OMGirls Team List ^^

OMGirls Team List

Ada, Fong Wai Yan (SID: 53836394)
Angela, Hui Hei Yan (SID: 53564255)
Anna, D'Souza Anna Melitta (SID: 53554944)
Cherrie, Chan Ka Sin (SID: 53558617)
Kay, Leung Wing Ki (SID 53569392)
Kitty, Cheung Tsz Yan (SID: 53557215)

Apple Case Q1-4 :)

History background of Apple

The History of Apple, in 2 Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-yfW6uPKQ

Supply Chain of Apple

Story of an iPhone: Analytics in Supply Chain Decisions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbM_LydRlnM

1) Analyze the following areas of Apple.

1.1 Strategy

Apple has been very successful because of the strategy implanted in the company and the first one is division of labor at different location. Different departments are located at different region or even different countries. The Research & Development (R&D) department is located at the United State (US) and the design team is located at California where Apple is very proud of the design. Apple invests heavily in both R&D and design, therefore they are located in the US. For the assembly operation development, it is located in China because of the low wage payment. Secondly, compare with the traditional product lifecycle, the new product development cycle is short and close to one year. Apple has invest heavily in the R&D to make sure the products are innovative and attractive to the market.

1.2 Supplier

Apple owns a global supply chain as the company purchases from different suppliers in different countries to search for the best parts for making products. Though some think it is risky to do so, Apple works closely with suppliers and ensure the stable supply for manufacturing the products. The designers work with suppliers to develop new products and the engineers update manufacturing processes and technology to suppliers. Engineers also keep updating about demand forecast with suppliers for the production. To cope with the huge demand from the market, Apple sign exclusivity agreements with suppliers to secure steady supply of the key parts. The company will purchase production capacity from the suppliers in advance. It also pay for machinery for suppliers.

1.3 Distribution

Unlike other competitors, Apple used air-freight as a transportation option to ensure products for any holiday rush. Moreover, the iphone is shipped directly to consumers from its suppliers assembly plants in China which the transportation cost is lower. For the reverse logistics system, Apple can handle the product return from customer within 48 hours. Apple improved customer satisfaction, lowered the number of calls to its technical support services and eliminated the likelihood of customer error when processing a return.

1.4 Retail

Apple has three retail channels, including online Apple stores, own retail stores and third party resellers. For the physical Apple stores, they locate at high-traffic locations in quality shopping malls and urban shopping districts. Apple aims at providing high-quality buying experience for customers to make them come again in the future. Moreover, experienced and knowledgeable personnel are employed to offer good product advice, service and training. Customers can get plenty of information about the products and function. Therefore, their job title is not salesmen but technicians. There is Apple Premium Reseller Program. The products sales data is monitor by store by hour which helps to make adjustment for production forecasts.

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2) What differences set APPLE apart from its competitors?   

a. Innovation

Apple thinks differently when it comes to creating new products for the market and this factor is what makes them the market leader of smartphones today. They persist in doing what they plan to do and avoid what other companies are doing impact them. They aim at impacting other companies through their own creations and developments. For example, Apple developed its own unique iOS system for all the products and transferring R&D knowledge from Mac Computer to iPhone, iPad or iPod which is a closed ecosystem.

b. Service

Apple is known to provide one the best customer services that any other store, as their key players are people. They always put people first no matter what the crisis is. For example, at each Apple store, there is a Genius Bar, specifically to answer any questions or fix any problems concerning the Apple products one owns. Before a customer gets to the Genius Bar, there are several other technicians that would help the customer out with a super nice and friendly attitude. From the case, the reverse logistics system is another example bring excellent customer retail experience and satisfaction. Unlike the traditional method, customer can register online for the defects and there will be a box sent to the customer’s home to collect it for repair.

c. Management

Apple runs differently when compared to those of its competitors. The management layers of Apple are structured different, where they have one central executive committee that helps the company move forward while works closely towards the design products. There aren't many silos, meaning that all the decisions are made by a single executive committee, rather than have several different ones with different flow of information. For the external management, Apple works closely with the suppliers and they will cooperate with trust-worthy suppliers.

