Apple Inc. is perhaps the world's most trusted and loved technological devices maker. With such renowned products as MacBook, Apple watches, and the all popular iPhones, Apple has risen to establish itself as the world's leading force in gadget creation. Much of this success could be attributed to the universal design of its products. As a global company, Apple's strategy to have a universal look and features for its iPhones can be termed as a worldwide trademark. And to further improve its online services and functionality, popularly referred to as cloud services, Apple made a recent move of bringing together various teams who work on projects like iCloud, Siri, Apple Maps, Apple Play, Apple Music, and Apple News together into one campus. Improving these services targets the typical iPhone buyer who would like to have additional features on their phone. But this move arises mainly from the fact that iPhones are designed for periodic upgrades. Upgrades are done either through upgrading a specific iPhone series or through the production of another series. Either way, the point of these upgrades is improved functionality (Eunjeong, 2013).
As a global company, Apple has offices throughout the world that help in the distribution of the merchandise by acting as stores. As soon as a new series is produced, they are transported to these worldwide stores, from which point users can buy the new phone. By distributing through their stores, Apple makes sure that the new phones are delivered and made available to the users on time. This they do through periodically updating their selections on these stores. As a new series is released into the market, the old series are recycled for upgrading. This kind of service ensures that no stock goes to waste after not being purchased. It also saves on storage space on the part of the worldwide stores.
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An area that would need improvement, as earlier stated, is the cloud services. By relocating the involved personnel into one campus, the company is sure to strengthen its grip on the services that would otherwise be spread across various rented spaces in California. Apple's biggest concern has always been hardware technology. However, the company's effort to merge its multiple devices has done a great deal to extend the reach for its services. Therefore, proper attention is needed for the cloud services which can then be utilized by users across iOS, MacOS, and WatchOs. One way to effectively deal with this area of opportunity would be the adoption of the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) model. This model uses a metrics-driven approach to identifying opportunities for improvements, such as the software applications or cloud services to build on, and then measure the impact of improvement efforts. It is right to say that the CSI model not only allows for improvements, but it also adopts a strategy for testing the effect of such a development before it is permanently adapted, creating room for advanced enhancements to correctly answer to individual needs and expectations of the various software (Mesquida, Mas, Amengual, & Calvo-Manzano, 2012).
CSI allows for the identification of each service the critical success factors (CSFs) therein. This is critical since CSFs must be present for a service to succeed. CSI is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach which would be vital in answering such questions as the long-term objective, the current value of key performance indicators, the desired indicator values, and how to get there. The reason I believe Apple is making the right decision as far as the issue at hand is concerned is because the CSI model uses a 7-step process to guide how data is collected and used. This entails defining the objectives, determining what to measure, collecting the data, processing, analyzing the data, presenting and using the information, then implementing the improvement.
Apple has been on the higher end as far as competition is concerned in the mobile and computer industry. The main reason for this, no doubt is their universal production. This gives them the competitive advantage because by producing only one line of iPhones at a time, Apple can pull out the best technology it has conveniently due to the uniformity in production. Similarly, by implementing this solution strategy to improve its cloud services, Apple will be better placed by adopting a relatively cheaper approach that will go a long way in providing a solution to its merchandise. This single strategy can and will be utilized throughout its production. This is advantageous compared to rival mobile producers who would need a different CSI approach for individual lines of creations since the software in question varies from one gadget to the other.
Since this cloud services have a unique set of features that include intangibility, inseparability, perishability, and variability, it is essential that the process improvement technique adopted in this case conforms to these features. One of the methods applicable in this case would be Automate Process. This is because service processes are labor-intensive tasks; hence, the likelihood that variations would be induced in the processes during service delivery. One of the benefits of the technique is that it increases the productivity of service delivery processes while at the same time standardizing them. The other technique would be Reduce Failure Demand. This technique ensures that the demand caused by failure to install a particular program or software. This failure exists because the initial demand was not appropriately satisfied (Amaratunga, Baldry, & Sarshar, 2001). Concerning Apple's productions, ‘demand' is interpreted to mean upgrade expectations. By adopting this technique in the CSI, the company will be able to free up capacity for newer services.
References
Amaratunga, D., Baldry, D., & Sarshar, M. (2001). Process improvement through performance measurement: the balanced scorecard methodology. Work study , 50 (5), 179-189.
Eunjeong, C. (2013). How cloud computing is revolutionizing the future. SERI Quarterly , 6 (3), 104.
Mesquida, A. L., Mas, A., Amengual, E., & Calvo-Manzano, J. A. (2012). IT Service Management Process Improvement based on ISO/IEC 15504: A systematic review. Information and Software Technology , 54 (3), 239-247.
