Systems and Operations Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Systems and Operations Management - Assignment Example Competition between Airbus and Boeing as the world's dominant commercial aircraft manufacturers sets the overall tone for the air transportation industry. Currently both companies dominate about 90% of the air transportation market with very few major competitors on the horizon. Their latest models of A380 and Boeing 747 proved that companies are willing and able to meet the constantly changing demand of the customers in terms of flight efficiency and increased number of seats. While Boeing 747 was welcomed positively by the customers, development and introduction of A380 at the market reduced the market share of Boeing by approximately 14.8% (Newhouse, 2007). In such a way, Airbus A380 proved to be the world’s most advanced spacious and efficient aircraft (McKeegan, 2007). The current paper will analyze the role of systems and operations management, including Soft Systems Methodology, at Airbus and their integration within the business. In addition, the paper will explain how the Airbus information systems and operations management should be updated in order to support and improve their business efficiency. Finally, the paper will analyze the people, technology and organizational issues involved in improving the operations at Airbus. Brief Overview of Airbus and A380 Development Airbus has been in business for about 30 years and is jointly owned by European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company-EADS (80%) and BAE systems (20%), which are two of the largest defense contractors (Addison, 1993). Now Airbus is a single company, headquartered in Toulouse, France, began as a French-German consortium in 1970 that was soon joined by Spain and later Britain. Each company would deliver its sections as fully equipped, ready to fly items. In 2000 DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Aerospatiale-Matra and CASA in Spain merged to form EADS (Gunston, 2010). In 2001 BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) and EADS formed the Airbus Integrated Company to coincide with the develo pment of the new Airbus A380, which will seat 845 passengers and be the world's largest commercial passenger jet. The development of A380 has been agreed as industrial cooperation across Europe, mainly Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The final assembly of the aircraft should have been done by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace in Hamburg, Germany and Aerospatiale-Matra in Toulouse, France. The picture below shows the basic dimensions of A380 in comparison with other aircrafts like B777-300, B747 and A340-600 (Newhouse, 2007). The Airbus product line consists of 14 aircraft models, starting from the 100-seat single-aisle A318 jetliner to the 525-seat A380 in three-class categories or 825-seat in one-class category with 2-4-2 seating configuration, which is now the largest civil airliner in service. The aircraft has wider seats than in previous versions and the size of individual seat screen is also wider. Until April 2011, Airbus received 234 orders for their A380 aircraft whil e 46 have been already delivered to the customers and started being in operation (see Table 1 in the Appendix). The Airbus A380 project was delayed for 18 months with an additional