Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Apple - Coggle Diagram
Apple
Spacial organisation
main products designed in USA. Apple employs 90,000 people in all 50 states. 6,000 people in Texas for MacPro assembly
Made in mainland China, in Foxconn, Taiwan-based company. Apple outsources Foxconn - nearly 1 mln workers
Sold globally, logistics hub in Ireland which organised shipment of assembled phones/ iPads around the world
Apple own 510 retail stores, half in US, 120 in Europe, 40 in china
Production process
-
Efficient production system, makes most of spacial organisation
different components shipped directly from their various original sources to assembly complexes in China (JIT). - reduces stockpiling and having just one location in California as number of warehouses. - reduces costs and generates higher profitability
Social, economic, environmental impacts
+VE
Apple's European HQ - based in Cork : only fully Apple owned manufacturing facility in the world - encouraged to work in Ireland (1980) because of its time of high unemployment
-
-
Many of the high-skilled workers are foreign nationals (mainly from the EU), so apple was critisised for not creating sufficient work for locals. However, helped Cork to become a more vibrant cosmopolitan city. 60% of workers are Irish
Environmental - created 'Green my Apple' campaign where it uses 100% renewable energy in its facilities in the US - established their own energy company
Removed all PVC plastics + toxic chemicals from its product + promotes recycling products, though lack of 'repairability' still an issue
-VE
Apple uses subsidiary firms to declare profits and pay lower tax rates. US and EU claimed that Apple has received favorable tax treatment from Irish government . EU concluded that apple received illegal state aid and ordered them to pay 10 year's worth of unpaid tax (13 bln euro)
Foxconn
Working conditions are poor. Work in high-security factory complexes - living on site. Most young immigrants work from other parts of China. work for 62h a week, $300 a month (half for living expenses)
Child labour - 2017, student interns had been found working for excessive hours against its own policies. in 2018, Quanta computers were found employing high school students as interns. Factories in China are able to employ under 18's as interns or trainees. But Apple doesn't allow because commitment to social responsibility. - Apple demanded only 10% of factory workers could be student interns
-
-
+ve's:
TNC’s developed and shared ideas (“flows of information and technology” being one of the dimensions of globalisation) on innovative designs e.g. in the Smartphone market going from phones with no screens to fully touchscreen devices. Only possible by the development of the computer and technologies from different companies to collaborate and inspire each other (or more cynically to compete with each other) to develop more efficient and advanced technologies.
-ve's
By companies like Apple working alongside governments like Ireland’s government, there may be some illegal activity (such as with the Ireland’s government giving illegal state aid to Apple in order to help Ireland’s unemployment problem). Systems need to be in place to accommodate large TNC’s which manufacture most of their products in China but derive most of its profits from ‘intellectual property’, marketing, branding which can be funneled through subsidiaries