Analysis Of Boeing And Lockheed Martin

The Boeing Company designs, develops, manufactures, sells, services, and supports commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight, and launch systems and services worldwide. It operates in five segments: Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Military Aircraft, Network & Space Systems, Global Services & Support, and Boeing Capital. The Commercial Airplanes segment develops, produces, and markets commercial jet aircraft for various passenger and cargo requirements; and provides related support services to the commercial airline industry. This segment also offers aviation services support, aircraft modifications, spare parts, training, maintenance documents, and technical advice to commercial and government customers. The Boeing Military Aircraft segment researches, develops, produces, and modifies manned and unmanned military aircraft, and weapons systems for global strike, vertical lift, and autonomous systems, as well as mobility, surveillance, and engagement. The Network & Space Systems segment researches, develops, produces, and modifies strategic defense and intelligence systems, satellite systems, and space exploration products.

Airbus was planning to introduce the A380 in direct competition to Boeing 747 to compete in the large aircraft sector. The rivalry between Airbus and Boeing was already intense. Boeing’s market share reduced from 70% in 1974 to 45% in 1990 while Airbus’s market share had increased from 1% to 34% during the same time (Exhibit 5). Encouraged by this increase in market share, Airbus was contemplating the introduction of A380. Development of new product line is extremely expensive in the Aircraft sector. Following is a quantitative analysis of the project to calculate the risks involved in introducing a new line of Aircrafts.

Boeing’s target market is different in that they are selling to companies rather than individuals. The target market is determined through a combination of geographic and demographic segmentation. The two target markets are commercial airline companies and the US government and its allies. These markets directly coincide with the company’s two business units: Commercial Airplanes and Defense, Space, & Security (Boeing, 2016).

• Learning curve has to be steep, i.e. Cost reduction has to be fast with change in technology

Dominating the commercial aircraft market for decades, Boeing is considered to be the most highly competitive U.S aerospace industry. “U.S. firms manufacture a wide variety of products for civil and defense purposes and, in 2010, the value of aerospace industry shipments was estimated at $171 billion, of which civil aircraft and aircraft parts accounted for over half of all U.S. aerospace shipments. The U.S. aerospace industry exported nearly $78 billion in products in 2010, of which $67 billion (or 86% of total exports) were civil aircraft, engines, equipment, and parts” (Harrison, 2011). However, its position of influence has lessened in recent years. This is due to its main competitor, Airbus, who in recent years has made significant

THE BOEING COMPANY: STRATEGIC AUDIT I. CURRENT SITUATION A. Current Performance Boeing performance has been outstanding for the past few years. Their Return on investment rose from three percent to 6 percent from 1998 to 1999, but it did drop to five percent in 2000. In 1996 Airbus claimed 42% of the market share, while Boeing had 64%. Boeing is looking at falling below the 50% mark. Boeing's profits have been doing quite well. They have risen drastically in the past few years, which can be seen in the profitability ratios. Boeing is doing fine when it comes to profitability, even though they have dropped slightly since 1999.

Boeing adopted the radical change approach for designing and developing the 787 Dreamliner not only to attempt to create new aircraft through the innovative design and advanced material, but it also drastically changed the production process. With a $10 billion dollar project in mind, the goal was to reduce the financial risks involved as well as the new product development cycle time. Meanwhile, Boeing produced a remarkably complicated supply chain that included greater than fifty partners in over 100 locations all across the globe. In addition to the complicated supply chain, they experimented with various firms in diverse areas to align complementary skill sets. Furthermore, this was the first time the company outsourced the two most crucial parts of the plane, the wings and the fuselage.

Boeing Company has been and is still at the forefront of the aviation industry. The late 1990s were a time of trial and transition where the company encountered and overcame a number of

2.1 Boeing Aircraft Corporation, with a heritage of aircraft design, manufacture and assembly, dates back to July 1916 (Boeing, 2004). Recent aircraft including 737, 747, 767, and 777 are all designed,

The Boeing Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers in the world. Rivaled only by European giant Airbus in the aerospace industry, Boeing is a leader in research, design and manufacture of commercial jet airliners, for commercial, industrial and military customers. Despite enjoying immense success in its market and dominating an industry that solely recognizes engineering excellence, it is crucial for Boeing to ensure continued growth through consistent strategy formulation and execution to avoid falling behind in market share to close and coming rivals.

LabCo is a construction firm that customizes and manufactures large, industrial machinery and equipment and sell to its customers. Its customers include Aerospace and Transport Planes industry. LabCo negotiates a contract with its customers on either a fixed-price or cost-plus basis. The company 's accounting policy to recognize revenue outlines that revenues and fees are recognized using the percentage-of-completion method, which is based on contract costs incurred to date compared with total estimated costs at completion. The other policy that they use is the completed-contract method, which is used when reliably dependable estimates of the total costs to be incurred under a specific contract cannot be made.

Lockheed Martin is a major security and aerospace company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Employing over 97,000 employees worldwide, Lockheed Martin is principally focused on research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services (Lockheed Martin at a Glance, n.d.). Lockheed Martin is organized into broad business areas to include aeronautics ($17.8 billion in 2016 sales), missile and fire control (6.6 billion in 2016 sales), rotary and mission systems (13.5 billion in 2016 sales), and space systems (9.4 billion in 2016 sales) (Lockheed Martin at a Glance, n.d.). To better understand the global giant that is today’s Lockheed Martin, a historical look at the two companies that merged in 1995 and their respective accomplishments is essential.

Boeing’s attempt to compete with European Airbus company by creating the 787 Dreamliner one that would prove to be a more costly venture than previously thought. This came down to five critical oversights in the design, manufacturing, and iterative processes. When Boeing was trying to develop the 787, they wanted to have new materials to lend to better performance and comfort for the passengers on board, yet this will lead to poor component choices in part to a dangerous battery. This was supplemented by changing to the Toyota Production System where they did not staff the necessary people to oversee the entirety of the production cycle. Boeing outsourcing to various contractors and subcontractors, they could lessen the burden on their

The Chinese are an emerging economy that has taken over the world's production in recent years. In fact China is now considered to be the world's factory, as all the major players in the world outsource all or some of their manufacturing activities to the country. All this would not have been possible without the help of technology and with the state of globalization being such, that logistics and distances are becoming shorter and shorter.

Moving assembly lines began with Ford a century ago. Lean went into full manufacturing swing with Toyota. These new ways of thinking changed the principles of the automobile manufacturing industry forever. Now these principles and philosophy’s have made their way into other types of production. Boeing took these manufacturing principles and added them to their already successful 777 production line. To stay more completive and reduce costs manufactures are looking for ways to implement new ideas. Lean is a way to introduce methods to assist with these reductions, while moving assembly line reduces time and cost. For aircraft manufacture Boeing, it is more important than ever to stay more competitive and cost effective to keep their