Apple and Dell Inventing New Models

When asked, Who does supply chain best the supply chain pioneers rated Apple and Dell as second and third in delivering snpply chain excellence. In the design of their snpply chains, there are many commonalities  

When you contrast Apple and Dell to Motorola, it is easy to see why supply chain matters. The differences are many. Apple and Dell had a focused supply chain vision at the corporate level and it was embedded in the company strategy. Motorola did not. Motorola made 

When we asked Dell founder, chairman, and CEO Michael Dell for his opinion, he replied, Our supply chain has always enabled onr bnsiness strategy—that is true of the early days of just-in-time mann-factnring (the backbone of our direct model) to today s segmented and tightly integrated value chain that delivers a much broader portfolio of Dell solutions.  

He continued, It has been fonndational for our success. For most of our company s history our direct business model—and the agile supply chain that drove it— were key differentiators for Dell. Constant feedback from our customers, partners, and snppliers gave us the insight that we needed to fine-tune our operations and deliver only the products and services that our customers wanted.  

The big lesson for us was that the role of supply chain management goes beyond operational excellence and cost efficiencies. 

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