Apple Value Chain analysis

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: B, Monash University Melbourne, language: English, abstract: Value chain analysis goes a long way in the categorization of the value adding activities in an organization. This aspect is important with the fact that, firms now increasingly look towards the development of their Sustainable Competitive Advantage based on the value addition to the company's output at each level of the company (Kaplinsky & Morris, 2001). As the value chain, as explained later in this paper, encompasses the entire organization- classified as the inputs for the primary and secondary activities, the proper analysis of the same is very crucial to the overall development of the organization and its long term sustainability in this competitive world.
The analysis of the value chain of the Apple Inc. showed a very critical aspect in the manufacturing and production sector of the company. This is due to the fact that Apple Inc. does not have any manufacturing facilities to produce the hardware for its products. They, instead rely on the outsourcing of the manufacturing to Chinese corporations. This can be very detrimental to the company in the long run. Another aspect that could be improved is the Human resource aspect that makes a part of the support activity of the value chain.
Our recommendations would include to build manufacturing units to buffet the firm from external influences, to make changes in the technology aspect by making the operating system open sourced and to have more robust human resource policies to make it very employee friendly.