Supply Chain Management for Boeing

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is the managing of information flows in and between each stage in the supply chain. Supply chain management is necessary to ensure all products and services are provided to customers at the right time, in the specified quantities. Traditionally, a company simply bought directly from supplies, and sold directly to customers. Now, a supply chain is much more complicated, and having superior supply chain management gives a company a competitive advantage over the other companies with the same products or services. In supply chain management today, it is necessary to have the best possible visibility across your supply chain in order to fully understand what your customers are asking for. Because supply chain management is so complex, it is necessary for the firm to not only coordinate and share information amongst itself, but must also be able to coordinate with other organizations. In order to produce one single product, many components need to be accumulated from different sources, meaning that many organizations are involved in the process. Most supply chains look more like webs rather than chains, due to the abundance of aspects that lead to the production of a product or service.

It is absolutely critical to manage a supply chain in today's economic environment because it is the key to success in a company. Without a successful supply chain, the product or service provided by the company would not be completed, and there would be nothing to provide for the customer. Efficiency plays a large part in business success in today's economy, and a successful supply chain provides the customer with the best possible product in the shortest amount of time, and to the desired location. Supply chain management is necessary in order to ensure the customer is happy and the company is working in the most efficiently way possible.

Supply Chain Management in Aerospace Industry

In the past, the aerospace industry has experienced many set backs due to malfunctions in their supply chain management. These problems have brought awareness to the extreme importance of successful supply chain management in all industries. It is necessary for supply chain management to be successful in the aerospace industry because not only are the vessels used very complex and made of many different parts, but also the travelling industry depends on strong customer relationships as well. Supply chain management is so critical for the aerospace industry because they have an abundance of suppliers and manufacturers across the world, which all contribute to the end product of producing a safe and reliable aircraft.

Boeing states that their supply chain management is critically important on their website with the following statement, "The objective of Supply Chain Services is to improve aircraft availability and reduce costs according to customer-defined preferences." This proves that the company's goal is to ensure that the best product is made, while always keeping the customers best interest in mind.

With Boeing and AirBus being the only producers of aircrafts, both companies must ensure that their supply chains are controlled and organized because neither of the two can afford any set backs. As stated in the Wall Street Journal, August 8th, 2008 "With a full backlog and a price tag around $200 million per aircraft, these companies do not want to delay delivery of any new aircraft. But apparently they have had to park nearly finished aircrafts due to some missing parts." This proves that one missing aspect from a supply chain can have a huge impact on profits for these companies. These companies are at a much greater risk because they are receiving parts from thousands of suppliers across the world, meaning they have to have high visibility of all components of their supply chains in order to ensure production and delivery is done on time.

Our Recommendations for our Company

We have chosen to work with Manley Valve and Hulkey Fasteners. We chose these two companies because they have the best delivery time for their products. Both companies have an average of having on time deliveries. This is ideal in the profitability of a company because efficiency and productivity is key. These two companies also offer us 30 days or more to pay for their product, which gives us a sufficient amount of time to create the cash flow necessary