iPhone in $2007.{?}^{68}$ With annual sales of $$175$ billion in $2019,$ Foxconn employed more than $1$ million people, making it the largest private$-$sector employer in China. ${?}^{67}$ It was estimated that Foxconn depended on Apple for approximately $50$ per cent of its revenues. $68$

Foxconn began assembling iPhones at its $1\mathrm{.}4-$square$-$mile plant in Shenzhen, China. ${?}^{69}$ With demand expanding and the need for more capacity, the Chinese government took over farmland outside of Zhengzhou in $2010,$ and within months, Foxcorln had completed construction of a $2\mathrm{.}2-$square$-$mile factory complex dedicated to iPhone assembly. $70$ Dubbed "iPhone City," approximately half of iPhones made came from Zhengzhou, ${?}^{21}$ which at maximum capacity employed more than $300,000$ people producing $500,000$ iPhones per day $-$or roughly $350$ per minute. ${?}^{72}$

The annual refresh of the iPhone left only a few months to bring the product from the lab to the factory floor, and Apple engineers continued to tweak the product design even as assembly operations were being configured and the workers hired and trained. ${?}^{73}$ One former Foxconn exceutive deseribed the assembly process as "extremely intricate and complieated." $"4$ Tens of thousands of experienced Foxconn manufacturing engineers oversaw the production process.

Demand for workers surged in July and August as production ramped up before the introduction of new models in the fall. The government helped funnel hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to Foxconn plants on short notice through online postings. ${?}^{75}$

The Apple design team adhered to the philosophy of former design chief lve: the interior of a well$-$made product required the same amount of attention as that given to the exterior appearance and feel. Unlike competitor products, such as the Samsung Galaxy, which used automated processes to glue the phones together, ${?}^{26}$ iPhone assembly was mostly manual, and it involved about $400$ steps, including soldering. drilling, and fitting tiny serews." Individual components were tested before assembly, and the iPhone assembly process incorporated rigorous quality processes and final testing. The assembly, testing, and packaging process required approximately two hours of manual work for each iPhone.?

Logistics and Distribution

The joumey for an iPhone from the Zhengzhou assembly facility began with a short truck ride to a customs facility located within a "comprehensive bonded zone" only a few hundred metres outside the plant gate. The bonded zone eliminated the need to pay duties and taxes on imported components, and allowed the import and export of iPhones electronieally, without the need to have the product physically cross the border. As part of the process, Apple would purchase the completed iPhones from Foxconn at customs and then resell the products to its subsidiaries. This practice also allowed Apple to assign profits to its afriliates, such as the Apple office in Ireland, a tax$-$advantageous country? ${?}^{2y}$

While the bulk of Chinese exports were transported by container ship $-$ a trip that lasted more than one month $-$iPhones were shipped using airfreight. Approximately $150,000$ iPhones could be loaded on a widebody Boeing $747$ from the Zhengzhou airport. Apple outsourced most of its transportation and logistics management activities to United Parect Service Logistics Company $($UPS$),$ FedEx Corporation $($FedEx$),$ and other large carriers. Shipments from China to North Ameriea were flown to Anchorage, Alaska, where UPS and FedEx had large facilities to handle international freight shipments. The aireraft was then refuelled