Here's a random thought about production...

Stevenbekah

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Apple iPhones
77.32 million were sold in the 1st quarter of 2018

I remember, waaaaay back when, I used to stock shelves at Acme Supermarkets near Philly. Helped pay for school but the 3rd shift obviously was tough on sleep

Anyway, I remember specifically having a conversation one night with a fellow buddy/coworker about how just about every night, we'd have to order, then stock, 2-3 cases of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup... At 48 cans a case!!

We'd joke about where they'd get all the chickens from and how many supermarkets there are and how can any company produce so much stuff!!

Obviously producing an iPhone is exponentially more involved then a can of chicken soup, not withstanding supply chain, vendors, etc!!

Apple produced 859,111 iPhones everyday... Every 24 hour day!

That's 35,796 every hour, 24 hours a day

I like some of their products, however, my whole family is on Galaxy phones... Please don't make this thread about whether or not you like Apple

I'm trying to think if the world as a whole, makes as much as anything so complicated?

Sent from that shiny thing in my hands
 

CV355

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It all starts with demand. Demand drives volume. Volume gets broken down into labor time (hours, shifts, days, weeks) and defines a required cycle time at a normal operating efficiency. Unit price has manufacturing costs (Capital, tooling, labor) rolled in outside profit margins. That budget along with volume determines how the product is manufactured- fancy automated systems or a lot of hands, or both.

When I was younger, I couldn't fathom the idea of so many people touching everything we use every day. The longer I'm in the industry, the more interesting it gets. Almost everything you interact with has been handled more times than you can imagine- just to get to you.

THEN you get to see the ugly side of manufacturing and wonder how in the hell anything works. Ever. Like, how do our cars not fall apart rolling down the road when many of the people who built it shouldn't be trusted with a warm stick of butter, or be anywhere near a clean window. Why do I need to put $10,000 worth of safety devices over a friggin' hand-operated arbor press? Why is everything more expensive because of morons?

The official word for this is "Sonder"
The word I use is "Iwantoffthisride"
 

ON D BIT

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If you produce a million of anything, there will be mistakes. Mistakes in production, mistakes in supply, mistakes in components. Let alone 75 million.

Apple does a great job, as I have not seen huge recalls and such like a number galaxy phones. My one galaxy the microphone did not work. My complaint was not that it did not, it was that Samsung did nothing to fix it.

Apple phones in my hands work better, ie. more crisp clear sharp phone calls, and better data. Many comments on how I sound like I’m speaking from a land line. Amazing when you think of the millions they produce.
 

derklug

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If you really want to boggle your mind, think about the logistics of getting everything a normal American uses in a day to him. Millions of gallons of water, millions of gallons of gasoline,waste removal, soap, deoderant, food, internet capacity, transportation, etc. etc. How we do not bury ourselves is beyond comprehension.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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just because they were sold in the first quarter doesnt mean they were produced then, just something to keep in mind. When they launch something they'll be building inventory for quite a while leading up to the launch date.

I mean, its still crazy to think how fast things are produced, especially for high tech/complex things. The other side of that being Foxcon factory dorms where they have to encourage employees not to kill themselves
 

Black2010

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Apple does a great job, as I have not seen huge recalls and such like a number galaxy phones. My one galaxy the microphone did not work. My complaint was not that it did not, it was that Samsung did nothing to fix it.


That seems stupid odd unless it broke outside of warranty or you modified the phone or software thus assuming all risk and liability. A phone that the microphone doesn't work would be real easy to prove it to be defective. I have a feeling their's a bit of a longer story behind this...

Anyways, back to the OP. That is crazy when you put it in those terms. The other thing that is crazy as well is how much they (phones in general) sell for with that kind of volume. Production volumes of that nature should lead to some pretty significant cost savings in mfg. One thing that I'm sure does help is things are often built in stages. One MFG builds x assembly, another MFG builds y assembly and another Z assembly. Then one factory takes those 3 sub assemblies and does final assembly. That speeds things up a lot.
 

Double"O"

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Damn...that pretty impressive
Kinda like how a new f150 rolls off the line every few mins
 

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