Preview

Boeing Supply Chain Management

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1589 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Boeing Supply Chain Management
4-3 Short Paper: The Boeing Company A supply chain is a series of integrated processes within and across a company that produce a product or service to meet the demands of a consumer (Krajewski, et. al., 2013). Every company has a specific supply chain design and this design is implemented to meet the company’s competitive priorities. Supply chain management refers to the coordination of the company’s processes with those of customers and suppliers to match the flow of services, materials, and information with customer demand. In today’s global market companies are choosing to outsource many of their processes in order to save time and money. While outsourcing and decentralizing many supply processes may seem to be more cost effective, this will also come with many new challenges. The Boeing Company is the world’s largest aerospace company and one of the top aircraft manufacturers in the world (Boeing, 2014). The company employs over 170,000 people across 70 countries and exports products to 150 countries. In 2003, Boeing decided to adopt Toyota’s supply chain strategies for production of a new aircraft, the Boeing 787. This strategy involved moving all manufacturing to its Tier 1 suppliers who would be responsible for coordinating with all Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers and then the finished parts would be shipped to Boeing for assembly and distribution (Collins, 2010). This created an extreme shift in Boeing’s supply chain causing some significant issues for the company. They struggled with quality, delivery, communication, and control. This paper will outline the shortcomings of the 787 project and explore the significant changes Boeing has implemented as a result. The Boeing Company decided to outsource close to 70 percent of their supply chain for the 787 project (Denning, 2013). This was nearly a fifty percent increase from previous production of the 737 and 747. The company projected that this approach would significantly decrease development time and


References: Boeing (2013). Boeing honors 17 suppliers for exceptional performance. Retrieved from http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=20295&item=128662 Boeing (2014). Boeing in brief. Retrieved from http://www.boeing.com/boeing/companyoffices/aboutus/brief.page Collins, M. (2010). The Boeing supply chain model. Manufacturing. Net. Retrieved from http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2010/07/the-boeing-supply-chain-model Denning, S. (2013). What went wrong at Boeing? Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/01/21/what-went-wrong-at-boeing/ Exostar (2014).Business challenges. Retrieved from http://www.exostar.com/Business-Challenges/ Gates, D. (2012). Supply chain changes keep more 787 assembly work local. Further change for next new Boeing plane. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from http://seattletimes.com/html/boeingliveeventcoverage/2018663602_small_changes_to_the_787.html Gates, D. (2013). McNerney: Boeing will squeeze suppliers and cut jobs. The Seattle times. Retrieved from http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2021037931_boeingmcnerneyxml.html Hiltzik, M.(2011). 787 Dreamliner teaches Boeing costly lesson on outsourcing. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/15/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20110215 Krajewski, L., Ritzman, L., & Malhortra, M. (2013). Operations Management: Processes and Supply Chains 10th Edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. The Boeing Company (2010). Boeing Quality Management System: Requirements for Suppliers. Retrieved from http://www.boeingsuppliers.com/supplier/index.html

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    TLMT 313 Sylabus

    • 1749 Words
    • 10 Pages

    This course focuses on today’s global and increasingly competitive economy, companies (both large and small) who need to work smarter, harder, and more efficiently to remain viable and competitive. In the recent past, purchasing, logistics, finance, and shipping used to be considered separate and individual functions. This decentralized, semi integrated approach has recently been viewed as ineffective and inefficient. The current concept of Supply Chain Management involves the effective management and integration of these functions to produce and deliver a quality product to a customer at a competitive cost while realizing a good profit. Synchronizing organizational processes, functions and activities has enabled modern corporations – regardless of size – to reduce costs, increase efficiency, while at the same time maintaining the flexibility to be responsive to their client’s ever-changing needs and requirements. Purchased materials and services account for 50-75% of the cost operations in most organizations and, in some cases, 80-90% for both manufacturing and service industries. “Outsourcing” of entire functions such as logistics and procurement of raw materials, parts, sub assemblies, operating supplies, and capital equipment have increased as firms concentrate on core competencies. Therefore, “Materials and Services” provide an enormous potential area of cost savings along with increased quality of service. For example, a five percent (5%) reduction in materials cost can increase ROI by thirty percent (30%)!…

    • 1749 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As a leader in its industry, Aircraft Solutions provides design and fabrication of component products and services for companies in the electronics, commercial, defense and aerospace industries. It is headquartered in Southern California with several locations throughout the state that were strategically placed close to intermodal hubs for ease of access. These locations house a voluminous plant, extensive equipment and a highly skilled workforce that includes design engineers, programmers, machinists and assembly workers. Ultimately, the company’s goal is provide machined products and services that would enable their customers…

    • 1345 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    boeing guideline

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    competition from Airbus and losing its advantage. Boeing executives wish to come up with a…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this paper Team C has selected to report financial outcomes for the Boeing Company. We will compare and contrast three potential financial outcomes that we envision for the initiative in using the most recent annual report and other financial statements. We will evaluate our discoveries to determine the most likely outcome. We will also include calculations that support our analysis of various financial outcomes and discuss the financial effect on Boeing. Boeing is the largest global aircraft producer that started in the mid-1916 and continues to grow by producing the biggest aircrafts and improving them with today’s technologies.…

