This back and forth between Motley Fool analysts Dylan Lewis and Evan Niu digs into the steps it takes to get an iPhone from the factory to your hand.

On Foxconn City:

They have hundreds of thousands of employees working there. It’s over a square mile, and they have dorms for employees, its own shopping center, I think they have their own cable network there. The executives there are likening it to this college experience, I think it’s kind of a stretch. You have people working 12-hour days, six days a week, putting together iPhones. That one Foxconn City location is just one of the 12 that the company has in China. Actually, folks following tech might have heard earlier this week, Foxconn announced it automated 60,000 jobs in one of its factories. Going back to that idea of providing some of the tooling, I’m sure Apple had something to do with that.

On Tim Cook and inventory reduction:

Tim Cook absolutely hates inventory. Setting up this model and supply chain, I’ve read reports where other industry executives look at Apple’s supply chain and they’re just blown away. They’re like, “Well, we can’t compete with this.” You can order a custom-built Apple device like a Mac, or an iPhone or something. You’ll get the tracking information and it literally ships from the factory to your doorstep, in a matter of days. They build it and they ship it directly to you.

And:

The flip to contract manufacturing took the amount of time that inventory sat on Apple’s balance sheet from months to days.

There’s a lot more. Good read (or listen, if you prefer).