MGT301- Spring 2013

Spirit Airlines: We Know You Hate It, But We Don’t Care

Posted on by spr1313zmares

Spirit Airlines is an American airline company that is known for having low-cost flights. The company is more concerned about the prices they give out rather than the complaints they are receiving. Spirit has been acquring their fair share of criticism from customers and the media. A survey was made of some 16,000 customer ratings and Spirit Airlines was among the bottom of the list for flying in America. “That report did not ask the one big question of who offers the best prices. And hands down, the No. 1 thing we’re told by our customers is that the price matters,” says Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson. Let’s be honest, would you complain about a flight that is two and a half hours long and only cost 75 bucks?

Spirit AirlinesThe company strives to make the price for flights as low as possible. They have an average base price of only 79 dollars. One thing that customers hate about Spirit Airlines is the fact that they charge fees before and during the flights to passengers. These fees can add up to be 40 to 50 dollars for the majority of customers. Spirit Airlines does not even offer a free cup of water or have a video system while the passengers are in flight. There is not much leg room either so you are cramped, regardless of how short you are.

The airline company believes that is what the Spirit customers want when it comes to this airline business. Spirit believes they have travelers who would most likely be getting a bus seat if their airline service was not available. The Chief Executive Officer Ben Baldanza says, “Well, what we say is that we care about what our customers care about, which is price, and one of the things that Consumer Reports survey didn’t ask is where do you get the lowest fare? And so they asked about leg room, and they asked about check-in, and they asked about bag fees, and things like that. But the total price that customers pay on Spirit Airlines is less than they pay on anyone else, and that’s why they love us.”

Spirit Airline company should not be upset by all the criticism coming their way. Spirit is a very solid business as their sales rose 23 percent in just the past quarter. The planes are fuller than the rest of the other airline companies. The company has a rate of 85.1 percent in the first quarter  of 2013 when it comes to flights being full. That makes the company really profitable as they move forward.

The airline company still gets a lot of negative feedback from the press even when they are succeeding. So, is it fair that Spirit Airlines is getting this terrible assessment from the media when they are making profits and almost all of their flights are full? Does the base price really trump all the niceties that other airlines offer?Or should management try to improve their baggage fees and legroom in the flights in order to please the customers more?

Links:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-23/spirit-airlines-doesnt-care-if-you-hate-it

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/news/companies/spirit-airlines-fees/index.htm

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/spirit-airlines-ceo-we-have-the-lowest-prices-and-thats-what-customers-care-about.html/

Lego: Building on Product Quality, Brick by Brick

Posted on by spr1313krodriguez

When you were younger, did you ever try and build an entire house? Not to brag, but I certainly did at age five. When I was especially bored, I would try to construct a towering skyscraper. I would even go so far as to assemble a car for a building resident, whose smile seemed to imply complete satisfaction.

How did I accomplish such daunting tasks at a young age? With a little creativity…

…and a bunch of Lego bricks.lego-6

The Lego brand is known worldwide for its ingenious building sets and for fostering children’s imaginations, and it all starts with standardized blocks connected together by miniature knobs. Yet as simple as this may sound, a lot of work goes into ensuring that these small bricks are produced to the highest degree of quality.

According to the company’s profile, Lego bricks are manufactured through a molding process, where ABS plastic is heated and injected into standard molds and left to cool for about seven seconds. The molds are extremely accurate in that they only allow for a natural variation of 0.001 millimeters in each brick, to ensure connectivity. Nevertheless, the entire molding process itself is so precise that there are about 18 defective bricks in every million produced. And if you thought that was crazy, the company ensures that “all Lego elements are fully compatible, irrespective when they were made during the period from 1958 to the present or by which factory.” Talk about extreme quality control!

Forbes recently interviewed Lego’s Senior Vice President for Engineering and Quality, John Hansen. The interview provided insight into the company’s unequaled level of quality, which allowed them to increase brick production from 25 billion in 2008 to 45.7 billion in 2012.  “We have the same quality standards all over the globe,” he says, which explains their uniform and consistent products. Hansen also states that their production facilities put each element of a Lego set (from the bricks to the instruction manual) through rigorous tests to make sure that they follow company, consumer, and international standards. As if this weren’t enough, Lego also looks for new ways to improve their production process from both a business and environmental perspective. They are currently working on searching for new ecological raw materials and refining their product packaging to reduce waste.

