"Perfect" on the line

From the time of Steve Jobs, perfectionism has been running through every detail of Apple's supply chain, with a glimpse of the company's stringent demand for products, but it is causing some trouble.

"The IPhone 5 requirement is that the scratch and dent standard for the aluminum frame and back cover is 0.02mm." "A Foxconn production line worker in Shenzhen, said on its microblog, according to such a request, it is difficult to produce products that meet the specifications, coupled with the rush, the workers daily psychological pressure is very large, and is therefore a few days ago in Zhengzhou plant shutdown incident."

It is understood that the human hair diameter of about 0.07mm, the equivalent of one-third of the concave standard of hair is actually difficult to identify with the naked eye, "but even so, because of the complexity of the iphone's OEM system, involving huge supply chain management and complex processing technology, Foxconn as Apple's main foundry, It has a strong advantage in matching with Apple and in cost. Zhu Jizhi, director of the core city of Science and Finance, said that in the short term, Foxconn's status is difficult to be challenged.

"Perfect" on the line

For the recent criticism of the Apple phone "off the paint Door incident", Zhu Jizhi told the reporter, the reason is because the shell is the use of aluminum alloy anode oxidation treatment, this treatment is easy to break color. But compared to the original iphone iphone, this approach can make the aluminum alloy hardening some, more corrosion-resistant.

Although there is no positive acknowledgement of the iphone 5 flaw, Apple is also making moves to reduce the paint situation, foreign media reported. During the national day, Foxconn adopted a more stringent product quality inspection system, and employees did not receive corresponding training.

In fact, the product training has always been, but the assembly line of things in fact, we can do, learn a few hours will be, may not be so concerned about training. "One of the production line workers who assembled the ipad told reporters that on Christmas Eve is the busiest time for every production line, even more so than tablets, mobile phones, and everyone has the impulse to have different tasks every day."

"29 seconds for a unit, workers have no time concept, the speed of the production line is adjusted according to the requirements of production." "Previously, some college student investigation team" undercover "into Foxconn, recorded as a line workers real life. A university student surveyed said that there would usually be a yellow line on the floor of the plant, which could not be exceeded during the operation.

In addition, the ipad production line workers told reporters, some known as "SQE" of quality inspectors will be stationed in the factory, at any time to solve the apple supply chain may be problems, and at any time to monitor the production yield.

Who can replace Foxconn?

There is a real example to add a new feature to the MacBook, and let the small green light at the top of the screen pass through the aluminum casing of the computer, Apple ordered hundreds of laser devices, each priced at $250,000, before it was basically "impossible" to get light through the metal.

Apple's demand for the production line is that even the things that are made by different manufacturers end up looking like a product made in a machine, or unqualified.

It does give Apple's foundry a big problem.

"The iphone has high quality requirements for assembly, such as the accuracy and consistency of the installation of the outer glass," he said. "Zhu Jizhi to reporters, and IC components, high requirements lead to a machine assembly of the yield problem." Machine assembly process, process and testing, from small batch prototype, batch trial production to bulk shipments, but also a gradual increase in the rate of the process. This process will last longer than a year to stabilize. This process creates a high manufacturing threshold.

This is why there are few new manufacturers in Apple's assembly plants. As a leading Foxconn leader, Mr Gou said: "Why did jobs give me the ipod and the iphone? Because only I can do it." ”