It has no carrier relationships or a supply chain or any other accoutrements of a modern handsetmaker.
So, what does this all mean when something goes wrong or there is a supply chain disruption?
But there are many links in a supply chain, and even a well-intentioned importer can't police them all.
Like UPS, Landstar System ( LSTR) is a supply chain, logistics and transportation expert for all sorts of commercial needs.
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Now a supply chain of myriad links runs all around the world, connecting designers, chipmakers, car-parts firms and assembly lines.
Such limited customisation encourages a build-to-order model, without the need for a supply chain drowned by a huge number of parts.
Tracking a supply chain and riding it of conflict minerals, however, is no small undertaking for companies that source these minerals.
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The ability to design, engineer and put in place a supply chain is no mean feat, even for a big company.
No longer does a supply chain consist of a simple process from factory to warehouse to delivery (if indeed it ever did).
Mark Shoemaker, Executive Program Manager for Cloud Computing, HP Software, predicts that IT will have to become much more like a supply chain.
Inditex is something of a supply chain marvel: clothes move from concept to design to the Zara stores in a matter of days.
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Rapt, another start-up, is perhaps the best example to show that optimising a supply chain can be as challenging as managing a financial portfolio.
But Hall says that auditing a supply chain for conflict minerals would only increase the price of a cell phone, for example, by a penny.
They do not treat IT as a business, one that has a supply chain of components used to create products to meet the needs of customers.
On July 20, 2009, Chu set up a call with Tony Langoria, a supply chain manager for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), to speak directly with Lee.
Even with existing technology, the amount of information that a supply chain can provide changes the way in which companies deal with both shipments and inventory.
Inventories are too high, giving management a supply chain opportunity.
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From the beginning, I had a keen mindset to build a supply chain from scratch that delivers on environmental factors, on social parameters, and on the whole corporate responsibility arena.
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That money has launched not just a supply chain of would be vendors but also new schools that will train many of the 1, 500 employees it needs to bring on.
By supplying algorithms to balance all the variables of a supply chain, such as product prices, stock levels and customer demand, they are following in the footsteps of i2, the market leader in supply-chain management.
Yet the employees who carry out the operations that make up much of a supply chain's individual components, such as driving trucks, overseeing warehouses or operating fork-lifts, are not always treated as though their jobs are important.
However, tackling the problem from a supply chain angle represents one of the best means of cutting off a very substantial source of income (tens of millions of dollars per year according to our estimates) from abusive armed groups.
More companies, he reckons, are starting to realise that if they can move goods through a supply chain faster and more efficiently, the effect on their performance can be profound, going well beyond being able to keep stocks low.
These were good years, during which Dell became the world's largest and most profitable computer-maker, with a supply chain that was easily the most efficient in the industry, if not the world, and a direct-sales model that seemed to keep Dell one step ahead of rival companies selling computers through old-fashioned stores.
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Let me tell you something -- if you can save a life on the battlefield, you can save a life in an ambulance. (Applause.) If you can oversee a convoy or millions of dollars of assets in Iraq, you can help manage a supply chain or balance its books here at home.
Not an altogether popular decision, but understanding that the ramifications of not doing that would have been probably a million jobs lost, a supply chain that disappeared, and if you look at where the auto industry is today, 55, 000 more people are employed by the auto industry today than when the President took office.
In either case, establishing full visibility and compliance built into a complex supply chain is a challenge for any business.
These so-called legacy applications constitute a seamless supply chain, a sophisticated customer experience, order management systems, accounts receivable systems, and so on.
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In addition to this, its consumer healthcare business saw substantial growth in the U.S driven by the sales of analgesics and upper respiratory products due to a reliable supply chain and a strong flu season.
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