Boeing Changes the Nature of Its Business with Global Collaboration Essay

Boeing, the $55 billion Chicago-based aerospace company, has been a major shammer in the world-wide economy for almost a century. But at present the company is undertaking a far-reaching transformation as it uses cutting-edge materials and electronics and high-ranking technologarithmy for the design and multitude process of its new passenger bed sheet the Boeing 787. The new sail, nicknamed the Dreamliner, is Boeings bid for market leadership in rivalry with Airbus. The new midsize passenger jet will have an outer typeface and about half of its p inventions made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, which will make it sparkle and give it better fuel economy. In January 2006, the company had 291 firm orders and 88 commitments from 27 airlines for the new 787, which will seat from 250 to 330 passengers in varying configurations. The dip price is about $150 million per plane.The previous state of the art in aviation manufacturing was to have global parcelners work from a ordi nary blueprint to produce separate-actually, whole sections of the airplane-that were then physically shipped to a Boeing assembly plant near Seattle to see if they fit together. Prior to the 787, wood mock-ups of planes would be constructed to see if parts built by partners around the world would authentically fit together. When the process failed, the cost in date and harvest-festivalion was extreme.Boeings shift goes beyond making planes faster and cheaper. The new business theoretical account takes Boeing from manufacturing to a high-end technology systems integrator. In 2004, Boeings IT systems people were consolidated into the Boeing applied science Group. Now parts ar designed from concept to production at the same time by partners (including companies in Japan, Russia, and Italy) and assembled in a computer mock up keep by Boeing outside its corporate firewall.Boeings role is integrator and porthole to the airlines, while the partners take responsibility for the ma jor pieces, including their design. Boeing still takes the hit if the plane fail and deliveries are late, but the actual cost of development and manufacturing is get around across its network of collaborators. At the same time, building such global relationships may help the company sell its planes overseas. The biggest savings are the time saved through the online collaboration process (from 33 to 50 percent), creating a huge competitive advantages.collaboration is a necessity for Boeing for several reason. Airplanes are huge and enormously Byzantine. Politically, sales of a global product are enhanced when people in other countries are building parts of the airplane. Companies in these countries may then buy from Boeing. Basic collaboration is through through information-flow tools such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint. Boeing and partners are using Dassault Systemes 3D and Product Lifecycle Management solutions.Other IT tools used are a product suite from Exostar LLC, with w hich Boeing can share two-dimensional drawings, conduct forward and regression auctions, and respond to RFPs, and an application called Catia. The plane is designed at Global Collaboration Environment, a special online site maintained by Boeing.There trains of collaboration are facilitated between teams and companies. In the first level-design collaboration- all parties involved log in and make their changes electronically in the blueprints, and the team works together. whole tone is changes because the computer finds the mistakes. The next level involves suppliers working with their supply chains. The third level is real-time collaboration involves a considerable amount of product lifecycle steering across multiple countries enabled by technology that differentiates Boeings new model from the previous kinds of global relationships. Boeing also uses the new partnership to solicit ideas of how to improve designs, integration, and so on. This results in cost-cutting.Boeing mainta ins 10 multimedia rooms at its Everett, Washington, complex for the use of collaboration teams. These are open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A visualization application developed by Boeing allows the teams to do real-time design reviews of complex geometry without any Lag time as the models load. Meetings are conducted in English, with sidebar conversations, as needed, in a team members native language. Collaborative design also speeds the design process, destiny Boeing to avoid expensive penalties from its customers if the plane is not delivered on time, and it gives the company more(prenominal) flexibility in simultaneously designing multiple versions of the 787 that are part of its wide-ranging appeal in the marketplace.Finished designs are stored in other Dassult product, Enovia, which is also maintained by Boeing. This has become an enormous data-management task. The issue of surety has also been a concern however, security technology has developed to the auspicate tha t the security of the information is assured. Collaboration across cultures and time zones can cabal a host of issues about the way people work together. The adaptation of management practice to the networked, team-oriented approach is important to consider when redesigning human resources practices to put together virtual resource needs and when developing a custom-tailored collaboration platform.