Question 2 In 2007 and 2008 Boeing ran into several well publicized issues with regard to its management of a globally dispersed supply chain. What are the causes of these problems? What can a company like Boeing do to make sure such problems do not occur in the future? The root cause of the problem was supply management and Boeings lack of an appropriate inventory management system. A secondary problem with the system was a capacity issue.
Besides, with a big movement of launching E190 in 2005, some small but critical problems loomed: Compensation of pilots, satisfaction of customers and employees, challenges for staff to adopt unexpected changes, complexity resulting from the integration of E190 and A320. Without experience of operating two types of aircrafts and combining them, as well as without sufficient capital, large scale of purchases of the new aircraft would definitely lead to operational failure. It was the key principle for JetBlue, which made a difference from other airline companies, that fight cancellations should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, this principle was challenged by the unexpected bad weather on the Valentine’s Day of 2007. The potential issue of operating system finally gave rise to serious flight cancellations, which reminded JetBlue of fixing its
In 2005 Boeing a giant in the Manufacturing of aircraft made the decision to change the way they run their supply chain. Boeing’s mission with this change was to prevent a repeat of mistakes made in 1997/1998; when during the aviation boom the giant flooded with orders in turn flooded its production lines, just to find they could not keep up with production. The result, Boeing manufactured too many planes and ended up selling them at cut prices resulting in a 4 billion dollar loss in revenue. In 2007 Boeing debuted their new 787-Dreamliner resulting in orders from 50 customers who purchased over 710 aircraft. Having the mistakes of the past fresh in mind Boeing in turn is changing the way they manage their supply chain.
Every aspect of planning has to deal with the issue of scheduling or schedules. Some companies understand tardiness and other organizations are using it to build profits on their investments, which include credit card companies, video rentals along with many others. As for Boeing it will lose revenue and contracts for making late deliveries (The Boeing Company, 1995-2010). The factor that links the other three together is customer satisfaction. No company knows whether they are providing quality goods and services without proper customer feedback.
Boeing, a leading aerospace company and the maker of highly important technological innovations, has faced numerous legal issues. For example, there was a complex legal issue involving gender pay differences in 2000 and Boeing was even sued for this alleged offence (Business, 2004). Boeing decided to settle out of court regarding this matter to save them from public scrutiny even though most of the documentation was thrown out of court and key information was protected under attorney client privilege. The planning side of Boeing's management stepped in to make sure that a legal team oversaw all important documents. This saved the company millions, but if they had a better plan in place, this issue would have never resulted.
Alpha Toiletries Case Study Alpha Toiletries as a big organization relied their success on different sectors like maintaining good relations with key costumers. But there are always issues rising, which can affect the order winning criteria. The main issue in need of revising now is costumers concerned about deliveries being behind schedule. The newly appointed production manager mentioned that the company could lose the competitive edge, thus may lead into loosing main costumers such as Marks & Spencer(Williamson et al., 2004). Some aspects did affect the deliveries overdue issue, therefore the production director did an analysis and came to identify the main issues which were mainly related to warehousing, inventory, production and requirements planning, and call off of orders (Williamson et al., 2004).Warehousing is where Alpha stores their inventory and stock, a warehouse is a safe mode to store goods and helpful in supervising the goods.
Boeing is inputting more resources into manufacturing the planes. This process is to more commercial planes being built. This change is significant because it may result in production inconsistencies where specific manufacture companies cannot keep up the output that they are inputting such as parts of the planes. As a result, in the late 1990s, Boeing had to shut down the assembly lines when production was going too fast. 4.
The conventional analysis of this classic case study brings forth a long laundry list of management errors, mistakes and miscalculations. Yet, this seems improbable for such an experienced and competent organization. How could they make so many mistakes in so many different areas? Wickham Skinner first used this example in his 1978 book, "Manufacturing in the Corporate Strategy". He traced B&W's troubles to a single root cause: management had failed to identify the "Key Manufacturing Task".
British Airways, in 1996, faced an uncertain future as the competitive airline landscape was in a state of flux with smaller low-cost airlines invading the market and larger airlines setting up prudent alliances to stay profitable (Barsoux). CEO Bob Ayling announced a new program designed to cut operating costs to compete within the new economic arena. Employees naturally expected that part of the “Business Efficiency Program” was a significant reduction in staffing and benefits, which led to a bitter divide between British Airways and its workforce. The resulting strike, however, was not the actual problem that warrants discussion; the problem is how British Airways arrived at a strike and how the opposing sides treated each other throughout the negotiation process. The aspects that fueled the negative negotiation process were numerous, but focusing on two overarching themes helps explain the problem: psychological contracts without mutuality and procedural injustice.
------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION This case discusses the history of Boeing and salient forces affecting the global aircraft industry, along with the key strategic issues driving Boeing’s competitive strategies. Boeing and Airbus dominate the global aircraft industry, but have very different visions of the future of commercial air travel. Consequently, the strategies they have devised to manage the competitive environment are disparate. The case provides a unique opportunity to explore these differences, how functional strategies support the overall competitive strategy, and the critical decisions now faced by both competitors. The objective of the case study is to evaluate current industry conditions and to make corrective recommendations to improve Boeing’s strategy.