Apple's iPod comes in a package that notes it was "designed by Apple in California" but "assembled in China." We ordered an iPod on Monday and checked on the package's progress today. Here is where our peripatetic iPod has been this week, starting today and working backward:
Nov 30, 2005:
- 9:18 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
- 3:07 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN
Nov 29, 2005:
- 3:39 PM Departed FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK
- 11:30 AM Arrived at FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK
- 2:20 PM Left origin SHANGHAI CN
- 2:03 PM Picked up SHANGHAI CN Package received after FedEx cutoff
- 12:25 PM Package data transmitted to FedEx
The iPod's journey started on Monday at Apple's website, where we ordered it from Boston with engraving for delivery to a U.S. address in another state. We had to call customer service because the transaction hung ("this happens occasionally, and we don't know why," the Apple customer service representative told us). The finally completed order traveled over the wire to Shanghai where Apple's long-established procurement and manufacturing group took over. If all goes well, the designed-in-California, ordered-in-the-U.S., manufactured-in-China, documented-in-English, engraved-in-China, and delivered-by-FedEx iPod will reach its happy recipient in the next couple of days.
While many people think that translation and localization are all that's required for global businesses, this impressive supply chain operates internationally, coordinating a wide, deep array of procurement, manufacturing, logistics, taxation, and payment resources inside and outside Apple. Looked at another way, we could think of the iPod as a Chinese product localized for and successfully sold to the U.S. market. Either way, this is product, process, and commercial globalization that works well and pretty transparently.
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