I think that other toy companies need to take Lego’s quality standards into consideration in their operations. With product recalls or safety hazards being found in numerous toy products annually, it would not hurt for them to learn a thing or two from their design and production processes. It might even help to solve their product variation or defect problems given Lego’s track record; you don’t see many consistently produced superhero action figures as you do Lego bricks. Besides, why question a successful company whose motto is “The best is never too good”?

Do you think that other toy companies can follow Lego’s standards of uniform quality when it comes to manufacturing their products? Can they also be applied to other industries as well?

Links:

Lego Company Profile: http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/AboutUsFactsAndFiguresContent/otherfiles/download98E142631E71927FDD52304C1C0F1685.pdf

Michael Venables, “How Lego Makes Safe, Quality, Diverse and Irresistible Toys Everyone Wants: Part Two” (Forbes): http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelvenables/2013/04/20/how-lego-makes-the-safe-quality-diverse-and-irresistible-toys-we-all-want-part-two/

Walmarts Working Class

Posted on by spr1313gmyles

Chief marketer Stephen Quinn was interviewed by Geoff Calvin on the strategies he enforced on the makeover of Wal-mart. In recent quarters, Wal-mart was doing terribly in sales when the economy was at its worst. Individuals lost their jobs which lead to little to no sales at Wal-marts nationwide. Quinn then began to look at the problems behind these inaccurate sales and he came up with; individuals who had little income, due to the recession that hit the economy badly were Wal-Mart majority shoppers, Wal-Mart prices had to change also, and if the prices did not change, Wal-Mart would have soon been out of business in just a couple of years down the road. As Quinn and his marketing and managemnet’s teams work hard on this new makeover, Wal-Mart  main focus were to keep and develop new customers and help them save money and live better. Executives at Wal-Mart guarantee that shopping at Wal-Mart will give their customers the lowest price and top brands than any other retail store. As the economy began to grow after the recent recession, Wal-Mart’s sales began to pick up dramatically and are now the #1 retailer store.Walmart’s location tends to have exceptionally better sales in rural and suburban areas than in large cities areas.Wal-Mart has all kinds of groups shopping at their store, but everyone is there to save money. Indeed Wal-Mart has individuals who are well off in life, but they too want to save money as those who are not so well off in life. As Wal-Mart was creating their makeover, they notice that their rival surrounding stores were creating lower prices than Wal-Mart stores and customers began to respond and start to shop at those stores. Wal-Mart took action, not only did Wal-Mart reduce their prices, but they also made majority of their stores a one stop shop, where customers can shop for groceries, clothing, home furniture items, and much more at a cheaper price. Wal-Mart also introduces the concept called price matching. This concept was basically when a customer brings in a sales paper from another store and compares Wal-Mart and the other store prices. If the other store price were better and lower than Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart would than price match that price and give the customer the price of the lower cost. Quinn and his marketing team target families and individuals who had little income.  They focused on revamping their prices so that those individuals can save their, buy what they want and need, and live a better life. Even before the recession had struck the nation, Walmart’s strategies were still focusing on the working class and/or the middle class. As I was reading this article it shows how Wal-mart operates its business in order to maintain its spot as the#1 retail store in the United States and it also shows how their low cost method is what benefits their customers the most. However, the implications of Walmart’s quality their employment practices may not be up to part to some people, Walmart has still shown tremendous profitability in their market.  http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/14/news/companies/walmart_stephen_quinn_leadership.fortune/index.htm

Question: Even though Walmart target market is the working class, how would you express its conditions of management skills with its workers who work there?

Phishing for Sardines

Posted on by spr1313pnolan

Recent trends indicate that cyberattackers are increasingly targeting small, startup businesses as larger companies have ramped up IT defenses in recent years. According to a report by cybersecurity firm, Symantec, “cyberattacks on small businesses with fewer than 250 employees represented 31% of all attacks in 2012, up from 18% in the prior year” (Link 1). As soon as a business sets up its website and email domain, cyberattacks are triggered almost immediately. In fact, by the time a business is five months old, it has already been targeted by hundreds of spam phishing messages and Malware attacks and, within ten months, most companies will have been infected with Malware. (Link 2). Hackers will also use attacks known as Ransomware, where an attackers locks up company computers and networks demanding a ransom to stop the attacks. Computers are not the only targets of these attacks, however. With the proliferation of smart phones and mobile devices in the business world, many attackers are now using malicious software to infiltrate these mobile devices in order to steal valuable information. Verizon’s RISK team has indicated that this trend of increasing attacks on small startup companies has been relatively consistent over the past six years (Link 1).

