Week 6
Using your selected BA plan template, detail the solution you have selected and the criteria and evaluation instruments used. This document is an interim step, and NOT the full report (so some portions will remain blank). Concentrate your efforts on solution selection, including:
Criteria and justifications
Quantitative analysis of options
Solution justification narrative
Identified risks
Submit the Requirements Document with listed sections completed, as well as any supporting tools, figures and/or templates.
Adams, M. (2015).Process analysis templates: 72 techniques for success (34-40). Retrieved from http://www.ba-guru.com/process-analysis-templates-72-techniques-for-success-34-40/%C2%A0
Corporate Education Group. (2018). Business analysistools, templates, and checklists. Retrieved from http://www.corpedgroup.com/resources/ba-tools.asp
Neytcheva, V. (2018).Requirements document template by modernanalyst. Retrieved from https://www.modernanalyst.com/Resources/Templates/tabid/146/ID/494/Requirements-Document-Template-by-ModernAnalystcom.aspx
Running head: BA PLAN FOR C919 PROJECT 2
BA PLAN FOR C919 PROJECT 2
Table of Contents
I.
Executive Summary
3
A.
Project Overview
3
B.
Purpose and Scope of this Specification
3
II.
Project context
4
A.
Planning inputs
4
B.
Business analysis approach
4
III.
Stakeholder Engagement plan
4
A.
RASCI matrix
4
B.
Authority
4
C.
Stakeholder analysis matrix
4
D.
Stakeholder categorization elements
4
E.
BA collaboration and communication plan
4
IV.
Requirements
4
A.
Functional Requirements
5
B.
Process and solutions to each requirement
8
V.
Requirements criteria and risk categories
10
A.
Criteria and justifications
10
B.
Quantitative analysis of options
10
C.
Solution justification narrative
10
D.
BA risk register
10
VI.
BA information management plan
10
VII.
BA performance evaluation plan
10
VIII.
References
10
Executive Summary
Project Overview
This C919 project aims to develop a single-aisle jet with 160-200 seats and deliver the first high-quality jet by the year 2021. Major customers are commercial airlines in Asia Pacific regions first and all global airlines eventually.
Purpose and Scope of this Specification
The purpose of this project is to manufacture and deliver the C919 jet to break the duopoly commercial airplane market by Boeing and Airbus. As shown in Figure 1 (Valle Moreno, J. M. 2016), the product ARJ21 jet has entered the short-distance jet market as a new competitor and shared business with Bombardier, Embraer and Mitsubishi.
Figure 1. Jet manufacturers and jets with seats from 70-200 seats (Valle Moreno, J. M. 2016).
Similar to ARJ21, C919 will be the product from Comac to break the duopoly 160-200 seat jet market currently controlled by Airbus and Boeing. Requirements are collected from all stakeholders from the project leadership team, major sponsors, vendors, customers and project team members. A summary of requirements in scope and out of scope is listed below in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of in-scope and out-of-scope requirements in the C919 project
In-scope
Out-of-scope
1) Deliver the 1st C919 jet to customers by the year 2021.
2) Expand jet manufacture sites and employee teams to reach the goal of manufacturing 150 jets/year.
3) Attract more customers (commercial airlines) and sign business contracts.
4) Improve supply-chain stability with vendors and expand the Chinese internal and external supplier chain.
5) Work with Chinese and major vendors local government and guarantee continuous major parts supply like engine and flight communication system etc.
1) Pass airworthiness certifications from CAAC, FAA and EASA by the year of 2021.
2) Expand the sponsor team and raise research and operation funding.
3) Communicate with Chinese internal and foreign governments and keep good relationships.
Project context
Planning inputs
Business analysis approach
Stakeholder Engagement plan
RASCI matrix
Authority
Stakeholder analysis matrix
Stakeholder categorization elements
BA collaboration and communication plan
Requirements
1) By system mode
Flying operations must be friendly-using and easy to understand.
