Apple
1.Supply Management Model
Apple gains a massive competitive advantage mainly due to its operational excellence. To abbreviate, it is Apple’s control over the whole supply chain, from designers to suppliers, from logistics to retail stores, that made Apple’s products popular and profitable. Apple’s designers work close to its suppliers and manufacturers, optimizing the old product lines to gain production competence at the very beginning. Apple then makes a great deal investments to suppliers and orders a high volume, so that it can earn stable production and low prices. By aligning with the suppliers, Apple not only gains high profit margin, but also handicap its competitors. As for the logistics, Apple also exerts control over carriers by making massive orders to gain lower cost. Electronic monitors and employees are used to account for every unit. Finally, at retail stores, Apple keeps tracking of the demand by day and adjusts its production accordingly.

2.Strengths and weakness, and potential risks
Apple’s strength of the supply management model is rooted in its close alignment with its business strategy. Its creative supply management functions as a drive to its innovation for a decade. The strong control Apple exerts over the supply chain brings it agility from design to retail stores. Meanwhile, Apple earns bargaining power with suppliers by volume. This advantage makes Apple competitive because with a lower price quote from suppliers, it could lower the price for its products, and therefore handicap competitors.
However, Apple is also faced with risks because it could not alway compete both on price and innovation. With the rise of Samsung and Lenovo, Apple is losing market shares. Based in Asia, the two companies are geographically more available cheaper labor cost, manufacturing cost and overall supply chain cost. In addition, since Samsung and