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Over the past several years, the forecasting effort at Apple has taken on several different forms. In the days where our product lines were more limited, our markets more identifiable, and our selling and distribution methods more uniform, we could afford to rely on direct input from distributors and our own sales force. Our products lent themselves well to mass manufacturing, there was not a lot of variability in configuration, and the variance created by having language specific products was handled through buffer stock.
SHIFT IN MARKET DEMANDS
In the past three years, a dramatic shift has occurred in the way Apple is addressing the marketplace, and in the demands the market is placing on Apple. The key elements of change are:
1. Demand for more variability in configuration in terms of memory, sizes of hard disk drives, add on features, and option in the selection of printers and monitors.
2. Demand for products coming to market faster, and for Apple accepting a shorter life cycle for products.
3. Demand for wider availability of language specific products without increases in buffer inventory at the...