Larger corporations have the time and resources to devote to IT security that small businesses and startups just don’t have. Startup businesses in particular have enough concerns related to gaining market share and generally keeping their doors open and generally can’t devote enough resources to IT security. Further, despite the statistics, many small business owners falsely believe they are boring targets for cyberattackers due to their size. However, small businesses can be extremely lucrative and easy targets for these types of attacks. Most often, cyberattackers are after customer credit card numbers, contact information, intellectual property, or money from company bank accounts that are specific to the individual target company (Link 2). However, many hackers target small firms with a much bigger prize in mind. Increasingly frustrated with the beefed up security at larger firms, cyberattackers are using smaller firms as an entry point as they are often customers or suppliers of larger firms. Once a smaller firm is infected, it can spread viruses and other malicious software to a larger firm by way of emails and other exchanges throughout the course of normal business operations. Another way attackers are attempting to use smaller companies as bait is through the strategy of infecting startup companies in growth industries like tech and healthcare. The attackers then lie and wait hoping these infected companies will be gobbled up through mergers and acquisitions, which have been increasing as of late with the improving economy and availability of cheap debt. The attackers are essentially using the acquired company as a sort of trojan horse strategy to then infect the acquiring company and steal its valuable information.

Whatever specific tactic is used, startup companies have been increasingly targeted by cyberattacks as of late. In terms of time and resources, these new companies are stretched thin enough as it is. In-house IT departments are very expensive as is externally sourced internet security software sufficient enough to fortify these companies against sophisticated attacks. In light of this, what is a small business owner to do? Can they take steps to not be infected without professional help? Or is IT security spending now just an operational cost of doing business that can’t be avoided?

Link 1: http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/22/smallbusiness/small-business-cybercrime/index.html?iid=EL

Link 2: http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/23/technology/startup-cyberattack/index.html?iid=SF_SB_River

How The Light Bulb Got Its Groove Back

Posted on by Marco


incandescent_light_bulbLED_Bulbcfl_light_bulb

In the 19th century, the only type of bulb available was the incandescent light bulb. This bulb was “the biggest thing since sliced bread” and incredibly effective at its job. Unfortunately for the light bulb, the business world seems to continuously search for improvements or replacements of the once great predecessor. Today, the incandescent light bulb seems like an antique compared to the variety of light bulbs available. Consumers can choose now choose from incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, HID (high-intensity discharge), and LED (light emitting diodes) light bulbs. Each light bulb usually provides a longer life and brighter light than their respective predecessors. Consumers also now have the option to choose from a variety of light types (i.e. warm, cool, natural) and whether they dim or not. At a certain point, a consumer can be quickly flooded with and drown in the massive amount of information and options of light bulbs.

At this point, someone may be thinking to themselves “why should I care about light bulbs?” I’ll admit that when considering a single light bulb the selection of said bulb would not save someone or a company millions of dollars, but an impact will be evident. The average person, especially not a company, does not utilize a single light bulb. Let’s consider an average home to use for as example: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, one kitchen, one dining room, etc. Each room requires at least one lighting fixture, and each fixture uses three light bulbs (if we stay on the conservative side). All these rooms and fixtures amount to a possible minimum of 30 light bulbs.

LED

Compact Florescent

Incandescent

Price per bulb

$ 35.95

$ 3.95

$ 1.25

Life Span

50,000 Hours

8,000 Hours

1,200 Hours

Kilowatts per year

329

767

3,285

Annual Oper. Cost

$ 32.85

$ 76.65

$ 328.59

Now imagine the impact this has over the possible minimum of bulbs established earlier. Although a single light bulb, or even light bulbs in general, might not seem to have a large impact on finances, this myth is quickly proven false. Buildings owners, whether residential or commercial, must take into consideration the price of and the operating costs of light bulbs into their expenses. This affects large buildings even more because of the massive amount of light bulbs in use at any given times. The light bulb is no longer solely symbolic of an idea and can now come to represent money, or $$$.

How could something so small and seemingly insignificant come to have such a large impact on the financial aspect of households and businesses? Should the government require homes and businesses to replace current light bulbs with more efficient ones? Would the requirement even be worth the hassle?

