iPhone manufacturing costs revealed?

Recent Foxconn revelations hint at higher costs than previous estimates that are still staggeringly low by Western standards.

An unprecedented peek behind the curtain of Foxconn's factories in China may have revealed new hints to how much it actually costs to make each iPhone.

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How the magic payroll button really works

It’s time for a little trumpet blowing and foot stomping by payroll professionals. Alarmingly, there are still so many managers and business leaders who think we have a magic payroll button that takes little to no skill to press. For some, the belief is that anyone with half an ounce upstairs could run a payroll! When something goes wrong, the question is raised “Why is it so hard!?”

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The way we use computers now looks very antiquated compared with a new interactive see-through OLED display from Microsoft Applied Sciences.

Jinha Lee, an MIT Media Lab Ph.D. student and a research intern at Microsoft.

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What's next for ERP? Tear down the walls

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Few systems are more efficient at managing internal data than enterprise resource planning (ERP), but business today happens between companies, and when it comes to managing external information and relationships, ERP falls short. To fill this gap, many organizations are turning to open, hosted platforms that can be more easily accessed and shared.

If you have ERP in place, you've heard about the cloud connection. There's cloud-based ERP, cloud add-ons, widgets and processes where you can take your existing structure, migrate it to the cloud and live happily ever after. And the reason to migrate is becoming increasingly compelling. Constellation Research concludes that moving to a third-party provider could free up cash to install SaaS products that add new juice to the legacy system.

But where do you start? A recent CIO study identified a few areas where the cloud can help an ERP platform break out of its shell. These areas leverage a network-centric model to connect multiple business partners and automate shared businesses processes, especially purchasing and financial transactions across multiple systems. And enterprises of all sizes are using them across functions to streamline processes and accessibility for a variety of initiatives, including ERP. Here's how:

Spend management. ERP systems allow a company to issue purchase requests, route approvals and generate orders. But they stop at the end of the enterprise with the generation of an approved order that must be routed through various channels that are disconnected, and often only semi-automated -- from fax and email to proprietary and costly EDI networks and point-to-point portals.

In cloud computing, services and technologies are delivered over the Internet in real time. The supporting infrastructure is separate from the customer's IT environment. The customer sends the data it needs to share with partners to the cloud, where partners can access and respond to this data. When cloud-based supply chain management applications are integrated with ERP systems, buyers and sellers benefit from a robust network that enables more efficient trading relationships and collaboration across a shared community, regardless of which back-end systems a party uses.

Financials applications. ERP systems excel at managing financial transactions within the organization. But processing an invoice involves collaboration between buyers and sellers. Cloud-based financial solutions can support this multi-enterprise connectivity and collaboration, and allow companies to better manage the electronic settlement process, such as enabling suppliers to convert paper-based purchase orders and invoices into electronic ones, delivering detailed remittance with electronic payment, and enabling dynamic or sliding-scale early payment discounts.

 

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iPhone manufacturing costs revealed?

An unprecedented peek behind the curtain of Foxconn's factories in China may have revealed new hints to how much it actually costs to make each iPhone.

ABC's "Nightline" was recently given access to the factory floor, and the resulting reporting has provided some new insights into exactly how iPhones are built, a part of the gadget's gestation process that's typically been a very closely guarded trade secret.

Horace Dediu, blogger, analyst, and former business development manager for Nokia, tried to parse some of the clues and came to some interesting conclusions.

Dediu took two key revelations from the "Nightline" report--that each iPhone takes 24 hours to be built, including 6 to 8 hours of software and component "burn-in" and testing, and that workers on the line make $1.78 an hour.

He then ran that information through some calculations to come up with a new cost range for the labor it takes to make each iPhone, and found the following.

Those costs are likely to range between $12.5 and $30 per unit.

Labor costs are still a small part of the overall cost structure at between 2 percent and 5 percent of sales price.

The high level (141 steps) of human interaction in the process could be automated. However, the fact that it isn't implies that the cost of automation would be higher and the flexibility of the automated process would be lower.

Dediu adds that these manufacturing costs are likely much higher than competing devices--perhaps as much as 300 percent--due to the intensity of the design and quality testing. They're also higher than previous estimates of iPhone assembly costs, which have been pegged as low as $8 per unit.

For a little added perspective, even if the labor costs per phone are on the high side of the range at $30, twice that amount per unit is likely allocated to transportation and warranty expenses.

In other words, when you spend hundreds on an iPhone, it's possible that more of those dollars are going toward a promise on paper you probably won't use (the warranty) than to the people who actually put the thing together.

 

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How the magic payroll button really works

It’s time for a little trumpet blowing and foot stomping by payroll professionals. Alarmingly, there are still so many managers and business leaders who think we have a magic payroll button that takes little to no skill to press. For some, the belief is that anyone with half an ounce upstairs could run a payroll! When something goes wrong, the question is raised “Why is it so hard!?”

Sadly, it’s often the managers of the payroll team with this flawed perception. They might serve their team and themselves well to spend a little time getting a new perspective on what I honestly believe is one of the most committed work groups in a company. What other department stays as long as it takes through hell and high water to process an EFT file, again and again, without thanks.

Let’s take a look at the diversity of knowledge a payroll professional is actually required to have… and how we get that seemingly magic button to work…

Service Excellence

We are expected to be consummate customer service representatives, with superior conflict management skills; responding to technical questions on the spot; remaining calm in the face of irate employees, who sometimes hit you with a tirade of swearing. We must be mind readers; hide our anger as we are treated as lower class citizens by people who think that God created us unequal; hide our laughter at the ridiculous requests; and empathise with the employee who needs their money yesterday because they can’t feed their kids or put petrol in the car to get to work. We solve problems day in and out and its’ when we can’t, or don’t, that others in the organisation begin to hear about it.

