The Boeing Company is a major player in the aerospace and defense industry with over 150,000 employees. As of 2006 they led the commercial and defense aircraft market as the company with the largest total revenue. (Defense News , 2007). The corporation is divided into five separate business units/services. Commercial Airplanes and Integrated Defense Systems are the two major components. The other three units span control over research and development, services and financial services; Phantom Works, Shared Services Group and Boeing Capital Corp, respectively. As of 2006, these three smaller units contributed only 2% of the revenue for the Boeing Company, but played a valuable role in their various supporting contributions to the main efforts of defense equipment and commercial aircraft production and sales. The Boeing Integrated Defense Systems division, producing weapons, aerospace and space systems, accounted for the majority, 52%, of the revenue for The Boeing Company, and 50% of the corporation’s combined earnings. The Boeing Commercial Airplanes division accounted for 46% of the revenue and 45% of the corporation’s earnings. (Boeing, AR06, 2007) It is on this final division that the remainder of this study will be focused on.
The Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) division headquarters is located in Renton, Washington and is the largest revenue producing commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world. It employs more than 54,000 people and traces its origins back to the Pacific Aero Products Co., a company incorporated by William E. Boeing in 1916. (Wikipedia, 2007) Its’ mission statement has evolved over the decades as the market has evolved. In 1950 when it was just one of many commercial airplane manufacturers, its statement was to “become the dominant ...