Project Planning & Scheduling

Boeing Company assembles airplanes for commercial airlines in addition to many other assemblies such as space shuttles, military airplanes, etc. Building an airplane is an example of a project. First of all it is a unique product. Also, the plane does not get moved until fully assembled. Boeing’s main production facility is located in Everett, Washington. Furthermore, Boeing’s suppliers bring the needed parts and tools to the site so the plane does not have to get moved during its production. All these arguments are proof, of airplanes being a project.
Producing an airplane takes a lot of time and is a very complicated and broad process. The first task in assembling an airplane is to come up with a design and model which have to be broad on paper, the size, features and engine need to be decided on. A budget needs to be established at the same time, Boeing needs to make sure the plans are realistic and meet the budget. The second step is the scheduling, for Boeing this is a major factor to make sure that their airplanes get delivered on time. Different Departments need to be taught which part of the airplane they have to assemble and the deadlines have to be set. The last task is the execution. Boeing employees need to be highly skilled workers to make sure that the job is done quickly and correct. While these three tasks are in process, the operations managers have to keep an eye over the process at all times to control the planning, scheduling, and execution of the airplane to see if the planned implication meets the actual implication regarding money, time, and cost.
Boeing uses the Gantt chart for their projects to show the different tasks and the bar charts needed. According to a Swiss Company called Flex Gantt UI Framework which is a Java planning and scheduling application, Boeing is one of their customers.
Boeing has a big problem with delivering their airplanes on time. Using the Gantt chart is a great way to keep track of the different tasks and the time in which the task are being accomplished. For some reason this system does not seem to work out for Boeing. In assembling an airplane different activities depend on each other and the production cannot move on without different parts are being finished. For example, an airplane body gets assembled in three parts, the front, middle, and back. All three parts need to be assembled together to move on to the next tasks such a interior or painting. The problem with the Gantt chart is that it does only show the different tasks by itself without the relationship to the other tasks. For that reason Boeing will not be able to see why the production is slowing down and more importantly what to improve. Our suggestion would be to import the Network Methods. These methods show the relationship between the different task and Boeing would be able to identify problems and to improve the process.