Case Study: Boeing's Approach To Project Management

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.

This paper of Philip Condit and the Development of the 777; describes the management, and technological changes that Philip Condit made to the development style of the Boeing Company. Before Philip Condit took over the 777 program, Boeing had been making airplanes in the same fashion as it had been doing for 70 years prior. Mr. Condit saw the chance to bring Boeing into the 21st century not only with the new technology of computer aided drafting, but with modern management techniques as well. The 777 program proved to be the perfect testing ground for a companywide change in the way Boeing did its business.

This business level strategy allows Boeing to create distinctive competencies from its rival, Airbus and gain an edge over them. Boeing has been successful in maintaining this business model due to its high R&D which has led to some great innovations in aircraft manufacturing such as the production of Advanced Winglet, Digital Airline, Performance Based Navigation System to name a few. Boeing has also prioritized customer service in their corporate strategies and have implemented GoldCare IT Enterprise Suite as means of 24/7 customer service regarding operations along with AOG solutions as means of after sales service to the customers. As mentioned Boeing Dreamliner 787 has been created keeping in mind the customers’ psychological desires in mind which sets Boeing apart. Boeing has been very successful over the years to create their competitive advantage and maintain its superior performance and they continue to do

Boeing adopts a very thorough, well planned out process to manage the project. The stages are defined clearly and tasks involved in each stage are carried out sequentially. The first stage of their approach is the project definition phase during which Boeing identified holes in the market not met by existing planes, assessed future airline needs, considered alternative plane configurations, explored feasibility of possible technologies and performed preliminary estimation of costs. During the market assessment, analysts gathered information regarding future needs of airlines by speaking directly to

In 2000, Airbus Industrie’s Supervisory Board was making the biggest decision in the company history: whether Airbus should commit to develop world’s largest jumbo jet. At that time, there are only two major commercial jets manufactory companies: the younger Airbus and the bigger Boeing. Boeing had been at the forefront of civil aviation for over half century. Airbus was founded in 1970as a consortium and merged into a new company known as European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. Airbus developed “fly-by-wire” technology and “cross crew qualification” technology to compete with Boeing in large jets (those with 70 or more seats) market. While Airbus was booked more than

Market Share Airbus will launch their new large, long distance plane A380 in 2006. This plane can be a dreadful competitive product to Boeing. If Boeing falls behind regarding innovations, fuel efficiency and other attributes of a long haul airliner, it will soon lose its market share. In order for Boeing to compete in the aviation industry, it is crucial to take on some risk and develop this new 7E7 project. This helps the company to fight against its competitors and recover from the slump in the industry.

It is suggested that the travel industry and the aerospace and defense industry as a whole will continue to grow on the basis of the strong demand emanating from domestic demand as well as globalization. This may give a major boost to the demand for 7E7s as the airlines are already concerned about high fuel costs intensifying out of increased demands from emerging economies like India and China and reduced production. Better design modifications is going to be a major strength for the 7E7 as Boeing is betting on the future of small-mid size airplanes which can fly short as well as long distances with its fuel efficient engines. From an investment perspective, with interest rates at it's lowest in decades, with 911 behind us, and barring a major pandemic such as SARS, the timing seems right for Boeing to pursue this endeavor.

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.

With the company being in the public eye at all times the planners must determine where, when, and how the product will be used before they begin building, testing, and using the new technologies. Since Boeing has become such a large company it has had to continuously evaluating the way it does things to make sure that they are doing the right thing.

The Brisbane Airport is located 14 kilometers north east of the Brisbane central business district. As much as 27 airlines fly from the airport in 43 different national and 39 international destinations. The Brisbane airport is making some modifications in the Brisbane airport by introducing a new parallel runway to ease up the traffic of airplanes. This will help to reduce the delays in the flights both arriving and departing from the airport. This project was started in the year 2014 and is expected to be completed in the year 2020. The new parallel runway (NPR) will be 3.3 kilometers and 60 meters wide. It will be located 2 km west of and parallel to the existing runway. The investment of the project is 1.35 billion dollars. More than 12 km of taxiways will be there which will help the flights to leave the runways at higher speeds in traffic conditions. (BNE, 2015)

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.

Due to customers’ needs and requests, Boeing has expanded its product line and services. The long tradition of aerospace leadership and innovation has given the company the advantages. Its broad range of capabilities includes creating new and more efficient commercial airplane, integrating military platforms and defense systems through

Even though the price would be lowered because of the bad weather as per the tying in price and weather policy, not everyone would still want to go away. Either it needs to be explained clearly on the website that undesirable weather will not entitle any customer to a refund or to change or cancel their booking without penalty; or the policy must be clear in whatever the company decides is fair. For example, it may state that if the weather is unpleasant can change (but not cancel) the booking to another time.

to meet its customers’ needs worldwide. Boeing is diversified as it consults operations all over

The 1989 Denver Airport project was necessary to replace Denver’s antiquated airport with a modern facility. This would significantly reduce passenger turnaround time. This project has been considered a major failure when it comes to project management. One could argue that this project failed in all aspects; from planning, to design, to implementation; the project was doomed from the start. According to Kirk Johnson, a Chief Editor for the New York Times, “[d]ecentralization and mobile computing technology have taken over just about everything, allowing airlines, warehouse operators and shippers like FedEx to learn with just a few clicks the whereabouts of an item in motion, a feature that was supposed to be a chief strength of the baggage system” (Denver Airport Saw the Future. It Didn't Work, 2005.). With so many points failure, it is hard to focus on what caused the project to fail, but what we know is that a project of that magnitude required much more planning.