2) By user class
Offer a comprehensive pilot training and test with certification plan.
Train not only pilots, bus also engineers in jet maintenance teams.
Jet design including internal light system, seat design, windows and AC must be comfortable to passengers.
3) By objects
Deliver the 1st C919 jet to customers by the year 2021.
4) By feature
Easy to learn, fix and operate.
Low cost but with high quality.
Easy to convert from passenger taking commercial jets to freight transport.
5) By response
Build a comprehensive after-sales service team, and offer customer based onsite technical service.
6) By functional hierarchy
Expand jet manufacture sites and employee teams to reach the goal of manufacturing 150 jets/year.
Attract more customers (commercial airlines) and sign business contracts.
Improve supply-chain stability with vendors and expand the Chinese internal and external supplier chain.
Work with Chinese and major vendors local government and guarantee continuous major parts supply like engine and flight communication system etc.
Pass airworthiness certifications from CAAC, FAA and EASA by the year of 2021.
Expand the sponsor team and raise research and operation funding.
Communicate with Chinese internal and foreign governments and keep good relationships.
Functional Requirements
Requirements in Table 2 are prioritized by 1, 2 and 3, which stand for must-have, need and nice-to-have respectively (N.D., May 30 2019).
Table 2 List of prioritized requirements
Req#
Requirement
Comments
Priority
1
Flying operations must be friendly-using and easy to understand
This is a need requirement. As a new competitor to powerful Airbus and Boeing in the single-aisle jet market, C919 needs to be better than A320 and Boeing 737-Max in operations. Since Boeing 737-Max is suffering from a down term and it might take a while to recover, the only true competitor for C919 is A320.
2
2
Offer a comprehensive pilot training and test with certification plan
This is a lesson learned from the Boeing 737-Max disaster. The two crashes that happened in the previous years were partially due to lack of pilot training, and pilots were not well trained and were not able to solve the fast-declining issue in the first few seconds (Gelles, D., 2019).
1
3
Train not only pilots, bus also engineers in jet maintenance teams
Training lessons should come as a big package, which includes operations and maintenance for the C919 jet to guarantee safe flights within the warranty period.
1
4
Jet design including internal light system, seat design, windows and AC must be comfortable to passengers
This is a need requirement. Customers like airlines will care about passenger flying experience, and this requirement could make C919 competitive to A320 and Boeing 717 Max.
2
5
Deliver the 1st C919 jet to customers by the year of 2021
This is a must-do requirement from customers.
1
6
Easy to learn, fix and operate
This is a must-do requirement from customers.
1
7
Low cost but with high quality
This is a must-do requirement from customers.
1
8
Easy to convert from passenger taking commercial jets to freight transport
It is nice to have this feature. Some airlines would like to do this conversion to expand jet usage efficiency at a low traveling period.
3
9
Build a comprehensive after-sales service team, and offer customer based onsite technical service
Strong and trustful after-sale service and make C919 competitive, and customers weight this factor heavily before purchasing.
1
10
Expand jet manufacture sites and employee teams to reach the goal of manufacturing 150 jets/year
This a major manufacture goal from Comac. Comac has about 1000 contracted jets waiting in line. It is a must-do requirement.
1
11
Attract more customers (commercial airlines) and sign business contracts
At this moment, this is a nice to have requirement, since it might take a while to finish the 1000 contracted jets. For long-terms, it is a necessary requirement.
3
12
Improve supply-chain stability with vendors and expand Chinese internal and external supplier chain
This is a must-do requirement to keep 1000 jets manufactured on time.
1
13
Work with Chinese and major vendors local government and guarantee continuous major parts supply like engine and flight communication system etc.
It is a nice-to-have requirement since Comac is a Chinese
government-owned company.
3
14
Pass airworthiness certifications from CAAC, FAA and EASA by the year of 2021
This requirement has one of the highest priorities since none C919 can be used by airlines without airworthiness certifications.
