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We strengthen our global competitive advantage through workplace innovations, people development and support of healthy, vibrant communities.

ACHIEVING OUR STRATEGIC VISION

Delivering Innovative, Flexible Infrastructure and Services One of our top-performing operating organizations, our Shared Services Group efficiently integrates the operating infrastructure across Boeing, allowing our business units to focus on customer needs and product development and delivery. Embedded in our business units, Shared Services teams assist in identifying their diverse service requirements, then apply lean principles and invest new technologies to meet those needs. The results have positively affected both short- and long-term business operations, reducing infrastructure costs by nearly $1.4 billion since 1998.

Boeing Infrastructure Cost Reduction chart

Shared Services pursues opportunities that improve enterprise efficiency. By forging stronger partnerships with our businesses to coordinate building asset utilization and consolidate their needs, SSG enabled Boeing to vacate 106 buildings and reduce floor space by 7.25 million square feet in 2003. Furthermore, since 2001, Shared Services has partnered with Boeing businesses to reduce computing applications by more than 23 percent.

To mitigate business risk, SSG acts as a testbed for new business processes and innovative practices before rolling them out to the enterprise. In 2003, Shared Services successfully demonstrated the virtual work environment and its potential benefits, helping us move closer to our 2016 vision of “design anywhere, build anywhere.” As a result, Boeing is not only better prepared for the future, but we were also able to vacate a 354,000 square-foot building complex in Puget Sound, resulting in a $6.2 million annual savings in lease and maintenance costs.

Shared Services also pursues technologies that help us run healthy businesses and open new opportunities. For example, last year SSG developed a technology that increased the productivity of Boeing employees by filtering unwanted e-mail, leading to the launch of MessageGate, the first private-equity-financed spinout from The Boeing Company.

Through Shared Services efforts, Boeing was granted membership to the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, which allows uninterrupted border clearing at sea, truck and air ports for the items Boeing imports. This especially benefits the just-in-time production of commercial airplanes, aiding in shorter flow times.

Providing innovative solutions at competitive costs—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, wherever Boeing operates in the world—Shared Services helps our businesses stay competitive and react quickly to changing market conditions.

Photo of: Employing virtual networks and computing applications to measure energy use on programs such as C-17.
Employing virtual networks and computing applications to measure energy use on programs such as C-17, Boeing energy conservation efforts and reduced building occupancy have cut energy consumption by 38 percent since 1998. The five year savings from conservation alone is $86 million.

Developing Our People Our people make up one of the most diverse and highly skilled workforces anywhere in the world. They provide the business acumen and passion for excellence that drive us toward aerospace leadership. Our culture of lifelong learning brings value to Boeing by expanding and refreshing our employees’ skills to improve their employability and opportunities for growth. The Learning Together company-paid tuition program, the Boeing Leadership Center and other training programs enable employees to pursue studies in unlimited fields and environments. In 2003 alone, employees earned more than 1,400 degrees through the Learning Together program.

As our flagship learning facility, the Boeing Leadership Center helps extend the strength and depth of current and future leaders across the enterprise, with a curriculum that incorporates succession planning, business unit strategy and other key company initiatives. We expanded the Center’s focus by strengthening the financial content of the courses to emphasize business thinking and extending our outreach to customers and suppliers.

In 2003, 4,500 participants graduated from Leadership Center courses, and we introduced three new functional excellence programs. Executive Excellence magazine recognized the Center as one of the top leadership development programs in the United States, and the Corporate University Exchange awarded the Center its Excellence Award for Best Practices in Leadership Development.

Contributing to Healthy, Vibrant Communities Actively engaged as a corporate citizen, we strategically invest our volunteer time, intellectual capital, surplus materials and financial resources to back innovative, important programs in the communities where we live and work. Boeing people also pledge tens of millions of dollars to the Boeing Employees Community Fund, the world’s largest employee-owned charitable organization.

In 2003, we focused our public education strategy on increasing the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders, particularly in math, science and literacy. This year also marked the debut of our first global community investment strategy, which concentrates on meeting needs in health and human services, and in primary and secondary education.