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3) What are the challenges that Apple faces in the future?

There are five main aspects of challenges that Apple is going to face, including technology, leadership, competition, economy and mass production challenge.

For the aspect of technology challenges, the IOS system need to be updated frequently in order to maintain the service quality. However, the new model launched this year is same as the previous one. Only the design of the system has been changed. Therefore, Apple needs high research and development investment to maintain the update of its IOS system.

For the leadership aspect, the transition of management from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook creates uncertainty to Apple. Some people may say that the products form Tim Cook may not be innovative enough to attract more users and gain higher market share.

       For the competition aspect, there are many competitors among this industry. For example, Samsung is the biggest competitor which sells similar products and innovation. However, the innovation of Apple seems declining now.

For the economy aspect, the sales sensitivity seems to down turn now. It is a big challenge for Apple to maintain its high level of economy.

For the mass production aspect, use of labor is a big problem. Apple uses sweatshop labor like Foxconn to drive down the cost. However, it adversely affects the image and branding of Apple since there are more and more scandal from this kind of factories now.

For the new production development aspect, Apple devotes attention to IP lawsuit. They put much effort on latest technology development. Therefore, Apple is able to keep developing new products and hence maintain its product quality. However, the application for paten of newly technology is not fast enough because there is high potential that other companies will steal ideas from Apples. High cost is needed on law suit.

For the procurement aspect, there is a concern increased in material availability issues and supplier management. Apple needs to put much effort on communicating with the suppliers and maintain a good relationship with them.

For the product assembly aspect, it is difficult to manage the subcontractors. There is a brand image on production issues. “The China factory” is more and more important than before. Apple internal decision in supply chain and production are much more determined by labor cost, land cost and purchasing power of China.

For the retail aspect, the difficulty in demand forecast is increased. The keen competition among digital gadgets market results in instability. At the same time, there is increasing retail competition among other brands such as Samsung and LG. In order to fulfil the customer expectation, Apple highly utilizes the 3PL and Express company. It leads to high cost pressure.

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4) As Jessica Group, what recommendations would you make to the company’s VP? Explain.

First, it can still invest in Apple which has good reputation. Since the after sales service is good, it retains lots of loyal customers. Therefore, it can maintain a stable sale.

Secondly, it can focus on the huge Chinese market which brings lots of advantages. The consuming ability of Chinese people increases due to the rapid economy development in China. It hence creates high market demand on the Apple’s products. Also, the transportation cost is much more lower in China where the factories are located.

Thirdly, Apple has better product quality control. Compare with the other competitors’ products, Apple’s products have higher quality and more unlikely to break down. Also, Apple has well research and development performance which is a first mover advantage.

Moreover, the IOS system of Apple is unique. Customers who originally use the IOS system are difficult to adopt other OS system. The friendly and simple design helps Apple to retain many loyal customers.

Finally, Apple has strong bargaining power. Although Apple is facing the refuse of reserving capacity may lead to unstable supply, it still have strong bargaining power because its demand of order is high and its investment in factory is attractive

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Reflection

Most likely, people believe that innovation is the reason of the success of Apple. Undoubtedly, innovation is an important factor but we should also consider the supply chain management is a significant reason of success. After reading this case, I am impressed by the supply chain management of Apple. The company work closely with the suppliers and they do extra miles to secure the steady supply to the huge market demand. Without the supply chain management, Apple cannot be so successful as it is today because the company cannot fulfill the market demand and may suffer a loss due to the dissatisfaction of the consumers. All in all, to be a successful multi-national enterprise should be innovative to attract consumer and to manage the supply chain.

Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbM_LydRlnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-yfW6uPKQ

5th Visit - L'hotel

About the L’hotel Group…

L’hotel Management Company Limited or L’hotel Group, a member of Chinachem Group, is a contemporary lifestyle hospitality group which comprises of the L’hotel and Lodgewood series. The L’hotel Group endeavors to redefine the notions of hospitality, comfort and style in Hong Kong with its affordably luxurious hotels and modern chic fun-filled boutique hotels cum serviced apartments. L’hotel accounts for four upscale hotels spread throughout Hong Kong. All of the hotels offer an unwavering level of modern Asian hospitality, house exceptional facilities including swimming pools and fitness centers and feature high quality restaurants and trendy bars for guests and visitors alike.

