Apple is one of lean manufacturing's greatest success stories. I mean lean in the original Taiichi Ohno sense: reducing waste during the manufacturing and fulfillment process.
In 1997, Apple had 437 million in inventory with 7 billion in revenue. By 2006, Apple had just 270 million in inventory - with 20 billion in revenue. Today, it's 1.2 billion in inventory on a staggering 108 billion in revenue. Since the instatement of Tim Cook as the top guy in Apple's operations department, Apple has become one of the most efficient consumer electronics manufacturers in world.
By comparison, HP currently has 7 billion (!) in inventory with 127 billion in revenue - that's nearly 5 times as much inventory per sales dollar than Apple. Sony has something like 8.6 billion in inventory on 89 billion in sales - almost 10 times worse than Apple.
In 1997, Apple had 437 million in inventory with 7 billion in revenue. By 2006, Apple had just 270 million in inventory - with 20 billion in revenue. Today, it's 1.2 billion in inventory on a staggering 108 billion in revenue. Since the instatement of Tim Cook as the top guy in Apple's operations department, Apple has become one of the most efficient consumer electronics manufacturers in world.
By comparison, HP currently has 7 billion (!) in inventory with 127 billion in revenue - that's nearly 5 times as much inventory per sales dollar than Apple. Sony has something like 8.6 billion in inventory on 89 billion in sales - almost 10 times worse than Apple.