Boeing’s e-enabled advantage Essay Example for Free

Boeing’s e-enabled advantage Essay The Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense corporation, originally founded by William E. Boeing in 1916 in Seattle, Washington. In 2004, it became one of the United State’s largest manufacturers with nearly 160, 000 employees and a net income of $1. 87 billion. It was the world’s largest aerospace company and for decades, had dominated the world’s commercial aviation market. THEIR STRATEGY Their main strategy was to streamline their core processes and to diversify. In streamlining their core processes, Boeing adopted simpler procedures for configuring aircraft to specifications, scheduling, ordering parts and managing inventory. They also diversified and entered into other markets, becoming more agile geographically and becoming less dependent on the highly cycled commercial jetliner market. They also integrated defense systems, Capital Corporation and the commercial airlines. HOW I. T. FACTORED INTO THAT In launching the aforementioned integration and innovative technologies, Boeing needed high end Information Technology expertise. That helped them launch a couple of websites including MyBoeingFleet. com. They also launched the Boeing Connexion and the Airplane Health Management (AHM). They went further and took great strides to understand both the airlines and the airline customers and integrate their business processes with Information Technology. This helped them provide broader services and is the main source of the e-enabled technology mentioned in the case study. This helped them plan and prioritize current and future processes effectively. THE MARKET Their market initially was the United States military which drove their technology but later grew to include commercial airliners. Their commercial airline market rapidly grew to 60% of the market world over and they appeared to have reached the pinnacle of the corporate might. As this happened, the only direction Boeing seemed to be headed was downward due to the emergence of big competitors. THEIR COMPETITION In the commercial airliner, Airbus seemed to be their biggest competition but because of all the technologies they integrated into their business, it was competing in segmented markets against industry giants like Oracle, IBM and Accenture as well as Garmin International and Aero Exchange International but their visionary leadership and their willingness to invest in technology sees them come out on top. THEIR WEAKNESS One of the main weaknesses of Boeing was their inablitiy to meet delivery schedules for airlines. Some airplanes they manufactured were also said to be inefficient but that did not stop them from producing more of those aircrafts which led to the belief that they are out of touch with their customers. Also, their frequent change of leadership could be considered a weakness as that makes them frequently go back to the drawing board to re-strategize.