About L’Hotel Island South...

-> Have a look at the official introductory video first! <-

Located 15 minutes’ drive away from Causeway Bay shopping area with close proximity to Ocean Park and Aberdeen Marina Club, L’hotel Island South, Hong Kong’s first Geopark Hotel, brings guests to the quaint Southern District on Hong Kong Island, where the richness of nature serves as stunning backdrop to the Hotel’s contemporary ocean inspired interior design. This 432-room stylish hotel is a relaxing urban oasis, ideal for both business and leisure travelers to take a break from hectic schedules. The Hotel also has a restaurant, a bar lounge, 3 function rooms, an outdoor swimming pool and a gym.

Design concept

L’hotel Island South embraces an aqua theme from its natural surrounding environment. The ocean and seafood play a significant role in this part of Hong Kong Island with the area able to trace its roots back to its fishing town days and boasts the Jumbo Floating Restaurant as a renowned attraction. The Hotel’s exterior imitates water ripples with the water element continuing to trickle through to every aspect of design and décor throughout the premises. All the art pieces in the Hotel and rooms are environmental friendly and linked to nature, conveying a sense of the area and what it used to be. Team members are exquisitely outfitted in clothing exclusively designed by internationally renowned designer Dorian Ho.

-> The Art gallery

Awards in 2014-201

2015  Luxury Green Hotel Country Winner (Hong Kong) - World Luxury Hotel Awards

2015  Lis Café and Bar LIS: Quality Tourism Services Scheme – accredited restaurants - Hong Kong Tourism Board

2014  Manpower Developer Accredited Organization - Employees Retraining Board

2014  A “Caring Company” - The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

2014  “Partner Employer” Award Outstanding Corporation - The Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business

2014  Luxury Serviced Apartments Country Winner (Hong Kong) - World Luxury Hotel Awards

-> See more information from L’HOTEL ISLAND SOUTH FACTSHEET <-

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Our Visit to L'Hotel Island South...

Electronic Screen showing today's events @ Lobby



Guest eKiosk @ Lobby

Showcase of rocks to promote Eco-tour at HK @ Lobby

Front office @ Lobby

Info. corner about the HK Global Geopark of China @ Lobby



LIS Lounge @ Podium Level 5
LIS Lounge is the Hotel’s quiet space designed for intimate and exclusive gatherings for guests. Sit and enjoy a nice complimentary cup of coffee while browsing the internet at the computer stations or relax and read a book at the stunning 40 foot long redwood table from Cameroon.

Electric Car Charger, Carpark space, Hotel to airport limousine transfer service @ Podium Level 4

Bar LIS @ Podium Level 3

 LIS Café @ Podium Level 3

Art work: "Their Map Books" @ Podium Level 6 foyer

Gym @ Podium Level 6
Nestled under a 5 meter glass ceiling facing the outdoor pool is the Hotel’s gym for guests who want a good workout. Complete with a trainer, the gym boasts top-of-the-line equipment for a transformative session under natural surroundings.

Art work: "Butterflies" @ guest floor

Grand Aqua Suite
The crowning glory at L’hotel Island South is the Grand Aqua Suite nestled on its top floor, a stunning refuge for those who want a romantic getaway from the city or a relaxing weekend of indulgence.  Everything is catered to the soothing of guests’ heart, body and mind with living and dining areas separated from the comfortable bedding. This penthouse suite with the size of 81 sq.m. is a pure luxurious escape from reality, where nothing is too much - from your very own private Jacuzzi to the wooden inspired outdoor balcony overlooking the calm and peaceful Southern District.  