Business Relationships

Payroll professionals liaise with employees, managers, the finance team, the human resources team, solicitors, workers compensation insurers, auditors, the Child Support Agency, medical funds, unions, employer associations, banks and finance companies, social security, superannuation funds and the taxation office. These people and organisations make demands upon us and expect the same service excellence that our employees expect from us. It doesn’t matter if we have a Service Level Agreement stating when we will respond to requests, because most of these relationships are bound by law and so are the timeframes in which we have to jump.

Time Constraints

Payroll professionals actually performing the payroll process are under constant stress during the time between the receipt of the input data, to the time the funds are transferred to the bank. If we are lucky enough to have all the data provided correctly and on time, its a fairly calm payroll day, but that is not a standard practice in the world of payroll. There’s usually a pretty tight timeframe, a whole list of queries awaiting resolution by people who won’t return phone calls and emails. Achieving a zero error rate demands a great deal of validation and questions.

Policies & Procedures

Apart from having to know the company policies & procedures intimately, there is usually a fair amount of time spent by pro-active Payroll Managers referencing policies or documenting and updating payroll procedures as innovations are implemented and best practices are discovered.

Employee/Industrial Relations

We have to be constantly mindful of the consequences of our actions on employee relations and foresee human resource management issues that may emerge, or are already in effect. Every interaction with an employee and every payslip is a potential ER/IR disaster if not managed well. This is a top of mind issue for all payroll professionals.

Accounting Principles

In order for payroll professionals to competently process payrolls, we must understand accounting principles to effect many of the transactions we do in our standard day. Debits and Credits run deep in the simplest of payroll general ledgers, multiplied by the complexity of organisations with numerous companies and differing cost account structures.

Project Management

At any time, there will be multiple payroll projects in the pipeline. System upgrades, new EBAs, legislative changes to address and more. Payroll Managers and their staff are juggling diverse management needs, moving target dates, sometimes a lack of resourcing, shifting management priorities and insufficient hours in the day to keep their projects from falling over.

Legislative & Industrial Framework

We are expected to have in-depth working knowledge of the endless legislation that affects the organisation: Fair Work Act and its’ predecessors, Workers Compensation by state, OH&S, Payroll Slips Regulations, Annual Leave, Long Service Leave and Public Holidays by state, Superannuation Guarantee Acts … phew!

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New, faster Apple iPad expected next week

(Reuters) - Apple Inc is hosting a media event next Wednesday, where it is expected to unveil a faster, better-equipped version of its popular iPad tablet to thwart increasing competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as Amazon.com Inc.

The invitation-only event will be held at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) on March 7 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where the company also introduced the last two generations of iPads.

Apple, which sent the invitation to reporters by email on Tuesday, did not divulge details of the event beyond saying: "We have something you really have to see. And touch."

The invitation featured a partial picture of the touchscreen of a device resembling an iPad.

Apple launches are some of the hottest events on the tech calendar, scrutinized by fans, investors, the media and industry insiders alike.

The iPad has dominated the nascent tablet computer market, but Amazon's Kindle Fire, which sells at half the cost, has chipped away at the lower end of the market.

The third iteration of a device that has helped put pressure on demand for traditional laptops and computers is expected to boast a faster, quad-core processor and a higher-definition screen.

Some analysts and industry experts expect 4G wireless capability, ensuring that the iPad remains current as cutting-edge broadband technology from Verizon Wireless and other carriers gains momentum. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

"The picture is zoomed in on an icon and I don't see any pixels in that icon," Avi Greengart, analyst at Current Analysis, said, underscoring how industry experts pick apart even Apple's communiques for hints of what to expect.

"You don't need exceptional foresight to guess that Apple is likely looking at a higher resolution display."

TAKING ON PCS

The company's market value has climbed steadily in past weeks, buoyed by anticipation over its latest gadget as well as by hopes that Apple will finally accede to shareholders' demands it return some of its $98 billion war chest of cash and securities.

On Tuesday, Apple shares closed at a record high of $535.41 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq, up 1.8 percent on the day.

Apple iPad tablet sales doubled in the December quarter to 15.43 million units. The company has sold about 55 million iPads since it introduced the device in 2010.

It may be looking to "make further inroads into the general computing market" with the newest iPad, Greengart said.

Chief Executive Tim Cook has often said that he expects tablets to outsell personal computers eventually. Cook, who took the company's helm after visionary Steve Jobs died in October, will likely lead the event, with ample help from marketing chief Phil Schiller and other executives.

With the iPad 2 starting at $499, investors will also be watching to see if Apple plans to discount it, creeping farther down the price chain and closer to the Fire, to broaden the iPad's appeal.

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Microsoft's 3D computer offers a world for your hands

The way we use computers now looks very antiquated compared with a new interactive see-through OLED display from Microsoft Applied Sciences.

Jinha Lee, an MIT Media Lab Ph.D. student and a research intern at Microsoft, worked with Cati Boulanger (a researcher at the company) on a new type of computer that seems like a stepping stone to something much greater. Lee describes the see-through 3D desktop in greater detail on his personal blog.

At first glance, the user puts his hands behind a screen to type on a keyboard. However, that screen is actually a transparent OLED (by Samsung) containing a computer that you can control with 3D hand gestures.

You could quickly shuffle through various applications and open windows in a manner that looks somewhat like a fusion of "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Tron" (not to mention "Minority Report"). A camera captures head motion to provide a sense of depth and accurate viewing angles, as well. The project is on display at Microsoft TechForum 2012 in Redmond, Wash.

 

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