乔布斯传 第465期:蒂姆·库克(6)

 　　At a meeting early in his tenure¹, Cook was told of a problem with one of Apple's Chinese suppliers. 在任职初期的一次会议上，库克听说苹果公司的某一家中国供应商出了问题。

　　"This is really bad," he said. "Someone should be in China driving this." “这太糟糕了。”他说，“应该有人马上去中国处理这件事。”

　　Thirty minutes later he looked at an operations executive sitting at the table and unemotionally asked, "Why are you still here?" 30分钟后，他看着还在桌前坐着的一位运营主管，面无表情地说：“你怎么还没走？”

　　The executive stood up, drove directly to the San Francisco airport, and bought a ticket to China. 那位主管站起来，没带任何行李，直接开车去了旧金山机场，买了机票飞往中国。

　　He became one of Cook's top deputies. 他后来成了库克的第一副手。

　　Cook reduced the number of Apple's key suppliers from a hundred to twenty-four, 库克把苹果的主要供应商从100家减少到24家，

　　forced them to cut better deals to keep the business, 并要求他们减少其他公司的订单，

　　convinced many to locate next to Apple's plants, and closed ten of the company's nineteen warehouses². 还说服许多家供应商迁到苹果工厂旁边，此外，他还把公司的19个库房关闭了10个。

　　By reducing the places where inventory³ could pile up, he reduced inventory. 库房减少了，存货就无处堆放，于是他又减少了库存。

　　Jobs had cut inventory from two months' worth of product down to one by early 1998. 到1998年初，乔布斯把两个月的库存期缩短到一个月。

　　By September of that year, Cook had gotten it down to six days. 然而到同年9月底，库克已经把库存期缩短到6天。

　　By the following September, it was down to an amazing two days' worth. 下一年的9月，这个数字已经达到惊人的两天。

　　In addition, he cut the production process for making an Apple computer from four months to two. 另外，库克还把制造苹果计算机的生产周期从4个月压缩到两个月。

　　All of this not only saved money, it also allowed each new computer to have the very latest components⁴ available. 所有这些改革不仅降低了成本，而且也保证了每一台新计算机都安装了最新的组件。

1 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

2 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

3 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

4 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。