1
15
Communicate with Chinese internal and foreign governments and keep good relationships
It is a nice-to-have requirement since Comac is a Chinese government-owned company
3
16
Expand sponsor team and raise research and operation funding
More funding is strong support for this project.
2
Process and solutions to each requirement
The process and solutions for each requirement are listed in Table 3 below.
Table 2. List of process to each requirement.
Req#
Requirement
Process and solutions
1
Flying operations must be friendly-using and easy to understand
Build a strong technical and design team and learn from competitors.
2
Offer a comprehensive pilot training and test with certification plan
Build a strong technical and design team.
3
Train not only pilots, bus also engineers in jet maintenance teams
Offer training classes and design tests for newly trained pilots and maintenance teams.
4
Jet design including internal light system, seat design, windows and AC must be comfortable to passengers
Build a strong technical and design team
5
Deliver the 1st C919 jet to customers by the year of 2021
Expand manufacturing sites and hire more engineers.
6
Easy to learn, fix and operate
Build a strong technical and design team.
7
Low cost but with high quality
Build a strong technical and design team.
8
Easy to convert from passenger taking commercial jets to freight transport
Build a strong technical and design team.
9
Build a comprehensive after-sales service team, and offer customer based onsite technical service
Build a service team.
10
Expand jet manufacture sites and employee teams to reach the goal of manufacturing 150 jets/year
Raise money to open a couple of more manufacture sites and hire more people.
11
Attract more customers (commercial airlines) and sign business contracts
Attend the jet conference and work on jet marketing.
12
Improve supply-chain stability with vendors and expand Chinese internal and external supplier chain
Work with the Chinese government, and build a strong marketing team.
13
Work with Chinese and major vendors local government and guarantee continuous major parts supply like engine and flight communication system etc.
Work with the Chinese government, and build a strong marketing team.
14
Pass airworthiness certifications from CAAC, FAA and EASA by the year of 2021
Build a strong technical and design team.
15
Communicate with Chinese internal and foreign governments and keep good relationships
Work with the Chinese government, and build a strong marketing team.
16
Expand sponsor team and raise research and operation funding
Work with the Chinese government, and build a strong marketing team.
Requirements criteria and risk categories
Criteria and justifications
Two major competitors of C919 from Comac are Boeing 717-Max and Airbus A320. All three types of jet are commercial flight, the goal of which is making money and profits with the condition of safety. Therefore, the best competitive jet will be the one with high profit and the best safety factor. Based on this idea, following criteria to evaluate C919 product are listed in Table 3 below, and they are 1) low cost; 2) jet body weight; 3)jet power; 4)product delivery time; 5) experiment of test flight; 6)jet manufacturing rate; 7)safety; 8) pilot training cost and 9)maintenance cost (N.D., 2016).
Table 3. Requirements criteria and justification
Criteria
Justification
Cost
Low cost will make C919 competitive.
Maintenance cost
Lower the better
Pilot training cost
Lower the better
Safety
Safety has the highest priority.
Experiment of flying test
Jet must pass all required test experiments.
Jet manufacturing rate
C919 production rate needs to be improved to meet customer sales contracts.
Product delivery time
Delivery time of the first C919 jet to customers.
Quantitative analysis of options
1) Cost
Unit cost of Boeing 737 MAX, generation of 10 is $134.9M as January of 2019 (Wagner, I., 2019). The unit price of A320neo is $120.9M by 2018 (N.D., 2018). However, COMAC estimated the price of each C919 jet is ~$50M, which is almost 60% cheaper compared to Boeing 737MAX and Airbus A320neo due to cheaper labor costs and Chinese domestic suppliers (Tang, I., 2017). Lower cost is a big advantage of C919 as a new enterer for the global single-aisle jet market, and it can make C919 aggressively competitive in the market.
Since the cost of C919 is much cheaper compared to the other two competitors, some luxury modifications could be made like a better flight controlling system, more powerful engines and landing systems to improve jet safety.
