Steve Jobs hired Tim Cook, a professional from SCM domain.
Cook reduced the number of Apple’s key suppliers from a hundred to 24, forced them to cut better deals to keep the business, convinced many to locate next to Apple’s plants, and closed tens of the company’s 19 warehouses.
By reducing the places where inventory could pile up, he reduced inventory.
Cut inventory from 2 months of product down to 1 by early 1998.
By September of that year, Cook had gotten it down to 6 days.
By the following September, it was down to an amazing 2 days worth.
In addition, he cut the production process for making an Apple computer from 4 months to 2.
All this not only saved money, it also allowed each new computer to have the very latest components available…
Excerpts from “Steve Jobs”… by Walter Issacsson