s Management 41 CASE APPLICATION Dreamliner N he 787 Dreamliner was born out of
ID: 363448 • Letter: S
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s Management 41 CASE APPLICATION Dreamliner N he 787 Dreamliner was born out of desperation. The year was 2003 and Boeing had just lost its title as the world's largest plane manufacturer to European In the 787's first year of service, at least four aircraft suffered somc type of electrical problem. Aithough such problems are not unusual, especially in the first year of a newly designed aircraft. a number of incidents, including an electrical fire aboard an All Nippon Dreamliner plane and a rival Airbus. Boeing's then d ln The Boeing 787: Deveo defense-contract scandal. And company's stock price had it and built by a global network of suppliers similar fire aboard a landed 787 to its lowest price in t Boston's Logan International Airport, led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to order of the Dreamliner ade. Remember, this was two years after the 9/11 ter- prist attacks and financially troubled airlines were reluctant to t in new equipment. Boeing needed something revolution a review of the design and manufacture There obviously was enough concern over wh ry to win back customers. because it proceeded to ground the entire Boeing 787 fleet. That something was a technologically advanced aircraft hat would be developed and built by a global network of sup. lithium-ion batteries, manufactured by a Japan Aviation safety investigators focuse d their attention on the 787's pliers. Major parts for the airplane would be preassembled all er the world and then shipped to Everett, Washington, where Yuasa of Kyoto. Boein s team immediately set to work to solve is a BIG problem! In mid- March 2013, Boeing announced that it had come up with solu- ov the issue hecause a grounded fleet ld be "snapped together" i nthree days, compared h a month the traditional way. And it was Boeing's first tions for the Dreamliner problems. The 787's chief engineer said. eight composite materials (graphite, We may never get to a single root cause." But the engineers had danium, carbon fiber) rather than traditional metals, mak- looked at some 80 potential problems that could lead to a bat ing the 787 a lighter and more efficient aircraft than previous models. Why was this so revolutionary? The 787 could fly further, burn less fuel, and offer more passenger comforts than tery fire, categorized them into four groups, and come up with solutions for each group. A major part of the "fix" was a batte ry enclosure made of stainless stel, not designed to contain a fire. steel, not designed to contain a fire gen. With the fix in place and out around the globe modifying the 787's batteries. By the end of was currently available. The 787 had built-in sensors de- but to prevent the battery from ever having a fire to begin with by signed to help counter the effects of turbulence, making for a quickly starving any flame of oxy ther flight. And it was designed to have more humid air, approved by the FAA, a team of Dreamliner technicians fan ieter engines, improved lighting, and the largest windows in industry. Of course, airlines were eager to save money and the April 2013, the Dreamliner fleet went back into service customers and ordered a record number of the planes. innovative features (or, as some critics said, maybe Discussion Questions plane was originally scheduled to be delivered in 15-20 What role does innovati and manufacturing challenges-coordinating that 15-21 What role does technology pl tecause of), the 787 faced many production setbacks and dela (the 2008). These delays were due to several issues, includ- Sign global suppliers, using new materials in the plane, and ling the sophisticated components. However, three after its first expected delivery date, Boeing handed operations? tion's operations? (Take a look back at the Technology and the Managers Job box on p. 465,) liner team faced. Could these issues have been avoided? Why as 15-22 Describe the operations management issues that the Dream- the first 787 on a rainy and blustery day in Everett, ington, to Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. on September 15-23 Is a global network of suppliers the future of operations man- es division said "Today... will always be remembered as 15-24 What other lessons about operations management can you 11. The chief executive of Boeing's commercial air- agement? Discuss. Pan a new day in commercial aviation."Explanation / Answer
Below are the answers for the questions.
Answer for Q 15-20:
1. Innovation helps organization optimize and reduce the cost of overall operations.
2. Innovation helps to reduce the time of delivery of goods for an organization.
3. More importantly, in the airline manufacturing business, it also helps to avoid safety issues as well as legal complexities.
4. Interestingly and eventually, it provides an organization a competitive advantage over its peers. Thus provides customer satisfaction and more repeat orders.
Answer for Q 15-21 :
1. Technology provides an advantage of enhancing the business operations and the time i.e. speed of the good delivery.
2. Technology helps an organization to create a lean cost structure thus reduces the cost.
3. It also aids in rationalizing the human resources providing them flexibility to avoid manual tasks and repeatative work items. There technology can pitch in and help.
Answer for Q 15-22
Issues faced by Dreamliner's Operations Team are,
1. The production set backs
2. Delays in aircraft delivery
3. Manufacturing troubles such as coordinating with global suppliers, how to use new type of raw material etc.
4. Design problem in electrical components
These issues could have been avoided for sure by following points.
1. Better design development using strong research
2. Effective collaboration with global suppliers on usage of new type of material and assembling the components.
3. Appropriate level of testing than what had been done prior to the delivery
4. I believe these factors could have helped.
Answer for Q 15-23 :
1. If an organization intends to expands its business significantly then definitely developing the strong global suppliers network is must
2. Such network helps source best quality of the products
3. It aids an organization to get the materials at best possible rates. E.g. Apple Inc gets benefited from its Chinese network og suppliers
3. Another aspect is that many services can also be made available from the global partners. E.g. Information Technology services that India provides to its counterparts in USA, Europe and rest parts of the world.
4. This gives an advantage to get experience and expertise as an organization as it gets to learn global best practices
5. An organization gets benefited because of technology aids, human resources etc that gets created due to global suppliers network
6. It makes operations of the company leaner and flexible and helps it reach many customers and consumers across the globe.
Answer for Q 15-24 :
This is a very good case study on operations aspects. And following are the few comments about the same.
1. This provides an insights and learning on how senior management should have taken strong and measured approaches in reducing the prospective risks
2. How design process and teams could have managed in a better way
3. The management of the customer delivery and expectations is key and how better they can be managed
4. The better collaboration with global partners is required to be handled in smooth manner in order to reduce service delivery, time as well as costs in addition to customer satisfaction
5.
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