Planning Function Of Management In Boeing

Boeing is the world’s foremost aerospace company. It is the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft. As well, it also designs and develops rotorcraft, electronic and defence systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and sophisticated information and communication systems (About Us, 2010). Being a key service supplier to NASA, it operates the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The company also offer several military and commercial airline support services.

The company headquarter is established in Chicago. It employs approximate 158,000 employees throughout the United States and in 70 other countries. The company workforce evidences one of the most varied, endowed and pioneering workforce. The company serves more than 90 countries’ customers and it is one of the leading U.S. exporters in terms of sales (About Us, 2010). The company has an extensive culture of aerospace leadership and innovation. From the time of its origin, it is making efforts for expanding its product line and services so that emerging needs of customers can be fulfilled in the most effective manner.

The company has an all-inclusive range of capacities that involve establishing new, more effective members, incorporating military platforms, defence systems and the war fighter through network-centric procedures; producing highly developed technology solutions, furnishing connectivity on moving platforms and organizing financing resolutions for its customers (Boeing Co., 2010).

Evaluation of Planning Function of Management

The planning function of management is the most crucial function as it pertains to plan about the future and designing several future courses of actions. It is a preliminary move in the functioning of a firm. It is an organized activity that defines when, how and who is going to execute an explicit task. Planning function of management is also recognized as a detailed programme concerning future courses of action (Drucker, 2008). With the help of planning, it becomes easy for a firm to consider all its available & potential human and physical resources. This consideration facilitate in getting an effective co-ordination, involvement & ideal balance.

At Boeing, the planning function of management is a procedure through which it set its goals and objectives. It assists the company and its management in developing plans including several activities and tasks that need to be accomplished to reach at its eventual goal. These different plans of Boeing are developed by considering numerous account variables and unanticipated happenings (Spindler, 2008). The planning function of management, facilitate the company in making plans for the unexpected occurrences. As well, in the development of tactics that can be used to avoid the chaos linked up with unanticipated challenges or troubles.

In Boeing, planning is critical for all its departments. The company’s different departments like engineering, sales, mechanical and product testing department work effectively by planning their specific tasks and goals. The company make use of planning with the help of subsequent steps:

In the initial step, the company management evaluates the situation that affects or may affect its goals.

Then, the company management identifies alternative goals and plans that it may use in its critical situations.

Next step is related with the evaluation of all established goals and plans.

In the fourth step, it is required by management to select final plan that will be used.

The last step is to implement the selected plan (Spindler, 2008).

The planning function of management has become an integrated part of company operations and due to this the company has become able in attaining leading position in the industry. Whatever plan is selected, is communicated to all its employees by the management of the company so that they can also become a significant part of it.

Influence of Legal Issues, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility on Management Planning

The various issues that affect the management planning of Boeing are as follows:

Legal Issues: The most substantial issue that affects the planning of Boeing are legal issue. From the time of its origin the company has confronted several legal issues like it was charged with issue of concerning the differences in pay on the basis of gender. This legal issue damaged the image of the company and for resolving it the company adopted several changes in its planning.

Ethics: Another significant issue that affects the planning function of Boeing is ethics. The company have created an extensive ethics policy for safety of its employees and its operations. For effective execution of its procedures and helping its employees, the company have implemented a Code of Conduct and a confidential hotline service (Ryall & Craig, 2003). This Code of Conduct and hotline service assist the company in the management of all ethic related issues.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Boeing is highly appreciated for the effective management of cooperate social responsibility. The company has developed all its operations on the fundament of corporate responsibility. This motivates the management of the company and its employees to become involved in more and more charitable efforts and society development tasks (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). These efforts of the company assist it in the development of a socially responsible organization.

Factors influencing Company’s Strategic, Tactical, Operational and Contingency Planning

Subsequent are the various factors that affect Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning:

Economic Conditions: The most substantial factor that affects Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning is economic conditions. All its plans are highly affected by the economic conditions like present decline in economic conditions has affected its financial position. Due to economic downturn, it was impelled to downsize and expand its operations in some other countries (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). In this way, it can be said that all its existing and future plans are highly affected by the global market trends and demands in the business.

Competition: The next vital factor that affect, company’s all types of planning is competition. Nowadays every industry or business is confronted with severe competition and similar is the case with Boeing. One of the key competitors of Boeing is Airbus. It is presenting customers with more and more advanced services and timely departures that are increasing problems for Boeing. The company is trying to adopt effective measures so that it can maintain its position in front of its competitors (Ryall & Craig, 2003). This increasing competition in the industry is significantly affecting Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning.

Government Regulations: The last critical factor that affects Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning is government regulations. Government regulations make a significant impact on the production of planes manufactured by Boeing. Before designing or developing a plane it is essential that the company obtain a certificate issued by the U.S. Government for new plane model designs (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). In addition to this, it is also essential that it takes approval by the United States Federal Aviation Administration for flying its aircraft.

The above discussion of different factors evidences that until or unless Boeing does not consider these factors it cannot do effective strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning.