Abstract

Apple Inc, one of the most innovative companies in the world not only sells some of the most popular Gadgets of the century but also manages its inventory well. The company worked on new inventory management strategies which became a benchmark in the electronic industry. The benchmarks not only minimized inventory costs but also at the same time helped it smoothly sail through the big ticket product launches without giving scope to its competitors, to catch up. The case not only covers the inventory management techniques at Apple but also provide the basis for calculating the internal fund requirement of the company based on the projection on sales.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• To understand the Strategies implemented by the Apple Inc to effectively manage inventory.
• To understand the internal funding requirement with the projection of sales for the future periods.
• Apple drove the competitive advantages against its competitors after managing the working capital efficiently.

Keywords

Apple, Steve Jobs, Timothy Cook, Inventory management, Turnaround, Working capital , Day Sale Inventory (DSI), Day Sale Outstanding (DSO), Day Purchase Outstanding (DPO), Internal Fund Management, Product line Accumulated, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC), Internal Fund Requirement, Repurchase of Stock