[Ting Technology Review] "Prudently can catch the cicadas of a thousand years, be careful to sail for a thousand years", the same is true for the brand's reputation accumulation in the market. Only by treating product design, quality control, etc. with caution can you gain a good reputation.
Samsung phones have suffered a cliff-like decline in the Chinese market due to battery design and quality control issues. Recently, Apple computers are also facing quality control issues. It is understood that due to the possible burning risk of the battery, Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. will recall some Apple laptops, MacBook Pro, starting from June 20, 2019.
In recent years, Apple laptops have experienced multiple recalls. The earlier recall of
occurred in 2011, when it was a recall of the power adapter of the MacBook because it was prone to cracking.
Apple notebooks were recalled in 2013 and 2018 due to battery problems. In 2013, there was also flash memory problem. In 2017, it was recalled due to paint loss.
In the view of Ding Technology, Apple laptop products have been recalled repeatedly in recent years, exposing the following two problems:
First, there are still insufficient supply chain control capabilities.
The reasons for Apple laptop recall in recent years are more about the details of battery and flash memory.
Ding Technology believes that problems in these aspects are inevitably related to Apple's introduction of more suppliers in the supply chain, and the suppliers themselves are uneven. It is understood that since Cook took over, Apple has introduced a dual supplier mechanism. The benefits of this are that it can dilute the high cost problems caused by a single supplier and avoid the risk of possible insufficient production capacity of a single supplier.
More suppliers will inevitably mean more manpower and material resources are needed to control it.
In addition, in the process of selecting suppliers, the foreshadowing may have been laid.
In the era of Jobs, Apple's strict requirements on suppliers were well-known in the industry, and many brands could not become Apple's suppliers. If we look at it this way, it is inevitable that there will be some compromises in the process of introducing more suppliers compared to before.
eventually leads to repeated product problems, or due to omissions in supplier selection mechanisms and processes, or the subsequent management is weak, which is inadequate control capabilities.
Secondly, product quality control capabilities still need to be further improved.
can be used as an example of this "keyboard door" event. Currently, Apple laptops are undergoing a "keyboard door" incident, and some users petition Apple to recall the butterfly keyboard product.
Since 2015, Apple has adopted a butterfly keyboard design, but as users use the new phone, they found that this keyboard has more faults than they imagined, and it is easy to have symptoms such as failure. Perhaps due to cost factors, Apple did not recall the product before, but announced free repairs to the problematic keyboard. It is hard to say whether there is a problem with the innovation in
design, but failure of reaction is usually related to quality. From this point of view, even the product innovations made by Apple seem to be paying for quality control issues.
Apple hardware once had a good reputation, but the repeated recalls in recent years may gradually consume this existing reputation. The lack of supply chain control and product quality control behind it will become a "acne" that restricts future development. Apple, it's time to wake up. (Original by Ding Technology, be sure to indicate the source of "Ding Technology" when reprinting)