    • 1823 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Se571 Aircraft Solutions

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Aircraft Solutions (AS) is a recognized leader in the design and fabrication of component products and services for companies in the electronics, commercial, defense, and aerospace industry. Located in Southern California, AS has a dedicated, trained workforce and maintains a large capacity plant and extensive equipment to meet customer requirements. Much of the equipment is automated to increase production while reducing costs. The company's workforce has a large skill base: design engineers, programmers, machinists, and assembly personnel to work its highly-automated production systems.…

    • 1896 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Located in Southern California, Aircraft Solutions has a dedicated, trained workforce and maintains a large capacity plant and extensive equipment to meet customer requirements. Much of the equipment is automated to increase production while reducing costs. The company 's workforce has a large skill base: design engineers, programmers, machinists, and assembly personnel to work its highly-automated production systems.”(DeVry) Their mission is to determine the customers’ needs and provide “products and related services, and to meet cost, quality, and schedule requirements.” (DeVry) Given the amount of influence that Aircraft Solutions has in the Defense and Aerospace Industry, I will determine the best course of action to assist in their advancement of their hardware and policies of the hardware. Aircraft Solutions Business Process Management system is an end user design. This means customers, vendors, suppliers all collaborate with Aircraft Solutions to get the desired end product. “The Business Process Management also aligns internal business operations with IT support to maintain production in support of customer…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aircraft Solutions (AS) located in beautiful southern California has become a recognized leader in the electronics, commercial, defense and aerospace industries. This is due their design and fabrication of component products and services available to their customers in the various industries. What set Aircraft Solutions apart from other design and fabrication companies are their dedicated, trained workforce and the maintenance of a large capacity plant and extensive equipment that enables the company to meet customer requirements. The company is made up of a large highly skilled work force that works its highly automated production systems from design engineers, programmers, machinists and assembly personnel. Aircraft Solutions goals are to provide excellent customer service and success through its machined products and services. This is achieved while at the same time keeping their cost, quality and scheduled deliveries in check.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Scenario Two

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Aircraft Solutions (AS) is a recognized leader in the design and fabrication of component products and services for companies in the electronics, commercial, defense, and aerospace industry. Located in Southern California, AS has a dedicated, trained workforce and maintains a large capacity plant and extensive equipment to meet customer requirements. Much of the equipment is automated to increase production while reducing costs. The company's workforce has a large skill base: design engineers, programmers, machinists, and assembly personnel to work its highly-automated production systems.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Outsourcing Good

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Outsourcing is an attractive mechanism that has been practice for long time and some companies have had positive results. However outsourcing is not a magical path that leads to a profitable and successful business all the time. There are a lot of risks inherent to this practice and any company willing to outsource should evaluate these risks responsibly.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Boeing 767 Case Study

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages

    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 major airlines. Design specifications are then identified during configuration followed by formation of technological divisions. Technology development includes four major areas, and each area has its own chief engineer responsible for overseeing research, development and application of the technology. Audit teams are active during the program definition phase; auditors are usually experienced managers within the company and they are assigned to review every significant element of the program. The second stage is cost definition phase during which a parametric estimating technique is used to predict costs from initial design characteristics and to estimate the number of labor hours. The third phase consists of supplier and production managements. The suppliers are risk-sharing program participants or major subcontractors who worked closely with Boeing engineers from initial to final phase to meet deliverables of the project. After part fabrication process begins, a management visibility system is adopted with schedules prominently posted and marathon status meetings held to ensure that preset deadlines are met. During the final stage, a First Flight Committee, who reported directly to the general manager and met daily during the six…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article discusses the importance of Boeing to seek parts and components for their planes, including military planes, in countries outside of the U.S.; in other words, globalizing their company. However, to every story there are two sides, in this case – the pros and cons of globalization.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Outsourcing

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Now more companies are seeking strategic advantages based on outsource alliances. While the relentless push to operate more efficiently remains the driving force behind outsourcing, it has also become a competitive, strategic marketplace tool, allowing companies to improve response times and develop new products faster than ever. Once focused just on reducing expenses, today’s outsourcing initiatives are likely to help companies do things they previously could not do.…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Building the Boeing 787

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1. What are the benefits to Boeing of outsourcing so much work on the 787 to foreign suppliers? What are the potential risks? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Supply Chain Management

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Supply chain business process integration involves collaborative work between buyers and suppliers, joint product development, common systems and shared information. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), operating an integrated supply chain requires a continuous information flow. However, in many companies, management has reached the conclusion that optimizing the product flows cannot be accomplished without implementing a process approach to the business. The key supply chain processes stated by Lambert (2004)[14] are:…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manufacturing and production, as well as supply chain management. The article also discusses about the challenges and new approaches that can be implemented in this field.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays