The Boeing Company's Innovations - Case Study Example

The Boeing Company The Boeing Company Boeing is the one of the largest aerospace businesses across the globe. It ranks second in the manufacture of large commercial jets, the leading manufacture being Airbus; it is also second on the list of defense contractor. However, it remains the largest manufacturer of jetliners and military aircrafts combined. Boeing also specializes in the design and manufacture of rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems (Boeing, 2010). It was in the early 1900s that the business was formulated by William E. Boeing. Initially, it was known as the Pacific Aero Products Company in the start, and was able to get a number of Navy contracts during World War I. Later, Boeing changed the name of the company to The Boeing Company, and, in collaboration with his engineers, he was able to design the seaplanes, Bluebill and Mallard in Seattle, Washington. It provided jets to the US in both World Wars. However, it did not focus on military planes only. It also developed missiles during the Wars. It also took control of Vertol Aircraft in Philadelphia, which played a significant role in the Vietnam War (May, et al., 2007). It has undergone expansions over the passage of time, partnering with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing has strong affiliations with NASA as being the prime provider of services and operating the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The company also boasts of having clientele in more than 90 countries all over the world and acts host for several military and commercial airline support services. Boeing continues to be the leading company in the field of aerospace because of its adherence and maintenance of professional standards and research religiously. The company is divided into five business sections: Network & Space Systems (N&SS), Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Capital Corporation (BCC), Global Services & Support (GS&S) and Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA). Besides these, Boeing also has a separate department which supervises engineering, operations and technology (EO&T) and transacts with the other businesses. The paper attempts to explore innovation in products of the Boeing Company and how it is administered by effective leadership. Innovation is referred to the assimilation and utilization of resources to improve upon a product, reduce the investment costs and to be able to think up of new ideas that can be translated into reality. Organizations who believe in innovation recognize the worth of their workforce by giving it opportunities to enhance its learning and giving chances to improve upon its professional conduct. David Swain, a retired Boeing engineer and technology vice president states that the company upholds the standards of innovation by stressing upon the “educational opportunities, recognition programs, challenging work assignments, sharing the lessons learned, and communication” (2007). Ever since the company decided in 1997 to promote its growth by running a healthy business, the research and development department had been working for enhancing innovation in the enterprise. The company has made a name for itself by stepping out of the box and thinking differently. This has been through the empowerment of its workforce. The company has worked progressively to educate and train the employees and to keep them up-to-date with the latest technology. In 2005, the company was investing a sum of more than $80 million per annum on educational programs for the employees (Swain, 2007). There are also many recognition programs that are in place in the organization; however, there was a communication gap between the employees and the managers. Over the years, the enterprise has tried to have better relationships with its employees by focusing on microinequities and trying to overcome them, for example by holding conferences. Managers are taught to value the co-worker and to give them their undivided attention. Moreover, they are also advised to watch their body language, since certain gestures can be offend some people, and to be sensitive to the diversity of culture that the enterprise has. A good manager is also expected to respond to the emails etc of the colleagues timely and to not multitask when conversing with them (Boeing Frontiers, 2006). In order to promote the productivity of the employees, the company provides them with challenging work tasks. Many of the employees that had been working for several years had a lot of talent, which was not being harnessed fully, since the employees were in the same project for a long period of time. As a result, the company started a program of job rotation, where the employees were able to expand upon their experiences and bring more to the enterprise than earlier. Boeing has focused on learning from its lessons in order to promote innovation. They have also started documenting their practices. The Boeing has a diary of lessons that they learnt from each of its airplane projects; Kerzner (2009) recognizes this as a very good practice. Boeing has also built upon its communication with the employees. To advance upon its innovation, the company also made affiliations with universities all over the world. The Engineers Without Borders Program in the USA brings together engineers from universities in the development of a health environment. Space Camp and FIRST Robotics have also been introduced by the company to fuel the passion and innovative creativity of teachers and students. The company prides in its long held tradition for growth and progress. According to Jim Jamieson, the senior vice president of the EO&T department, the company is proud to accomplish a record backlog of business and is geared for future growth by continuing to be more efficient and effective in every department. The vice president adhered to the notion that all Boeing initiatives are based on the same ideology of continuous improvement. He stated that the company aimed to invest its resources for technological advancements at the right time and for the right technologies in order to maintain their position as the leading aerospace company both today and in the future. The main objectives of the company entail searching for opportunities which can combine with present operations to improve the research and development throughout the enterprise. It aims to identify and work towards the achievement of best practice and lean process improvements for engineering, research and development, operations, program management, and supplier management. The company aims to reproduce the findings in other projects of the enterprise in order to gain a synergist effect. The company also tries to lower its costs for research and investments. The goal of the enterprise is to achieve excellence in its product development and to cut down the investment costs, making the company more efficient and providing them with a yet stronger footing in the global market (Jamieson, 2006). Regarding the practice of the company for continuous improvement, Senator John McCain once said in a Senate Armed Services committee hearing, “The act of Boeing clearly commits here how much it is dedicated towards reforming” (Boeing Frontiers, 2006). Boeing continues to expand upon its leadership and innovation. It redesigns and improves its products and services so that they are in line with the changing needs of the customer. With technological breakthroughs, the company achieves high levels of product satisfaction, making it the giant of the aerospace industry. It keeps on adding to its family of commercial jets, with each subsequent addition being better economically and in terms of performance than the previous one. The company improves upon their military platforms, warfighter and defense systems by incorporating them into operations that are centered on networks. Advancing upon current technology is a must for the company and with creative measures like e-enabling jets and connecting moving platforms, the company has achieved a competitive edge. The company also lays claim to one of the most varied, inventive and capable workforces of the world, with more than 123,000 college graduates (Boeing, 2010). The Boeing Company had a four-engine jet, the 707, in 1954. Ever since that, the number of jets owned and developed by the company has grown steadily. It is the proud owner of the 727, 737, 757, 747, 767 and 777. The 737, a single-aisle, twin-jet 737, has been the most popular aircraft the Boeing has ever produced. For four decades, 747 monopolized the skies until the Airbus’s twin-decked A380 took over (The New York Times, 2010). The company is notorious for labor strikes throughout its history. This has caused the company to take steps to appease the complaints of the labors like Development Project Excellence, that was meant to be a platform for the workers to voice their concerns, and the Quality Through Training Program, which was the place for workers to perform various jobs and to get layoffs (May, et al., 2007). Moreover, one of the disappointments of the company with regard to product innovation was the company’s failure to not produce a high-resolution imaging system. It had a contract to supply military reconnaissance satellites with an optical imaging capability. The company was supposed to develop such satellites under the Future Imagery Architecture. Since it was not able to do so, its contract was canceled. This led to many other competitors stepping in, and gaining control of the market for satellites. The National Geo-spatial Intelligence agency contracted a deal with commercial spaceborne imaging companies they meet their demand for high-resolution imaging systems (Li, et al., 2008). However, the company has realized that failure is the ideal leveraging opportunity that they can have. Initially, they had trouble recognizing the value of failure. David Swain (2007) encouraged his workers to celebrate failure, where in fact they were not celebrating failure, rather the lessons that they learnt from it. It is essential to learn from failure so that the same mistakes are not repeated. As a result, the company remains top of the list by innovation and leadership, amongst other traits, that give people strength to achieve extraordinary things. As William E. Boeing contends, “We are trustees of a veritable revolution that is taking place once more in the economic, social, and political fabric with the arrival of this new speed medium” (Boeing, 2010). Reference List Boeing, 2010. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/ [Accessed 22 June 2010]. Jamieson, J., 2006. Development Process Excellence focuses on tech investments. Boeing Frontiers, [Online] Available at: http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2006/september/9-06_Frontiers.pdf [Accessed 22 June 2010]. Kerzner, H, 2009. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. 10th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Li, Z., Chen, J. & Baltsavias, E., 2008. Advances in photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences: 2008 ISPRS congress book. London: CRC Press. May, S. K., Cheney, G. & Roper, J., 2007. The debate over corporate social responsibility. Oxford University Press US. Boeing Frontiers, 2006. Boeing Frontiers, [Online] 5 (5), Available at: http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2006/september/9-06_Frontiers.pdf [Accessed 22 June 2010]. The New York Times, 2010. Boeing Company. [Online] (Updated 21 April 2010) Available at: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/boeing_company/index.html [Accessed 22 June 2010]. Read More