 

http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/long-live-the-lightbulb/

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=lighting.pr_lighting_landing

http://www.megavolt.co.il/Tips_and_info/types_of_bulbs.html

Mass Customization: Tailoring To The Individual

Posted on by spr1323nnadeem

NIke, Dell, and Swatch

The system of mass customization benefited manufacturers by offering services and achieving greater customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. In addition, customization brought greater advance information on market trends and reduces inventory. Usually, many companies cannot handle the mass customization system because of the way how their supply chains are designed and optimized for producing predetermined amounts of stock.  Because of this, some manufacturers believe that the profit margins are too low for those who adopt the mass customization system, and thus the system is not economically feasible since it depends on the type of the product.

To increase sales, most manufacturers integrate the most common appealing features into their products to move units.  Conversely, the ideology of mass customization is that every aspect of a product will be tailored to a customer specifically.  For example, Swatch, the world’s largest watchmaker company, produces standardized internal mechanism components en masse, but also offers a wide variety options such as colors, straps, faces, and so on. The idea of a personally tailored product has been adopted by prominent vehicle manufacturers, computer manufacturers, and many more.

Dell, as another example, has demonstrated the idea of mass customization and utilizes it to allow their customers a very personal PC experience. Dell allows customers to assemble their own desktops and laptops online by customizing components such as, hard disk, graphics cards, processor, memory (RAM), and other options before assembly and delivery.  Amazingly, Dell manages to offer a fair amount of variety with their components, but achieves the lowest cost of production in the entire industry, leveraging the benefits of e-commerce and mass customization in selling directly to customers.

Both Swatch and Dell offer personalized experiences, but these two manufactures do not offer an unlimited number of choices.  Instead, companies learn what sort of spectrum that customers would be comfortable purchasing in and adjust the limits accordingly so that customers will end up happy with both their product and service.

Nike, as the most popular sports equipment manufacturer in the world, pioneered many ideas in the industry of mass customization. In spite of this large number of products tailored to golf, basketball, tennis, and soccer enthusiasts, operations managers at Nike have improved product quality while reducing overall costs. Nike allows customers to customize many of their products. For instance, customers can print their own names and numbers on shoes as well as customize their shoe strings to different color. Consequently, these practices boosted sales of Nike products to phenomenal levels, smartly marrying the links between sales, production, design, supply chain, and logistics.

The greatest downfall of mass customization is wait time.  Considering that each product must be tailored to a specific customer, often being done by hand, it will take longer to be in a purchaser’s possession.  That is where uniformly mass produced products are advantageous, as they do not have to meet a specific criteria.  In addition, most custom products cannot be returned to a manufacturer, since the item was created specifically for an individual and the likelihood that that product would meet another person’s needs exactly is slim.

 

Should more businesses adopt the idea of tailoring a product to an individual’s needs?

 

 

 

 Sources:

“Combining Elements of Mass Production with Those of Bespoke Tailoring.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 23 May 2013.
http://www.economist.com/node/14299807

Mello, Adrian. “Mass Customization Won’t Come Easy.” ZDNet. N.p., 19 Dec. 2001. Web. 23 May 2013.
http://www.zdnet.com/news/mass-customization-wont-come-easy/296569

“NIKE ID – The First Example of Mass Customization Driving Profit? | Crossroad Innovation.” Crossroad Innovation NIKE ID The First Example of Mass Customization Driving Revenue Comments. N.p., 10 Sept. 2010. Web. 23 May 2013.
http://www.crossroadinnovation.com/nike-id

“NIKEiD.” Mass Customization. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2013.
http://www.mass-customization.com/custom-shoes/nikeid/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wal-Mart Just Can’t Keep Products on the Shelves (In a Bad Way)

Posted on by spr1313cpfeiffer

Wal-Mart Just Can’t Keep Products on the Shelves (In a Bad Way)

Wal-Mart has seemingly had a considerable amount of trouble keeping shelves in its stores adequately stocked since reducing the number of employees on staff at once in stores.  This is odd for a retail location since when products are not on shelves, there is not a large chance of them being purchased.  Especially disconcerting is that Wal-Mart has become the largest retailer in the world on the back of a supposed mastery of its supply chain.

Wal-Mart is now taking measures to ensure that the issue with product stocking is corrected.  The latest effort employed to do so is an external auditing process which entails a detailed process of checking each and every Wal-Mart location to make sure that products (when in stock) are on the shelves for consumption.

Wal-Mart refers to whether or not stores are adequately stocked via a metric known as on-shelf availability or OSA.  Due to the recent issues and the need to involve an external company to help stores ensure that they are stocked properly, shareholders are expected to vote at the next meeting as to whether or not Wal-Mart managers and executives should have their performance reviews and potential compensation tied to OSA.