2) Maintenance cost
Low unit cost is good only if parts are in good quality, which leads to an economical maintenance cost. High manufacture cost with low unit cost will not make C919 competitive. Therefore, during the manufacturing process, the engineer technical team should have a good understanding of the final jet quality, which can keep C919 to have a low maintenance cost as low as possible.
Another way to reduce maintenance costs is to expand C919 maintenance centers to different parts of the world. For example, one day’s airlines from the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and some countries from Africa and Europe will purchase a couple of C919 jets. Once these jets need maintenance, it is not efficient that all of them have to fly to Shanghai, the only manufacturing center, to take the maintenance. It is time-consuming and consumes lots of gas. To reduce maintenance costs for each customer, it is a smart decision if COMAC has an individual center in Europe, Africa, North America and South Amerca. It will not happen until enough customers in those states are flying C919, but time will come eventually.
3) Pilot training cost
One lesson learned from Boeing 737MAX crashes is that pilots from customers were not well trained, and Boeing tried to save money and time from pilot training process (Koening, D., 2019), and Boeing is experiencing a loss of $2.9 billion in the second quarter of 2019 only, and this number will increase in the next following years (N.D., 2019). Pilot training program from Boeing is between $10,000 to $15,000 per person and it takes about 12 months to complete (Houston, S., 2019). Trainees from this program need to pass a test for the flying certificate to have the authorization to drive 737Max jet. Training courses for Airbus A320neo take 12,500 to 17,000. Once an airline purchases a large quantity of C919, it is going to train a large number of pilots to take C919 training classes, and it will be a big investment. A cheap but good training program can make C919 competitive to A320neo and Boeing 737MAX as well.
4) Safety
The safety of a type of jet has the highest priority. Comac cannot save money at the risk of reducing jet safety. Branding is important for C919 because it is an enterer and there are not many people accepting this product. COMAC has to generate enough data and flying experience to convince all customers that C919 is a safe high-quality jet. One crash or disaster can ruin the future of C919. Boeing 737 MAX has no new contracts since the two crashes in early 2019. Even Boeing is working on pushing 737MAX back to market, it is going to be a slow and long process.
5) Experiment of flying test
The experiment of tests includes high-speed taxi tests, ground tests, flying at max height and speed, mission system test, electrical system test, and flying test including environmental control, drainage, and electrical supply at tough conditions like extreme weather conditions. C919 has finished about 729 flying tests for 4200 hours (Meszaros, J., 2019). Another commercial jet ARJ21, which has been used for a few commercial airlines, was tested for 5000hours before CAAC authorized flying certification (Meszaros, J., 2019). Commercialization of C919 is getting closed, but C919 still has not completely passed all required tests to get certification from CAAC.
6) Jet manufacturation rate
Boeing is capable to make 52 aircraft in a month (Zhang, B., 2019). Airbus has a production rate of 60 aircraft per month by the middle of 2019 (McCoy, D., 2019). Comac has made 6 C919 planes for tests, and it expects to have mass production after 2021 to meet signed contracts of 1000 jets so far.
7) Product delivery time
The delivery time of the first C919 jet is expected to be in 2021. However, since C919 does have airworthiness flying authorization from CACC yet, passing all required tests and get the certification is the key.
Solution justification narrative
1) Cost
C919 is made-in-china production, but it is also very international (Cimpanu, C., 2019). For example, the engine is from CFM Leap-1; APU, electricity system and landing gear are from Honeywell, and weather radar is from Rockwell Collins; flight recorder is from GE, etc.. (Cimpanu, C., 2019). Parts imported from other countries are more pricy than those made in China. Comac does not have other options because China does not have good suppliers in those fields. However, if China can focus on developing on improving industries in those fields and C919 can use parts completely made-in-China, the cost of C919 can be even more competitive.
2) Maintenance cost
Two ways which can make C919 competitive on maintenance are 1) hire good engineers and employee to build a high-level technical maintenance team and 2) expand maintenance centers globally located.