TV with customized label of "L'hotel" @ Grand Aqua Suite

Private balcony with stunning view @ Grand Aqua Suite

Environmental friendly card for guests @ All hotel rooms

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Questions & Answers

1. How many rooms can be made up on average per day? How long does it take to prepare a standard guest room on average?
Each room attendant is responsible for 14-18 rooms per day, usually 16. It takes around half an hour to prepare a standard guest room, however, it depends on the attendant’s experience and the room condition. It takes a longer time for preparing the check-out rooms while it takes a shorter time for preparing a room of over-night customers. The experienced room attendants will have well time management to finish preparing all rooms required in order to get off work on time ;D

2. How can L‘hotel differentiate itself from other hotels of similar positioning in terms of operations, service offerings and the number of headcounts?
The hotel targets customers who travel for leisure purpose. The hotel’s rooms are generally more spacious than those hotels in the hub of city. In terms of price, the hotel emphasizes “Affordable luxury” to customers, although it is a bit expensive, but it is affordable to most of the customers. Customers can enjoy luxury services and facilities at an affordable price.

3. Does the rapid growth of the hotel online booking platforms such as Agoda, Expedia pose challenges or opportunities to your hotel?  What would you do to deal with these challenges or opportunities?
The hotel treat these online booking platforms as partners. Although these platforms charge the hotel for commission fee, at the same time they will help introducing and recommending the hotel to the customers. However, the commission fee is relatively high which causes a challenge to the hotel. In addition, the hotel should have its own marketing strategy to design the percentage of relying on different selling channels, the percentage of relying online selling platforms should not be too high as there is a risk that the selling platforms collapse or become not popular to customers one day.

To deal with the above challenges, the hotel offers unique packages to customers who book directly from the hotel’s website. Moreover, the hotel provides higher flexibility to the customers as they may easily cancel or make special requirements of their room without any extra administration fee.

4. How do you position yourself since there are many hotels in Hong Kong?

The hotel focus on offering relax and leisure experiences to customers. Other than the spacious rooms provided, the location of the hotel makes customers able to enjoy a relatively slow pace of life in Hong Kong, compared to those hotels in downtown.

5. Are there any additional charges for the 24-hour medical assistance and baby-sitting service?

Some families choose to have the baby-sitting service as the parents have their own planned schedule and not convenience to bring their babies to go with. Therefore, the hotel offers baby-sitting services at a price of $80/ hour, and minimum charges for 4 hours. In terms of medical assistance, the hotel offers 24-hour medical assistance services, including calling ambulance in urgent cases for free, referral of nearby clinics for fee, and on-call doctor service to visit the customers directly which charges around $2000 for the doctor’s consultation fee.

6. How many cars and drivers are available to provide the hotel-airport limousine transfer service? Are they outsourced? If there are over-booked, what is your solution?

Many customers choose to take the shuttle bus provided by the hotel to the MTR’s airport express station then to the airport. Like other hotels in Hong Kong, the shuttle bus service is outsourced as it will be very expensive to operate by the hotel itself.

7. What would you do to maintain your business when facing the decreasing numbers of overnight staying tourists?

There is around 5% long staying customers in this season. The customers usually stay for a relatively short period of nights at the hotel (i.e. 2-3 nights). It is because they mainly joined tour group which offers different hotels in the trip or they would have tight schedule that will travel to Mainland or Macau right after visiting Hong Kong for a few days.

8. What technologies do you adopt to maintain the sustainability of the hotel?

The hotel uses LED light bulbs in rooms. There is a motion sensor at every room’s entrance to control the switch of some light bulbs. Moreover, it developed a mobile application to provide useful information to the customers instead of using printed materials.  Also, the room attendants will only change towels and linen base on cutomers’ request or base on conditions, so that it saves electricity and water used to wash these materials.

9. Why does L’hotel join the VIVVA membership scheme? How would L’hotel attract more people to join the membership?

Customers of the hotels who aged 18 or above, with valid credit card and email contact address can join the membership. The number of return customers has increased after launching the VIVVA membership scheme. It is because the hotel offers special discount and gift vouchers to members, members can also earn points (i.e. the VIVVA dollars) when they spend money at the hotel (earn 1 point when spending $1), and they can use the earned points to get rewards from the hotels under the L’hotel Group.

