Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has a reputation as a logistical genius.
Recent reports, for instance, have highlighted the fact that the company, of which he was Chief Operating Officer before he took over from the late Steve Jobs in August last year, turns over its inventory every five days. The only company in the report which does it faster is McDonalds – which is somewhat less able than Apple to keep products on the shelves. The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal comments:
A typical company in manufacturing might do 8 inventory turns [a year]. Samsung does 17. Dell, which practically invented hardcore electronics supply chain management, does 36. Apple is doing 74!
Which means that the fact that the company’s flagship new laptop isn’t stocked in any of its British stores, and has a month-long lead time for online orders from the UK, represents one or more of the following things:
- A minor snarl in the supply chain for the company’s most important product launch this year.
- An unexpectedly high level of demand for a computer which starts at £1800.
- A shafting of British customers to ensure American stores stay supplied.
The fact that the American online store is showing the same delay as the British suggests that it may be more the first two points; while the fact that Apple experienced the same problems with the launch of the new iPad suggests that even Tim Cook can’t run a company that keeps everything in stock throughout massive demand for new products.
But it certainly is true that the company has focused on the US to a certain extent. The Regent Street Apple store in London was the only one in Britain to be shipped any of the new MacBook Pros at all. It only received eight, which were supposed to be used as display units but were accidentally sold to members of the public. Someone got in a lot of trouble for that. You can run the best logistics operations in the world, but cock-ups still happen.
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