When visiting a Wal-Mart location, check for neon green stickers next to the price tags on certain products; those are the ones that the auditors are going to be looking for.  Originally, the idea was to have the auditors go into the Wal-Mart stores and check on certain pre-determined items (unknown the store employees) and assign a grade based on how stocked those products were.  However, before the actual auditing process ended up taking place, it was determined that it would be beneficial to the employees at the stores to know the products that were being checked because those would most likely be highly driven items for the time of the year.  This entailed a rather tedious process for store managers as they had to allocate employees to the task of sticking green stickers next to products that needed to be stocked instead of actually just stocking them.

While the idea is good in theory, the actual outcome has been less than stellar since a good portion of the stores now have incredibly well-stocked green dot items with very poorly stocked products immediately next to them.  This should have been expected since the employees could focus purely on the products they would be evaluated on.

This situation is a very direct link to supply chain concept discussed in class.  In this case, the retail stores a sort of bottleneck.  After the products are produced and shipped to retail locations, they are not being put out fast enough to get to the customers.  Managers need to focus on properly allocating their limited employee resources to getting the task completed.

Do you think that this process will work?  How else could Wal-Mart improve its product stocking?

 

Need a New Heart? Let Me Print One for You

Posted on by erytych

It is amazing to live in a generation where technology is advancing because we get to witness life-changing events right before our eyes. Recently, there has been a substantial amount of conversation about three-dimensional printing and how it will change the future because we will be able to print objects instead of psychically manufacturing them. Lately, scientists have been experimenting on printing out anything they could think of, ranging from things such as adjustable wrenches to human organs. Yes that ‘s right, a human organ. You are probably wondering how that is possible. Well you are not alone because when I first heard about 3D printing, I thought to myself, “How in the world is that possible? I can’t even imagine that.”  Then I heard about how 3-D printing had saved a baby’s life and I thought to myself, “Okay, now this is a joke.” Well, it’s not.

3D Printed Wrench

At six weeks old, a baby boy named Kaiba had stopped breathing because of a rare obstruction in his lungs called bronchial malacia; this is a condition where the cartilage in the walls of the bronchial tubes are weakened. After being revived and taken home, Kaiba’s breathing had failed on him day after day causing his parents to constantly perform CPR on him. With the hopes of Kiaba’s survival diminishing, doctors didn’t know what else to do except perform a medical experimental technique equivalent of a “Hail Mary” pass, 3-D Printing.

3d-printed-gears

I can see 3-D printing becoming a process strategy within the mere future because it will be a production process that meets customer requirements and product specifications within a certain cost. In Kaiba’s case, it already has saved his life. Doctor’s had taken an x-ray of his lungs and transferred the picture to a 3-D printer to successfully duplicate a splint measuring “a few centimeters by eight millimeters.” Specifically, this would be considered a process focus strategy because creating one customized, artificial support to be surgically attached into a human requires the ability to be able to produce in low volume. Because of the low volume, doctors can then focus on producing a high variety of customized products for their customers.

 

Having a high degree of product flexibility and a team of experts to meet your specifications and produce your product sounds like an excellent strategy for any ordinary individual; however, one thing some people might not realize are the costs associated with it all. Creating an object that saved Kiaba’s life is a phenomenal occurrence; however, the bill following the surgery is probably not.

 

Do you think 3-D printing will one day become a Repetitive Focus strategy, or maybe even Product Focus Strategy?

Is this a product that meets and exceeds customer requirements, costs and managerial goals?

What do you think are the long term effects 3D printing has on efficiency, production flexibility and quality?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/health/baby-surgery/index.html?npt=NP1

Airline Industry Summer Strategy: Have lessons been learned?

Posted on by spr1313aperrotin

“As an airline, if you’re not excited about summer, you’re in the wrong business,” said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest’s chief operating officer. In other words, if you cannot handle the heat get out of the kitchen. This summer, airport crowds are expected to be the largest in the U.S. since 2008. In 2012, all airline flights including regional had an average 76.1% on-time flight arrivals (flight stats analytics WSJ). That will not “fly” this summer.

image_security_linesWhat method of forcasting informed Airlines that airport crowds are expected to be higher than recent years?

