Chapter 11 Case- Can Knowledge Systems Help Boeing Trounce Airbus?

Questions:

2.) What is the relationship of knowledge management to Boeing's business strategy? How is Boeing using knowledge management systems to execute its business model and business strategy?

Boeing's business strategy is based on the assumption that travelers prefer to fly non-stop from their home city to their destination. As such they are focusing on developing and selling smaller airliners that can fly quickly and cheaply. In order to design a plane that will allow the company to implement this strategy it has had to take advantage of knowledge management in order to build on the technology of its existing planes rather than starting from scratch. To do so it shifted from a "paper-intensive" production process to a computer one that allowed the 777 aircraft to be completely designed and produced by computer. By using software and computers Boeing was able to communicate effectively with all departments at the company cut down on design errors, and save time. Part of Boeing's strategy also involves using a new production process which outsources design and construction to cut down on costs. Boeing must use knowledge management systems to coordinate and collaborate with all of these different suppliars and design teams in order to efficiently implement this cost saving strategy. Boeing uses supply chain knowledge management software to allow Boeing's suppliars and contractors to have a larger role in the design and development of new planes. It also cuts costs by half.

4.) What role has knowledge management played in Airbus's business strategy and business performance?

Airbus's strategy is the opposite of Boeing's, it believes that as air travel expands there will be a growing need for jumbo jets to carry a larger amount of passangers without increasing airline costs. It appears that a lack of knowledge management may have been the cause of some of the drop in performance that has been seen recently. It has had to delay the delivery of its A380 jet to customers multiple times because of "electrical problems". The case mentions that the electrical systems are "highly integrated" which results in one problem creating problems in other areas of the plane. It seems like Airbus's inability to correct these type of problems may be due to a lack of good knowledge management systems. If it were able to implement software like Boeing did which helped reduce many of the design errors that it was seeing perhaps problems like this could be avoided or fixed at an early stage of product development so that it doesn't cause a delay in customer orders.

Article Summary

Reality, only better. The Economist. London: Dec. 8, 2007. Vol. 385, Iss. 8558; pg. 14

The article I chose for this week relates back to the Chapter 11 discussion on managing knowledge. The article talks about a fairly new technique called "augmented reality" or AR for short. Using this technology, the real world is "augmented" with text or graphics. The user puts on a pair of goggles similar to the virtual reality goggles discussed in the textbook and is able to see computer graphics or information (virtual images) in the real world. For instance in the picture at the left a mechanic is able to see colors and arrows overlaid over the top of the car's engine so that he knows what parts of the car to fix. This technology fits into the category of knowledge work systems discussed in chapter 11 of the text. Instead of just offering a virtual world, however, this technology allows the user to learn by doing or to make changes to a real world process as it is being done as new information is viewed. For instance, surgeans could use it so that they would not constantly have to look up and down from patient to equipment displays. Information would just be overlaid into a single field of vision. For use in battle it could relay tactical information to soldiers who are in the war zone or it could be used during military training. Soldiars could be told with virtual images like arrows where to patrol or retreat and symbols could mark locations of supplies or friendly forces like in a video game. AR could create virual targets for sodiars in combat training to shoot at that would be in a real world setting. AR is also being used by car companies like Volkswagon to speed up prototype construction by overlaying the instructions directly onto tools and prototype components in front of workers. AR is still in the early stages of development when compared to virtual reality. A lot of AR technology is expensive and fragile but it clearly has a lot of possible applications that will keep researchers furthering its development.

Chapter 9 Case- Limited Brands Consolidates its Supply Chain Management

Questions:

2.) Describe the supply chain management problems encountered by Limited Brands in this case. What was their business impact?

The main problem had to do with all of the different companies that Limited Brands acquired over a short period of time. All of these different companies had a different information technology infrastructure which included sixty different systems with hundreds of different applications on a variety of platforms. Due to all these different systems it was very difficult to have supply chain information flow to different applications so that the entire supply chain could be coordinated. The business impact was a major traffic jam of 400 merchandise trailers at a distribution center that could only hold 150 trailers. The incident occurred because of poor communication between segments of the firm and poor planning. The result was a public relations nightmare and a loss of sales for the firm.

4.) How did Limited Brands solve these problems?

The company upgraded its supply chain and eliminated all the different systems being used by the various segments of the company. It used Tibco Software which is a leading vendor of enterprise application integration software. Tibco Software allowed there to be real-time communication between Limited Brands and its suppliers. It also provided a secure environment for document transfer, enhanced shipment tracking and order visibility, and put the company in a position to support future IT initiatives that could save on time and costs. Limited Brands now has all of its IT operations under one business segment instead of having separate IT infrastructures for each business.

Article Summary

Greeenemeier, L. The Products of Research. InformationWeek. Manhasset: May 10, 2004. Iss. 988; pg. 62, 3pgs.

