Reference no: EM132730058

Caselet: Boeing v Airbus

The world's biggest airliner, the A380, will start to be assembled next year for a maiden flight towards the end of 2004. This airliner, a result of a $10.7 billion programme, aims to become a rival to the Boeing 747, the 416-seater jumbo that has enjoyed a monopoly in big airliners for over 30 years. Airbus, which opened for business in 1970 - the year of the jumbo's first commercial flight - has now caught up with Boeing in market share. Airbus's decision in December 2000 to proceed with a 555- seat super-jumbo sets it head-to-head with Boeing's 747 for the first time. Boeing will tweak the jumbo here and there, improving its performance, but its big effort is going into an entirely different aircraft, the 250-seat Sonic Cruiser, which flies at 98% of the speed of sound. Championing speed rather than size suggests that Boeing thinks most future growth will come from frequent point-to-point flights, rather than those that go through the big hubs. Airbus, by contrast, still sees a healthy market for a relatively low-cost super-jumbo to connect the world's biggest international airports. Both companies accept the consensus view of the air-travel market - a tripling over the next 20 years. But they disagree on how the demand will be met. Boeing's projections are for a total demand of 18,120 new planes, of which only a third will be twin-aisled (i.e. large). By contrast, Airbus thinks the market will consist of 14 670 planes, 20% fewer than Boeing. But the European manufacturer reckons that almost half of those will be twin-aisled. Boeing believes in 'fast and frequent' as deregulation allows airlines to fly where they want. Airbus is counting more on the bulk capacity that has served the industry well over the past 30 years when governments have restricted routes and flights. Airbus believes that fragmentation from deregulation will be countered, to some extent, by capacity constraints at airports. These will encourage the use of fewer, larger aircraft to move the same number of passengers. (Source: adapted from a Special Report on 'Boeing v Airbus', 'Towards the wild blue yonder', The Economist, 27 Apr - 3 May 2002, 75- 77).

Question

There have been significant changes in the broad approaches taken to job design and work organization during the 20th century. Critically compare and contrast the basic ideas taken in the earlier approaches to job design with those adopted later in the period, which job design considerations would Boeing and Airbus have to make choices from. Include examples where possible.