As part of the 2014 Supplier Responsibility Report that was published yesterday, Apple has refreshed its Supplier Responsibility website with a newly updated list of component suppliers and major manufacturing locations where Apple’s gadgets are being assembled.
Bloomberg analyzed Apple’s public documents and discovered that Flextronics International Ltd. has now joined the company’s supply chain as assemblers of ‘Made in USA’ Macs. Although Flextronics now gets to assemble Macs in Apple’s $100 million Austin, Texas plant, Foxconn remains the largest manufacturer of Apple products, with seven assembly locations in China and Brazil…
Bloomberg writes:
Apple Inc. added Flextronics International Ltd. as an assembler of Mac computers last year as Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook pushes forward with plans to have more of the company’s devices made in the U.S.
Flextronics, with headquarters in California and Singapore, joins Quanta Computer Inc. as Asia-based companies supplying to Apple from some of 60 facilities in the U.S.
Quanta already makes some Macs in California, by the way.
In addition to U.S.-based manufacturing operations by Flextronics and Quanta, Apple has teamed up with another company called GT Advanced, which recently started building large quantities of sapphire glass at its manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona.
And this world map shows the locations of Apple’s suppliers.
Per Bloomberg:
The U.S. is the third-biggest hub in Apple’s supply chain, while China remains the largest with 349 locations providing parts or manufacturing to the Cupertino, California-based company. Japan’s 139, Taiwan’s 42 and South Korea’s 32 facilities make Asia the center of a global supply chain that includes Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, according to the report.
Flextronics also manufactures chargers for the iPhone and iPad, in addition to a bunch of components and electronics used in avionics, flight controls, medical equipment and wearable devices.
In the summer of 2011, one of its executives plead guilty to giving away insider information regarding Apple’s secret projects. Flextronics, based out in Singapore, is huge: the company has a whopping 28 million square-feet of factory space spread across four continents.
Although Apple originally commissioned Flextronics to make cameras for the iPhone 5, the company was forced to shutter production over quality control issues.
Flextronics was also the topic of a grim story which cast spotlight on the harsh realities of landing a gig in Apple’s supply chain with third-party brokers taking fees from new hires despite Apple’s specific instructions to Flextronics to cover the fees itself.