United had a terrible summer last year—only 67.9% of flights arrived on-time in summer months. Customer complaints soared. The airline blamed computer system problems related to its merger with Continental Airlines and an attempt to schedule planes and crews more tightly. The plan backfired because it created longer delays and widespread disruption when tighter schedules couldn’t be met. The use of Gantt charts to schedule turnover time is a simple strategy Airlines use. They are constantly coming up with new ways of speeding up this complex process. Southwest does not have to purchase many Airlines because of how fast they can turnover planes. They plan to use spare airplanes this summer to accommodate stuck travelers more quickly. Southwest plans to routinely keep operating late into the night rather than cancel flights on stormy days. This is a contributor to why Southwest is a leader in customer satisfaction.

What is a disadvantage to scheduling each project to tight with each other?

United says they are better prepared for summer because it has more staff and better scheduling. In addition, the airline has rolled out new graphics screens for its computer system to make it easier and faster for airport agents to use. United also is introducing new boarding lanes at gate areas. Five different boarding groups will line up in different areas, similar to how Southwest lines up customers by groups, so that each group will have a designated place to wait. A brilliant new seating system is set to take off. The coach cabin will board window-seat passengers first, then middle seats, and aisle seats last. With the “Wilma” system, as United calls it, seats fill faster because people already seated don’t have to get up as much to let a row mate in.  Now there are more reasons than one to get an window seat.

The industry as a whole have made changes that fliers should be aware of before making travel plans. Budget cuts in Transportation Security Administration overtime will likely lead to longer security-screening lines. Make sure travel plans are set in stone because domestic ticket fees change  to $200 from $150, and international change fees went to $300 from $250. United Airlines, Delta, American, and US Airways collected a total of $2.3 billion in reservation cancellation and change fees last year, according to the Department of Transportation.

Will higher change and cancellation fees persuade fliers to book with other airlines?

What may be the reasons Airlines raise these fees? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578499162528986162.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Boeing, flying high once again?

Posted on by Dom

After 15 months and millions of dollars spent, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has resumed commercial flights. The groundbreaking jet, introduced in July 2003 was dubbed as the next generation airplane that would revolutionize the way air travel operated. Soon after preliminary flights, major aircraft corporations began to notice technical and mechanical issues that affected the reliability of the jet. These problems resulted in flights being delayed and cancelled. In January, two 787s owned by Japanese airlines experienced burning batteries that would later ground all 787s.

Prior to the grounding, delivered 787s logged a reliability rating of 97.7% (23 delays/cancellations out of 1000 flights). This result was comparable to the long tested and proven 777 that that 787 aims to replace. As technology expands, systems become more intricate and coincide with higher rates of failure. The 787 is an example of new age lithium-ion batteries, electrical systems, and computer systems that alter service requirements. This plane alone requires 10 times more power during startup than traditional Boeing planes, computer and electrical systems to be turned on three hours before each flight, and scheduled maintenance in between each flight.

During this downtime Boeing continuously has been mass producing these airplanes to fill the 800+ orders that have been filed from 50+ customers. By April 2013, 50 planes have been built and delivered to their respective companies. However, this plane does retain more positives than negatives, thus accounting for the 800+ orders. With this new technology, the planes will be able to be serviced in as little as 45 minutes. This will allow for companies to keep their planes in the air instead of on the ground. In addition, new light weight materials have been used and new fuel efficient engines fitted on the wings that allow for longer distance flights without using more fuel.

Aboard the new computer system, Boeing has also included a transmitter that will upload the airplane’s data to a world-wide network managed by Boeing’s facilities near Seattle. This system will track each jet’s information, making it easier for mechanics to fix any issues that may have occurred during a flight. This system will also allow for Boeing to monitor necessary maintenance updates as well as be able to ground any planes that it deems unsafe to fly.

Years behind schedule and plagued with problems, the Boeing 787 did not have a successful start. Boeing executives believe that in the future years to come, this plane will be more reliable than the 777 and project a reliability rating of 99+%. The 787 is a key example of problems during the operations strategy of a company and their ability to overcome difficult situations that result in millions of dollars of losses. At this point the 787 is operational, but if similar problems occur in the future, Boeing may lose potential orders.

With so many problems occurring with the 787, do you believe that its main competitor (Airbus) may be regarded as a safer investment?

What do you believe lies in the future for the 787? Will it continue to experience more problems or will it beat the projected 99+% reliability?

Works Cited
Ostrower, Jon, and Andy Pasztor. “Dreamliner’s Other Issues Draw Attention; Boeing and Airlines Try to Improve More Systems After Fixing Battery Flaws.” Wall Street Journal (Online): n/a. May 20 2013. ProQuest. Web. 22 May 2013.