Once hailed as a bastion for good supply chain practice, Apple has now slipped in the ranks of companies offering superb services to the discipline.
The IT company was heralded as a beacon of good practices after its launch of the Apple iPhone 3G, which saw models sell out before they reached the shops.
Despite issues with customers' ability to register their phones however, the operation was nevertheless hailed success story.
The company was eventually criticised after an outage this week put the icing on the cake of some of the more minor problems that occurred during the original launch, caused mainly by Apple's decision to launch several projects on the same day in July.
In a leaked email from Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs, the director said that "it was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store".
"We all had more than enough to do…and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence."
The email, obtained by Macworld, unfortunately lowers the crown from Apple but serves as a vital lesson that no business is immune from problems.
If any business has plans to roll out a new product it would be wise to investigate the options regarding outsourcing the project to a supply chain management company.
Best Practice:
Is your supply chain following best practice? Check it out here.
