Module 9

     So the birth of a Dell laptop is a little like this: An order is placed over the phone or online and after the model and any customizations are finalized the credit card is verified. With verification of payment the order goes to Dell's production system which sends the order to one of six factories around the world. These factories are surrounded by depots of their suppliers which maintain a volume of the parts they supply. Every two hours information regarding the number of and what types of parts are required for the next batch of computers is fed to the suppliers' systems who send a shipment over to the nearby factory. This facilitates Dell's just-in-time production method. I do wonder if the suppliers have any sort of JIT system however. Regardless after the parts are delivered the specific computers are built using the parts just delivered.

     Around thirty parts are required to build a laptop. These parts come from a multitude of suppliers from all over the world, but many of them are based in China. Dell works with the suppliers to make sure that the system is streamlined, and in the event of a shortfall of a specific part can do 'demand shaping' by offering alternative options to the customer for a discount or some other promotion. That in a nutshell is how the author describes the Dell order process and production system. I wasn't too surprised by it actually as I had a pretty good understanding of the process. In Japan a similar system is used for automobiles. People do not go to a dealership and upon purchasing a car drive out with it. They instead have on hand a model of each type of car for test drives, but the actual vehicle you buy is custom made to order with whatever features you want added to the order at time of sale.

     I did get a good laugh from reading this little story about his laptop. Dick Hunter stated "We know the customers better than our suppliers and our competition, because we are dealing directly with them every day." Yeah right. If that were true Dell would have a removable bottom chassis to allow access to the components without having to disassemble the whole damn machine, laptops with two hard drive bays would ship with two mounting brackets even if only one hard drive was ordered, an OS (or at least a recovery) DVD would ship with the computer in case a format and reinstall was required, screens with a vertical viewing angle greater than 2 degrees would be an option, and 18.4" screen size models would be available.

     It seems that al-Qaeda does have a supply chain called the Virtual Caliphate. Similar to how Walmart will reorder an item as soon as it is purchased, al-Qaeda is able to "order" another suicide bomber when one is "taken off the shelf" so to speak. I personally have my doubts about how widespread the use of this 'supply chain for suicide bombers' is, however the use of the Internet as an information gathering a collaboration tool as well as a venue for the dissemination of propaganda is another story. The stuff people believe just because it's in print/online. "If it's on the Internet, it must be true, right?"

     The curse of oil is the way that oil-rich countries such as Iran have not reformed their political, educational, or just about any other cultural system because a demand for change does not exist. Islam compounds this with its kainotophobia. This book is a little bit dated as Arab Spring movements are actually starting to reform at least the political systems of many countries in the Arab World regardless of the oil situation. However, the more oil a nation has, the less true this is.

     Saudi Arabia isn't changing much at all and they own the largest fields in the world. The curse of oil as it is described in the book is, to me, very similar to the problem with welfare in the U.S. Why would someone on welfare/an oil-rich nation make the effort towards self improvement when money is basically handed to them? Free money from the government or free money from oil-dependant nations, the idea is the same. I sometimes wondered what would happen if the oil did run out, but reading about Bahrain having actually already run out of oil and transformed from a 'petrocracy' (government run by those who owned the oil) into a democratic member of the international community. Necessity is the mother of invention (or at least change) and with oil there's no necessity.