3) Pilot training cost
Build a good training team to well design the pilot training program. Design tests, which can completely pilots ability in controlling C919 at both easy and tough environments like severe weather and uncommon jet conditions.
4) Safety
Make sure C919 passes all required flying tests and manufacture is consistently good from jets to jets.
5) Experiment of flying test
Improve parts quality like engine, landing system and communication system to well pass flying tests passing the level.
6) Jet manufactuation rate
Open more manufacture centers and expand each center by hiring more employees and buying more manufacture equipment.
BA risk register
There are a few potential risks this project may experience:
Supply chains from foreign vendors may not be stable politically. For example, the U.S. government right now claimed that U.S. companies cannot sell products to Huawei, which is a cellphone company in China. A similar thing could happen to Huawei. Honeywell, GE and Michelin etc. are all companies from the United States.
C919 is almost a made-in-China product, and some of the systems are still in the Chinese language. Most employees and engineers speak Mandarin as well. To better serve customers from non-Mardarin speaking countries, employees from Coman need to be fluently in both written and spoken English.
Airworthiness certification from CAAC is challenging to get. Without the certification from CAAC, non C919 jet can be sold to customers. Once this certification is delayed, all plans will be postponed as well.
Comac has about 1000 contracted C919 jet in line right, but most of the contracts are from Chinese government-owned companies. Sales to foreign companies can be very challenging.
The worst scenario is that what are plans if one C919 jet crashes.
BA information management plan
BA performance evaluation plan
References
Cimpanu, C., October 14 2019. Building Chinas Comac C919 airplane involved a lof of hacking, report says. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/building-chinas-comac-c919-airplane-involved-a-lot-of-hacking-report-says/.
Gelles, D., October 28 2019, Boeing 737 Max: Whats happened after the 2 deadly crashes. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/business/boeing-737-crashes.html.
Houston, S., October 6 2019. Boeing AB initio flight training program. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/boeing-announces-ab-initio-flight-training-program-282861.
Koenig, D., October 30 2019. 737 Max crashes: Boeing CEO criticized for lack of pilot training, in second day of testimony. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2019/10/30/737-max-crashes-boeing-ceo-grilled-in-house-hearing-for-lack-pilot-training-mcas-flight-system/.
N.D. May 30 2018. Requirements specification template. Retrieved from https://csis.pace.edu ~marchese Requirements Specification Template.
N.D., 2016. Advantages and disadvantages of C919, A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX. Retrieved from https://www.zhihu.com/question/31731427.
N.D. May 24 2018. Europe prefers Airbus A320neo over Boeing 737MAX- especially LCCs. Retrieved from https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/europe-prefers-airbus-a320neo-over-boeing-737max–especially-lccs-417918.
N.D. July 24 2019. Boesing posts record quarterly loss over 737 MAX problems. Retrieved from https://www.dw.com/en/boeing-posts-record-quarterly-loss-over-737-max-problems/a-49731752.
MoCocy, D., April 30 2019. Airbus closing in on 60 narrow-body A320s per month. Retrieved from https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2019/04/30/airbus-closing-in-on-60-narrow-body-a320s-per.html.
Meszaros, J., July 26 2019. Comac forges ahead with C919 flight tests. Retrieved from https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2019-07-26/comac-forges-ahead-c919-flight-tests.
Tang, I., April 27 2017. Boeing and Airbus face $223B place sales loss in 20 years. Retrieved from https://seekingalpha.com/article/4066119-boeing-and-airbus-face-223b-plane-sales-loss-in-20-years.
Valle Moreno, J. M., 2016. The Impact of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China
Wagner, I., May 21 2019. Average prices for Boeing aircraft as of January 2019,by type ) in million U.S. dollars). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/273941/prices-of-boeing-aircraft-by-type/.
(COMAC) in the Aircraft Manufacturer Industry (Master’s thesis).
Zhang, B., 2019. Heres how much Boeing is estimated to make on each 737 Max 8 plane. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-profit-moodys-2019-3.