-> The VIVVA membership

10. How do you manage the front office staff schedule? Are there any potential problems / risks to hire part-time staff?

The Food and Beverage (F&B) department usually needs part-time staff as it responsible for various services like in-house dining, room services, banquet and event F&B services, the other departments like front office should have enough regular staff to handle the hotel’s normal operations. The hotel hire pat-time staff base on actual needs, it calculates the number of part-time staff needed using ratios. And there is a system to manage the part-time staff recording their work time, a monthly report will be generated from the system to keep track on the revenue and labor cost ratio. The potential risks includes the hotel may sometimes cannot hire enough labor, and the hotel may face the sudden absence cases of the part-time staff.

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!! Reflection !!

L’hotel Island south is very impressive to us! From the first step we entered the hotel, we can smell nice perfume and see many art works. These give us a relax feeling with visible enjoyment. One special thing about the hotel is the promotion of Eco-tour in Hong Kong, which is quite different from other hotels. This hotel provides comprehensive accommodation, food, entertainment and Eco-tour services to customers. Moreover, their facilities are also attractive, for example there is a gym officer in the gym room to provide gymnastic advice for customers. We  really enjoy this visit! Hope we can have more chances to visit other hotels and learn their operations in the future!

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Reference

http://www.lhotelgroup.com/GroupSite/About-LHotel/Our-Brands

http://www.lhotelgroup.com/GroupSite/About-LHotel/Awards-Recognitions

http://www.lhotelgroup.com/hotel/lhotel-island-south/About-Us/Design-Concept

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRhPpg76jJ8

4th Visit - Kerry Logistics

About Kerry Logistics…

Watch this video first!>>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WawcGha47QM

Company Background

Kerry Logistics, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a leading third party logistics company in Hong Kong. It owns 43m sq. ft. logistics facilities and hires more than 20,000 employees. It has extensive global network in 40 countries and territories, the graph below shows its network,

Besides, Kerry Logistics is an asset-based company, which means it owns its logistics center, container terminal, port terminal, etc. The benefits of owning its assets are more reliable and flexible, which can support the continue development of Kerry Logistics.

Services

The core business of Kerry Logistics includes integrated logistics, international freight forwarding and supply chain solutions.

Kerry Logistics is serving over 40 of the World’s Top 100 Brands, including fashion & lifestyle, electronics & technology, food & beverage, FMCG, to industrial & material science, automotive, and pharmaceutical & healthcare. It offers tailor-made supply chain solutions with value-added services to its customers

Value-Added Service

Different from other logistics companies, Kerry Logistics provides wide range of Value-Added Services (VAS) based on customers’ requirements. One of the example of VAS is postponement, which help its clients to replace some components into different standard in order to suit the standard of different countries and territories. For example, electronic devices such as cell phone, the socket and the instruction manual are in the standard of manufacturing country; however, when it enters into other market, the socket and the instruction manual should be in the standard of the entering country. Kerry Logistics helps to carry out this replacement in its warehouses.

The Visit

When we first entered the company, we are attracted by its interior design. The design of whole building is used the two symbolic colors of Kerry Logistics, that is orange and grey, which coherence with the image of company and provide professional feeling.

We first listened to the presentation by the speaker, he introduced the company, its core business, the special services and what make Kerry Logistics stand out from other logistics companies. The presentation was well-structure and rich in content that can deeper our understanding towards the company and logistics industry. After the presentation, it was the Q&A session. Apart from the questions we planned in class, students were active to raise additional questions. The speaker is so knowledgeable that he answered our queries with detailed explanation.

 Then, Kerry Logistics has organized a guided tour in its warehouse for us. The warehouse we visited was mainly for GAP to store its products. We separated into two groups to walk through the warehouse with a staff, who introduced the daily operations and the function of each item to us. We started from the inbound area to the storage area and finally to the outbound area, the staff explained everything very detail.

Q&A

1. As you using Asia as company headquarter, what is your comment on the Asian Transportation market? For example, the development of e-commerce in China (Taboo)?

Answer: Kerry Express is handling 2000 shipment per day for delivery B to C products. Kerry Express is the top company in the market in Taiwan and the first few company in Thailand and Vietnam. However, when comparing with DHL, UPS and FedEx such leading express companies in the market, it is no doubt that they are doing better than Kerry in the field of express. Now, Kerry is developing its express platform and building up the express capacity. However, it is very competitive since the price of using mainland express companies is very cheap.

