Apple has several manufacturing partners for iPhone parts. Until now, China had been the most important strategic partner for manufacturing and assembling the products. But Apple looks to India as a future promise, to diversify its production and continue to have a good performance in the manufacture, distribution and sale of the iPhone. And it is precisely there where he has run into problems.
The problem is in non-compliance with the quality standard
As reported by the MacRumors portal, “only 50% of iPhone cases made in India meet Apple quality standards” and “is facing problems expanding its production operations due to poor component yields and slow progress.” Specifically, the problem centers on a factory run by Tata, who is Apple’s current supplier in India. This is located in Hosur and only one of every two components meets the necessary requirements to be sent to the Foxconn assembly plant, which is, in turn, one of Apple’s most important strategic partners.
The problems with iPhone cases are not only aesthetically pleasing, but are against manufacturing and environmental impact targets, by having severe defects that can turn the casings in poor condition, directly, into electronic waste. And Apple takes both the duration of its products and its commitment to the environment very seriously, as far as the production of its equipment is concerned.
The picture is completely different in the factories of Apple’s current Chinese partners. Not only do they meet Apple’s requirements, but “suppliers and government officials have a ‘whatever it takes’ approachwith deliveries that are completed weeks ahead of schedule and ‘with an inexplicable speed’”, reports from MacRumors.
2017 was the year Apple started producing iPhone models in India, being the iPhone SE, the first of them (We are currently in the third generation). Even last year, they “significantly increased” production in India, making models of the iPhone 14. “There’s just no sense of urgency,” say former Apple engineers, referring to current production in India, as the The idea is to establish a long-term relationship, to expand the diversification of production in more countries.
“Tata is said to have ambitions to become a full-service Apple provider in the future and is in talks to take over a troubled iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka,” they explain from the portal. It is, therefore, a strategy for the future, in which Apple does not want to have a single partner for the manufacture and assembly of the iPhone. And after the COVID-19 problems that have occurred in China in recent months, where many Foxconnn workers have paid the consequencesand the concern of a conflict between China and Taiwan, have been the triggers to boost (even more) production in other countries.
