Boeing and the Virtual Collaboration

Everybody knows that Boeing is in the business of manufacturing airplanes. But not so many of us know that in 2007, it partnered with over 40 agencies from all over the world to develop a groundbreaking project known as the "787 Dreamliner". What's interesting about this project is that all agencies including Boeing did not need to meet in a single location. Some people may think that it is impossible. The truth is, with information technology anything is possible. They certainly work I.T. in their advantage. They explored and utilized "VIRTUAL COLLABORATION" to realize this project. They certainly adopted it with such perfection.

http://www.designnews.com/article/13616-Boeing_s_Global_Collaboration_Environment_Pioneers_Groundbreaking_787_Dreamliner_Development_Effort.php

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In its effort to create a groundbreaking project called “787 Dreamliner”, Boeing collaborated with Alenia Aeronautica, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Aerosystems Inc., and some other 40 global partners. These companies participated in a virtual development world where all aspects of the plane are designed, created and tested digitally before anything physically moved into production. Although it may seem impossible and/or tedious to develop such revolutionary project in the eyes of some individuals, with the advancement in information technology, nothing is impossible and everything is bound to happen. In this case, information technology works itself under the disguise of what is called as virtual collaboration.

With the use of virtual collaboration, Boeing and other partner companies were not only be able to decrease the costs of communicating with and gathering people around the world, it also helped them to gather the best set of individuals from different parts of the globe who had the knowledge and the capabilities to make this groundbreaking project possible. According to Wikipedia, virtual collaboration taps into a global network of intelligence. In short, with virtual collaboration, it is inevitable to gather the right people, with the right skills and right experiences at the right time. With virtual collaboration, Boeing and the other companies would be able to avoid any possible errors and/or unforeseen difficulties that would inevitably occur when these companies exchange information between different CAD tools. As Fowler said in the article, virtual collaboration was one way to ensure that the global team of partners would have access to the same product definition data and be able to collaborate effectively on a 24/7 basis from their various locales.

In my opinion, the benefits of utilizing virtual collaboration by Boeing and its partners truly outweigh the drawbacks that this collaboration may present (e.g. expenses, training of people in using this technology). I believe that for a company, like Boeing, that values time or understands the costs associated with delayed projects, virtual collaboration seems to be the perfect solution. Taking into account all the statements aforementioned earlier, it is clear that virtual collaboration avoids any delays, miscommunication among parties, among others. I believe that in a globally competitive and fast-paced environment of airline manufacturing, virtual collaboration is one of the best decisions that Boeing has ever made.

Photo (right) was taken from http://airlineworld.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/787-dreamliner-revealed/
Photo (left) was Lufthansa Technik's proposed master bedroom for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The photo was taken from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/17megajets%255B1%255D.xlarge1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2006/11/justification_for_a_higher_edu_1.html&h=300&w=600&sz=50&hl=en&start=16&um=1&usg=__8x-YUj_Z-jPtWbi0hXkfmuvwE_Y=&tbnid=B2JwbqQaj6VdsM:&tbnh=68&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dboeing%2B787%2Bdreamliner%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN