Case Study On Boeing's 787 Dreamliner

In the current business environment, the demand for project managers is ever growing. In short, project management is a provisional project constrained by time, cost and scope (A guide to the project management body of knowledge, 2013). Between the immense organization, optimization, and communication assets skilled project management brings to a project, it is easy to see why project management is a booming field of study. Furthermore, project management can be both financially and personally rewarding when long term milestones and goals come to fruition.

With the exceptional growth in technology, the present day projects are often large and complex involving a significant risk. So, a Project Management Methodology enables the delivery organization to handle these projects comprehensively, systematically and in an integrated manner, which results in strategic, tactical and operational benefits.

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.

The plan calls for suppliers to ship mostly completed fuselage sections, already stuffed with wiring and other systems, to Boeing facilities around Seattle so they could be put together in as few as three days. Existing production methods can keep a plane the size of the Dreamliner in the final-assembly area for a month. But many of these handpicked suppliers, instead of using their own engineers to do the design work, farmed out this key task to even-smaller companies. Some of those ended up overloading themselves with work from multiple 787 suppliers, Boeing says. The company says it never intended for its suppliers to outsource key tasks such as engineering, but that the situation seemed manageable at the time. "We tended to say, 'They know how to run their businesses, '" says a Boeing executive familiar with the company 's thinking. "Now Boeing is hostage to the suppliers, and there 's very little they can do about it," says Tom Wroblewski, president in the Seattle region for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which was critical of all the outsourcing. Despite the start-up problems, Boeing and its suppliers still say they believe this new method of developing planes is the model for future projects. Once the production line is running smoothly, they argue, it will be more efficient and profitable than existing construction methods.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet project requirements (PMBOK Guide, 2008). Using this definition, it is made evident that the parties involved in the Denver International Airport (DIA) Baggage System project in the 1990’s failed at applying basic organizational practices towards managing the triple constraint of scope, time, and cost goals. The combination of inherent risks, uncertainties, and dysfunctional decision making geared the project towards disappointment while simultaneously designating it as a text book example of what not do when taking on a complex project. By looking at the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats we can

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing employs about 170,000 people across the United States and in more than 65 countries; representing one of the most diverse and innovative workforces anywhere. Boeing’s vision statement also dictates a commitment to “Connect, Protect, Explore and Inspire the World through Aerospace Innovation”, these goals are framed in their enterprise strategy; to “Operate as One Boeing, Build Strength on Strength, and to Sharpen and Accelerate to Win.” All the company’s efforts are focused to reinforce these sentiments primarily by remaining true to its values. The ideas expressed by the company’s vision are abstract

By looking at all the data showed by the case we can realize that the worst company in the industry of aircraft manufacturing was McDonnell Douglas because it confronted serious financial problems since 1980s when Airbus squeezed its market share. In 1984, MD's fleet comprised 28% of aircraft in service, by 1989 had only 23% of the worldwide fleet, while for example Boeing had 53% in the same year; in 1990 Boeing had 45% of the market share while Airbus had 34% leaving only 21% of the market to MD. The strongest company was Boeing which cover about 70% of worldwide demand, nevertheless the Airbus Industry was

As the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security system, Boeing puts a lot of efforts and innovations in its products and services. These include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic information and communication systems, and performance-based logistics and training.

6.2 The Boeing model adopted was to spread the design and development to suppliers on a global scale with costs met by suppliers (Ostrower & Lublin, 2013). A strategy such as this should have been tightly controlled from the outset. Without this control, difficulties in assembly and ill-fitting parts requiring redesign added to the delays experienced by the project (Denning, 2013), with hundreds of Boeing engineers sent to various companies to solve technical problems (Tang & Zimmerman, 2009).

Boeing is currently operating with the majority market share of the commercial sector of aircraft manufacturing. Frank Shrontz, our CEO, has recently stated his goal to increase the company’s return on equity from its current average of 12%. The following summary will delve into the most appealing project for the future of this firm: the 777 aircraft. The purpose of this new product is to maintain our competitive advantage in commercial airline production by completing a family of Boeing airplanes. The following net present value analysis will be used to determine the potential profitability of the 777 project.

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.

What is a company to do if it has a vision of changing the way manufacturing of their products are done, in order to satisfy new innovations? This is the type of question Boeing had to answer when they launched there Dreamliner project. This project began early in 2003 when they released the first image concept of this future design project. Executives originally aimed to have this plane on the market by 2008. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this project it was delayed several years as Boeing started to suffer from problems in there supply chain (Boeing – history link). These problems mostly arose because they were going into unchartered territory. Early planning of the project determined that outsourcing various aspects would allow Boeing to stay highly cost effective in this large endeavor; this decision was necessary for this project but it did not turn out as cost effective as they originally planned. This story tells some great lessons on the importance of managing processes, which includes the supply chain. In my opinion, Boeing could’ve done better at planning there Dreamliner project; starting with managing the supply chain and using their own know-how to properly advance their production processes.

As the largest aerospace company in the world, the Boeing Company employees more than 153,000 people in some 67 countries. The great dominance of Boeing is due to its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas Corporation, an aerospace manufacturer, and its 1996 purchase of the defense and space units of Rockwell International Corporation, an aerospace contractor. The corporation is the world’s number one maker of commercial jetliners and military aircraft with more than 9,000 commercial planes in service worldwide, including the 717 through 777 families of jets

In order to achieve their business objective, project management and the used methodology are key factor which will be responsible for the success or failure of this project.

This study will investigate how project stakeholders are managed. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the study and key elements that will be considered throughout this dissertation. It provides study’s background information, problem statement, aim and objectives, scope and limitation as well as study relevance and values. Finally, this section also provides dissertation outline adopted by the author.