Managing organizations: Boeing

Essay by markcamUniversity, Bachelor'sB, October 2007

download word file, 28 pages 4.2

CONTENTSPAGEGeneral Background1Production Problems6Employees10Project Management15Manufacturing Style17Boeing Quality Management22Competition26The Main Competitor: Airbus31Local Scenario33Graph: Deliveries34Graph: Orders35Maltese Scenario36Team's Experience38Bibliography40GENERAL BACKGROUNDIt all started by the fonder William Boeing who was an American aeronautical engineer. On July 15, 1916 Boeing incorporated his airplane manufacturing business as Pacific Aero Products Co. Shortly, 1 year later he changed the name to the Boeing Airplane Company. By 1917 the company had 28 employees on its payroll amongst which were pilots, carpenters, boat builders and seamstresses. Wages started from 14c /hour up to $300 a month for a pilot.

The company's first production order was that of seaplanes for the American Navy. This made the 387 people on Boeing's expanding payroll.

Struggling to survive, in 1919 William Boeing together with pilot Eddie Hubbard started to deliver the first international airmail from Vancouver to Seattle.

However military sales for World War 1 made Boeing a leading producer of military air fighter.

Company FormationIn 1927 the company won the U.S. Post office contract to deliver mail between San Francisco, California, and Chicago. This led to the formation of Boeing AirTransport (BAT). BAT also trained pilots, setup airfields and staffed maintenance facilities for the new airmail service.

Boeing started producing passenger air transport and by 1928 the number of employees increased to 800.

On the other hand, Boeing's direct competitor of airplane manufacturers Douglas Co. continued its expansion on producing the Douglas World Cruiser.

However Boeing continued to succeed and in 1928 it setup a new holding company called the United Aircraft and Transport Corp. (UATC)Trying to keep a monopolistic advantage on passenger planes, Boeing lost new customers as it refused to supply its latest carriers to potential customers which indeed where grasped by competitor Douglas Aircraft Co.

New American legislation in 1934 prevented airframe manufacturer from owning mail-carrying airlines. This led the...