solutions to the customers. For efficient working of the products, the Apple mainly provides the Software Distribution networking system. Under this system, the designing of the product can easily be done. This system is efficient for the development as well as for the future modification of the product. The most prominent tools which can use for the product designing are Apple remote desktop 3, Apple software update server (SUS), MAC OS X and many more (Financesonline Team, 2016). By using these networking controlling tools, the product designing and the modification can become possible. The positive aspects are clearly defined, but with this, there are some negative aspects too. The main issue is related to the maintenance of the technical framework. Both products designing and the modification requires the well qualified technical persons to handle the technical issues. Similarly, these technologies also require the continuous up-gradations, which need some investment. Due to this, sometimes it becomes difficult to maintain the product (Apple Inc., 2008). Problems of component activities and controlling quality In the designing and modification of the product, the controlling quality and the problems related to the component activities are considered as an important aspect. Components are considered as those parts which are used in the Android phones to manage the phone and also make the working of phone full-fledged. The component activities for the iPhone 5 mainly provide some of the unique aspects. Services are the unique aspect which helps in providing the more technical independent threads to the users who are using the iPhone 5. The component named as the content provider is helpful in managing the huge amount of data on the iPhone. The intent and the broadcast receiver is the component which is helpful in storing the suitable messages and managing them. To control all these aspects simultaneously is considered as the toughest job. The methods of controlling is quite different for the different phones because all of them possess a different Operating System (Kilpatrick, 2015). The common issues which are identified in the product while modifications in reference to the component controlling are the mechanism on which the component is working, the management of the broadcast receivers so that the product (i.e. IPhone 5) can easily manage the MP3, MP4 and various types of video players too. To control these component activities, the technical knowledge is the compulsion. Not only the technical knowledge, the core technical aspects related to the component activities are essential to define. The quality controlling is another aspect which is also to be defined while modifying the product. There are two aspects: if a complete product will be prepared in house, then there is no need for quality control, but if the product is built in different stages than there is a requirement for the quality check of the product. As it is clear in the paragraphs above that the iPhone 5 still need some improvements and the modifications. The common methods of controlling the quality are the sequential steps to check the product, identification of the common issues in the product and many other methods. The positive aspect of the quality control will be that it is helpful in providing the suitable end product to the customers. Whereas, the negative aspect of the quality control will be that, due to the modification of the product (i.e. IPhone 5), the company has to pay the extra cost which will lead to the heavy loss for the company. Project evaluation and Scheduling resources The evaluation of the project and the scheduling of the resources also plays an important role in the operational management. There are various techniques defined in the evaluation of the project. The most common of them are the formative method and Summative method of the evaluation. The formative method is helpful in deciding the future development and the summative evaluation will take place after the completion of the project to appraise the success of the current project. Both of this evaluation are helpful in defining the different phases of the project. The changes which occur during the modification of the product are also identified through these evaluations (Macs Team, 2014). The positive aspect of this evaluation will be that it may be helpful in evaluating the suitable modifications which will occur, but the negative aspect is that the evaluation related to the product is sometimes not sufficient for the modification of the product. The evaluation sometimes lacks in provi ding the product information. The Scheduling of resources is the most essential part of the operational management. In this, all the available resources are scheduled according to the requirement. The various resources are collected and then the major resources are arranged according to the requirement for the product modification. In the resource scheduling, mainly three steps are followed, which are named as the allocation, aggregation and the scheduling. The allocation is the process in which the different resources are allotted for the modification of the product. In the aggregation phase, the different resources are combined to provide the modification aspects and finally the scheduling is the step in which the resources are provided according to the requirement (IPMA, 2015). The positive aspect is that the sequential solution can be provided by the scheduling resources, but the negative aspect is that due to the scheduling, the time management is getting more complex. Impact of Performance Objectives The performance objectives are decided on the initial stage only and with the development of the project, these objectives should also be improved. The positive impact of the performance objectives can easily solve the issues and also helps in maintaining the suitable aspects related to the project and modification of the product. Bibliography Agarwal, A., 2012. New product development at Apple. New product development, 04 December. Apple Inc., 2008. Solutions for Systems Management, s.l.: Apple. Ascroft, J., 2013. Apple from the iPod to the iPad, s.l.: s.n. Financesonline Team, 2016. How iPhone Is Made: The Global Assembly Line. [Online] Available at: https://financesonline.com/hello-world-the-economics-of-iphone/ Francis, H., 2015. Four charts that explain why the iPhone is so important to Apple. iPhone is so important to Apple, 07 September. IPMA, 2015. Resource scheduling. [Online] Available at: https://knowledge.apm.org.uk/bok/resource-scheduling-0 Jones, B., 2012. Whats the significance of the iPhone 5. Significance of the iPhone 5, 18 September. Kilpatrick, G., 2015. Product Design, Product Manufacturing And Product Quality Control Issues. Product Design, Product Manufacturing And Product Quality Control Issues, pp. 1-9. Macs Team, 2014. Evaluation Techniques, s.l.: s.n. Sanadze, A., 2010. Scheduling Resources. [Online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/KKKKK1589/scheduling-resources