The article I chose for this week is about Dyax Corp, a small company that at the time the article was written was only nine years old and was based in Cambridge, Mass. At the time it sold research on drug compounds and licensed biotech research tools to drug makers but wanted to transition from being a "behind the scenes player" in the drug industry to being an actual pharmaceutical company that develop and manufactures drugs. One of the reasons it was attempting this change was that it had identified a potential treatment for a rare life-threatening genetic disorder called hereditary agioedema. This disorder is characterised by attacks of swelling and inflammation that can strike without warning and at the time had no FDA approved treatment available. To successfully get a drug approved by the FDA, Dynax needed to change the way it operated its business and become more like biotech leaders like Amgen and Genentech.

The article goes on to talk about how Dyax intended to do just that by implementing a new IT strategy. The first part of that strategy was to overhaul its ERP system to ensure it would be able to handle all the new business functions of a drugmaker, along with tracking its testing programs for its new drug, meet FDA requirements, and eventually handle manufacturing the drug want it was approved. To handle all of this the company implemented Ross System Inc.'s iRenaiissance ERP system. This system replaced the old ERP software which was called Great Plains and would hopefully help the company with its transition. Dyax needed new software because the old ERP software did not have project-management capabilities that are needed to support the new business model. It also lacked an inventory tracking system which would be needed to document drug development and manufacturing processes for FDA approval.

The article also discusses how Dyax will continue to improve its business plan with IT investments. Some of these include a document-management system to aid clinical trial and regulatory affairs personal. The firm will also implement a company intranet and portal to provide a central area for storing information so that across the company people can access information without having to search for it on a server.

I think this article relates back to what was discussed in Chapter 9 with how enterprise applications can be used to improve and consoldiate business proccesses. In this example these software systems are being used to allow a firm to transition to a completely new type of business.

Malykhina, E. Laptop Lockdown. Wall Street & Technology. New York: Jun 2007. Vol. 25, Iss. 6; pg. 44.

The article that I chose has to do with securing information systems which was discussed in Chapter 8 of the textbook. Specifically, the article talks about laptop security which I feel is a growing issue as more sensitive information is being stored on company laptops. I mention in my e-portfolio my own personal story with laptop theft and there are many more that have been discussed in class and in the news recently. This article provides some options for securing laptops and preventing the precious information they often contain from falling into the wrong hands.

The first security measure discussed is Biometrics which is is a device such as a fingerprint reader that requires a specific biometric tag like a fingerprint to be used to log onto the laptop. There are laptops by Lenovo that include the fingerprint reader and software to authenticate the user. It is cost effective because it replaces passwords which can cost $100 per employee to replace a year. Another option put out by Bioscrypt is a USB pluggable 3-inch, 3-D face recognition camera that can autheticate users. It requires the user to undergo a digital face measurement.

Another security option discussed are Smart Card readers. These are used at my work for the laptops. In order to access the company network from home laptop users need a Smart Card to plug into their laptop. Advanced Smart Cards also allow multiple passwords to be stored and also one-time use passwords. Another important option is BIOS security which provides authentication with a password before being able to start the operating system. This is important because someone can't get to the information if they can't access the operating system. Finally encyption hardware and software is also discussed with the warning that encrypting everything can get very expensive and is still risky as the encryption keys can be stolen. Clearly a balance is needed between security but still having access to important information when it is needed.

Chapter 7 Case Study Google

2.) What are Google's sources of competitive advantage? How does it provide value to its users?

Google's primary source of competitive advantage is its IT infrastructure. It is able to use a large number of servers spread accross the world at a low cost by using a customized version of the linux operating system. It uses other customized systems as well that allow it to simplify processing and handle larg amounts of information as well as protect the information in case a server should fail. Google's competitive advantage also includes the fact that it is spending a significantly smaller amount of money then its competitors to provide its users with far superior services. Google's advertising program also offers a competitive advantage because the technology is able to match users with the ads that they are most likely to respond to. This has allowed Google to get 70% of all search advertising. Google also may have a competitive advantage over Microsoft by offering free web-based and linux-based word processor and spreadsheet software as well as other packages that might make it possible to bypass Microsoft products all together. Google's competitive advantages provide a lot of value to the user in the form of a superior search engine that deliver the information the user is looking for quickly and easily without the user having to search through irrelevant search results. It also pairs users with ads that the user might actually find relevant to their interests rather then just being anoying. Also, Google is offering a free alternative to Microsoft based software which up to this point has has a monopoly over word processing software.

5.) How successful do you think Google will be in the future?

I think Google will continue its growth trend and success into the future. All of its competitors in the search engine arena are very far behind and would have to spend a lot of money to catch up. Google meanwhile continues to come up with new products and areas to move into. It also has a very favorable image with the consumer, everyone users Google for searching and knows its the best out there. As Google comes out with new ideas and services people will use them because they believe in Google's reputation. Google is also taking on Microsoft and offering free software equivilant to Microsoft's Microsoft works. I think as it becomes more well known and people and businesses begin to use it could really threaten the Microsoft monopoly.