Logistics gateway to Europe

Résumé du document

The project for a logistics gateway to Europe is about to set up a physical distribution system into the European market. The distribution system has to be developed for a non-European company with a new or existing product in a European market. Therefore we had to chose a couple of European countries to export to. For this project the feasibility was not important but the countries chosen must be realistic from a marketing perspective. This report contains a physical distribution chain, consisting of different pre-steps and the final distribution chain. First we began with a clear founded choice of company. We chose Apple for our company to work with, because they are eagerly awaited on the European market. After explaining the choice of the company we explain why the IPhone is such a unique product. Then we will refocus on Apple, naming the vision, mission and strategy of the company, which has of course an important impact on all our decisions. After that we explain the places of manufacturing and distribution of the IPhone parts and the time lines of the transportation from Asia to Europe. The following steps were an estimation of sales and the stock levels in the warehouses, global alliances and partner opportunities, global network and the distribution of the IPhone. Then we explain our distribution strategy, rounding it off with a physical map, where you can see exactly what will be transported.

Extraits

[...] For the IPhone there are no political or legal threats which make it easy to enter the market. UK Ofcom was established as a body corporate by the Office of Communications Act 2002. Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services. Ofcom's statutory duties, as set down in the Communications Act 2003, and the regulatory principles it will seek to follow in fulfilling those duties. [...]

[...] Contribution of Belgian companies in this area is very high. It accounts for around 64% of the investment in research and development. Belgium also has more inhabitants that are active in this area that the European average. It has 929 scientific publications per million inhabitants a year. Another important factor is the continuing growth of the ICT secotr. The proportion accounted for by the ICT sector in the Belgian economy grew from in 1995 to in 2004. During this period, the sector accounted for of the increase in GDP and currently provides 20% of the total R&D. [...]

[...] The supplier's components are distributed to China where the manufacturing site of Foxconn is located. In Europe, Foxconn production operations are located in Ireland. This is where the final assembly for sale of the IPhone takes place. Apple has several components suppliers for the IPhone from different parts of the world. These are: Sanyo Epson, Sharp, TMD Samsung Balda Cambridge Silicon Radio TSMC, UMC Infineon Technology Marvell Broadcom Micron Intel, SST National Semi, Novatek Catcher, Foxconn Tech Largan Precision Altus-Tech, Primax, Lite On Delta Electronics TXC Cyntec Cheng Uei, Entery It is in Ireland where the chips are planted onto printed circuit boards supplied by Taiwan's Unimicron Technology Corp. [...]

[...] Comment: Currently Apple distributes all of its products in Europe from the Netherlands warehouse so it seems that it will not be cost efficient for the company to use warehouses in other countries due to their close proximity to each other. IPhone in Belgium In Belgium, Apple Inc will introduce the I-phone through a partnership with the mobile provider Proximus. Proximus has a market share of and is Belgium's leading mobile provider. It is owned by completely by Belgacom. In Belgium, mobile phones can be bought from the operators directly, in some general electronics store (i.e. Media Markt) and over the internet. The population of Belgium is 10,400,000 so based on U.S. [...]

[...] They are very marketing oriented, they are not telling you about their technological innovations but why their product is going to make your life better. Their core competence is that they react quickly on changes in the market, they are always aware of what's going on. Apple's latest product the IPhone, is a Macintosh computer, an iPod and a mobile phone in one. They basically bundled their best products and added a new feature, a mobile phone. With this new feature apple is expanding their product range, according to Ansoff's product/market growth matrix, Apple attempts to grow with product development (new product, existing market). [...]