Shipping in Winter Months

Depending on where you live geographically, you may or may not have to deal with the harsh possibilities that winter brings. Now whether you live in Florida, or Iowa, you are impacted by the winter months in ways many don't immediately recognize. This is because of the major problem that winter causes a business when it comes to shipping their goods, either to a customer or a store. This could impact you as a customer because the product you are buying while Christmas shopping online may not get to you as soon as you'd like, or the store may not get the truck they were relying on for product.

It is estimated that the winter months each year the weather alone costs companies the likes of 3 billion dollars. This is because of all the impacts that the harshness of winter brings. Freezing product is something that companies have to worry about, whether they take care of their shipping, or use a company like FedEx or UPS. Among freezing product, winter weather can also cause companies to lose product in crashes, pay for truck damages, increased shipping costs, and more.

So how do companies deal with this problem?

Companies need to be able to track their product. So they need to make sure that they have a good ERP system in place so they know what truck has what product on it if something get's damaged. They also have to plan ahead of time when they will ship out their loads. If they are going to ship something they need to allow more time for the driver to make it there. With the winter months this also means stretching out your workers because of the hours it could take traveling to a destination. With DOT regulations strict for drivers. It is important to make sure they allow enough time in case a driver gets held up.

Companies also have to spend thousands on their eequipment The maintenance prices skyrocket during the winter because of the beatings that their trucks take. If a trucking company is to rely on their truck, they need to make sure that the truck gets all of their daily pre- and post trip inspections.

For more information about winter weather affecting the shipment of products, check out this article

Thanks for Reading!

Andrew

Apple:The Major Markup

Picture Courtesy Apple

People today almost always have smartphones, and a large majority of people with smartphones have Apple iPhones. Apple recently came out with the iPhone 6, coming in at a suggested retail price of $649. Of course, most people don't pay the full $649 here in the United States because of carrier plans and more, but there are places and people who pay $649 per iPhone.

So how much does the iPhone 6 cost?

$200.10

The standard 16GB iPhone 6 costs Apple about$200.10 according to multiple sites such as CNN, Forbes, Time Magazine, and more. So think about that, people are paying in some cases a 324% markup to Apple, when they're buying the iPhone 6. The most expensive part that you're paying for is the touchscreen at $45. Talk about great margins...

Here is the link that CNN Money posted around release time about their exact costs.

How does Apple do this?

Supply Chain and Logistics

While Apple is highly known for their technology (and for obvious reasons) most people don't see the thing they arguably do best, managing their Supply Chain. They are able to have better than average operations while having margins on their product like the iPhone 6 we talked about earlier. They purchase items from all over the world, and are able to find the cheapest products they can while maintaining quality. According to this article, Apple makes sure that all of their suppliers will agree to meet their production standards. Buying in bulk is one method that any company can use to lower prices, as long as their supplier has the manufacturing output necessary. 

One of the things that Apple also saves money on is their manufacturing/sourcing locations. This could be an ethics topic, but the main focus point here is that the vast majority of their supplier locations are outside the US. If you're interested in seeing more of the manufacturing locations this website has some interesting data. 

I hope this was able to give you some insight as to how important Supply Chain and Purchasing is for all companies.

Thanks for reading!

Andrew