I have to say, this is one sad day for American culture. These guys, Click and Clack the Tappet brothers, were a constant presence for some 25 odd years. Always entertaining, sometimes insulting, and nearly always humorous. I loved their take on focus on the people and their relationships with their machines.
That's right. the Beer game is one of the first things taught in Operations Management in most b-schools, as an example of Supply Chain Management.
[I was fortunate to have been introduced to the subject by John Sterman]
In general, delays (i.e. lead times) and variations in orders will do that Beer game effect to any supply chain, no matter where it's located.
Apple products are "made in china" because of various reasons -- comparative advantage, business cluster etc.
I'd highly recommend a good reading of systems dynamics (and business dynamics) for those looking for more info.
For those interested, two recommended books:
* "Clock Speed" by Charles Fine (MIT)
* "Business Dynamics" by John Sterman (also of MIT, and a great professor): http://goo.gl/K4OG (Amazon.com link)
Some of my favorite "wrong" or erroneous 'beliefs' (apart from the Flat Earth, and geo-centric beliefs)
-- Luminiferous ether: that light propagates via the "ether" medium
-- "Bad air" theory of infectious diseases (which is still held in many countries)
-- "Stress causes ulcers"
-- Leprosy is contagious
-- The belief that first five (or two, or three) years of a child's life determine his/her personality in adulthood. This is one is still widely held and accepted.
Oh, and just for kicks: 'Intelligent Design' and its variants. :-)
And just to throw it out: What will it take to convince that Global Warming / Climate Change is real? This is perhaps one of the leading least-understood / most controversial beliefs of our times.
Indeed.
What struck me as I was ogling at the Macbook Air 11" in an Apple store in my neighborhood was how Steve Jobs still holds true to his artist vision of a beautiful product - one that is both externally (visually, viscerally) and internally (experience-wise) a joy to use.
"It sports the first commercially available erasable optical drive and advanced VLSI (very-large-scale integration) technology, and it comes with a built-in digital signal processor. On the software side, the Unix-based cube features an object-oriented version of C as its standard programming environment. It uses Display PostScript to present a graphical user interface that shields users from the traditionally user-hostile Unix command syntax, and it offers easy access to the cube's considerable power."
Design -
"The cube is starkly simple in appearance and physical layout... The cube's internal construction mirrors the simplicity of its exterior"
Hardware -
a 25 MHz 68030, with DSP; SCSI peripherals; 670Mb optical drive; 8 MB of RAM (4 MB optionally available, for lower price)
Sad day. But the podcasts live on!
Onward, Click and Clack!