2. Since your company is expert in warehousing management, how would you provide the premier value added services to the customer, like the services provided (labelling), as well as technologies used?

Answer: Kerry Logistics offers a wide range of value-added services (VAS) to its customers, those services can help the customers’ companies to sell its products. According to the needs of customers, Kerry will provide the suitable VAS for them. Example of VAS is the food label; Kerry helps company to replace the original food label by sticking Hong Kong standard food label.

3. What has Kerry logistics done to overcome the challenges of ever-increasing labor and fuel costs?

Answer: Fuel cost is not a concern as it is relative cheap now. For the increasing labor cost, Kerry decided to increase the productivity of labor instead of hiring more employees. It developed and provided some tools and technologies in order to smoother the operation flow and increase the productivity.

4. What kind of especial-care products still not included in logistics service currently?

Answer: There is one type of product which cannot be handled because of law is the Class 1 dangerous goods which is the explosive goods. And Kerry do not want to handle this kind of product as it is dangerous.

5. What is your core business in the future?

Answer: Vertically, Kerry wants to develop more on the drug and pharmacy industry because the demand for drug is increasing. Horizontally, Kerry plans to expand its business into express market, and it is now building up the express capability.

6. How do you determine the location of office in order to achieve an efficient network?

Answer: For better managing the operation, office is located near to the operation department.

7. perspectives would you consider when you offer tailor-made supply chain solutions for your customers?

Answer: Kerry Logistics provides integrated logistics service which is all tailor-made for customers. There are three things needed to consider when providing tailor-made solutions. The first thing with mist important is customers’ needs, Kerry designs the solutions based on the requirements of customers. The second one is the price; customers trust Kerry Logistics can help them to minimize the cost with providing professional services. And the last one is the service and system, which needed to be inter-connected and reacted very fast, if not, it is impossible to run the supply chain solution.

8. How do you allocate inventories to different warehouses?

Answer: The decision of placing inventories in which warehouse is made by customers, not the company. Kerry Logistics concerns on providing quality of services to its customers, so it makes the effort to satisfy customers’ needs and requests.

9. There are lots of cargoes movements in warehouses every day. How would you ensure they can be delivered on time? How do you plan the delivery schedules?

Answer: There are an Electronic Proof of Deliver (POD) in phone and GPS in the truck, these technologies can allow Kerry to know the exact location of the good. If there are some urgent situations, such as traffic jam or accident, that make the goods cannot be delivered on time, Kerry can ask others cars to help. In addition, the tracking system helps Kerry to calculate the approximate time for delivery. If the delivery is behind schedule, customers can know the updated delivery time.

10. What are your competitive advantages over your competitors in transportation market, such as DHL, FedEx, S.F. Express?

Answer: The other logistics companies in the market, such as DHL, FedEx and S.F. Express, are integrator, which focused on the express market. Comparing with Kerry Logistics, they only provide a few or no value-added services to customers.

Actually, they are not the direct competitors to Kerry since their core businesses are different. However, they are trying to offer more value-added service to their customers, and Kerry is developing its express service, it is believed that they will become competitors in the future.

Reflection:
Kerry Logistics has prepared a wonderful visit for us. It introduced information of Kerry Logistics and organized a guided tour in its warehouse. It showed the daily operation of the company and how to manage a warehouse in a more efficient way. We are surprised that Kerry Logistics offers a wide range value-added services and tailor-made the supply chain solutions for its customers. Facing increasing number of competitors in Hong Kong and from mainland China, Kerry Logistics still keeping its leading position because its customized services and its quality. We hope that Kerry Logistics can successfully expand into express market in the future.

Reference:
http://www.kerrylogistics.com/eng/OUR_COMPANY/About_Us/About%20Us.jsp
http://www.kerrylogistics.com/eng/OUR_NETWORK/index.jsp
http://www.kerrylogistics.com/eng/OUR_EXPERTISE/IndustrySolutions/industrysolutions.jsp