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Technology Stocks : Boeing keeps setting new highs! When will it split? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David C. Burns who wrote (2090)	1/28/1999 4:54:00 PM
From: campe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3764

Its amazin' BA lasted this long before... About time they're taught the basics... dailynews.yahoo.com Thursday January 28 3:13 PM ET Boeing's new CFO on mission to teach workers the numbers By Polly Lane Seattle Times aerospace reporter Deborah Hopkins is getting ready to put Boeing through basic training - her own version of cost-accounting boot camp. Hopkins, the company's frank new chief financial officer, wowed Wall Street this week with her deft handling of financial discussions following the company's annual earnings report. But as the keeper of Boeing finances, her sights are set on an audience even closer to home than the investment community. After only five weeks on the job, she's planning extensive business-education programs that will reach from the executive corridors to the factory floors at the aerospace company. She said she wants everyone at Boeing to understand business practices, profit-and-loss issues, return on assets and the way Wall Street values the business. She wants even factory mechanics to know how their jobs produce profit for the airplane maker. "Clearly the role of a finance organization is to take the magic out of numbers for everybody involved," Hopkins told analysts. "We're going to break it up into pennies so everybody understands their role." Hopkins, who came to Boeing from the European division of General Motors, seems to have swiftly grasped what is needed to make Boeing more profitable and attractive to investors. She has "moved quickly to take a proactive role," Boeing Chairman Phil Condit told reporters in a Tuesday phone conference. Her initial educational effort will focus on the commercial-airplane unit. It has generated virtually no profit for more than a year because of production problems. The snarls delayed deliveries, causing oeing to post its first loss in 50 years in 1997. Even last year's delivery of a record 559 jets brought in little profit. Hopkins said she is meeting with Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, for an in-depth review of how his unit operates. A key issue to decide: what world-class production methods and lean-manufacturing principles can mean to profitability. Mulally's group is pressing ahead to improve efficiencies in lean manufacturing and change its processes. Details of Hopkins' in-house education plan still are being worked out but it clearly has the support of the investment community. Previously, analysts say, there had been no tracking of costs or profit until an airplane was sold. "What she is suggesting is a cutting-edge idea - thinking out of the box," said Aaron Gellman, a transportation expert at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He said the approach has the potential to make Boeing "a more effective competitor." Several other large corporations have used the strategy, including General Motors and Ford, said Rick Hurd, professor of labor studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. With cooperation from their unions, these companies have educated the work force about the general economy, who the competitors are and how their industry fits into the emerging global economy, he said. "It is extraordinarily important in building understanding among workers and management about what exactly is going on in the company," Hurd said. "Workers can see how improving their performance matters to job security." Hopkins, who is Boeing's top woman executive, acknowledged that "we didn't get here overnight and we can't fix it overnight." She said she has to plow her way through understanding what it will take for the whole organization to achieve the desired financial results and gain confidence to work in a new way. Analysts already are seeing some results because Boeing was moving in this direction before Hopkins' arrival. "They can tell the profitability of every airplane," said Cliff Ransom, analyst for State Street Research in Boston. "They are prepared to communicate it with the people on the floor . . . and they are the ones who need to know." Byron Callan, aerospace analyst for Merrill Lynch in New York, said he gives Hopkins' education plan his "100 percent endorsement." But he cautioned that results won't happen quickly and that Wall Street is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

To: David C. Burns who wrote (2090)	2/2/1999 5:15:00 PM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3764

Boeing Delta II to Launch NASA's STARDUST Spacecraft Tuesday, February 2, 1999 11:12 AM HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta II, the Boeing (NYSE: BA) rocket that sent four NASA probes to Mars, will soon send the latest NASA craft on the first leg of a galactic search and recovery mission. Scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., at 4:06:42 p.m. EST on Feb. 6, a Delta II rocket will boost the STARDUST spacecraft into orbit where it will collect samples of cosmic matter before its integrated return capsule returns to Earth seven years later. Upon mission completion, it will mark the first NASA mission to collect extraterrestrial material from outside the orbit of the Moon. "We support NASA's philosophy of making the art and science of space exploration better, faster and cheaper," said Darryl Van Dorn, Boeing director of commercial and NASA Delta programs. "We also strive to support this effort by providing low-cost, reliable launch services for these one-of-a-kind missions." The STARDUST spacecraft's primary objective is an encounter with the comet known as Wild 2 in January 2004. The spacecraft will photograph the comet and will send back to Earth real-time analysis of samples of cometary dust. Additional cometary dust particles, collected during flight will undergo further examination when they are returned in a reentry capsule that will parachute to Earth in 2006. The spacecraft also will collect samples of interstellar dust. Analysis of all dust, some of which originates from the formation of the solar system, is expected to yield important insight into the evolution of the sun and planets and possibly into the origin of life itself. The STARDUST mission is a collaborative effort between NASA, and university and industry partners, including the University of Washington, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Lockheed Martin Astronautics, contractor for the STARDUST spacecraft and return capsule. The STARDUST spacecraft will be launched aboard a Delta II, a medium capacity expendable launch vehicle derived from the Delta family of rockets built and launched since 1960. The Delta II rocket is manufactured in Huntington Beach, Calif., with final assembly in Pueblo, Colo., and is powered by the RS-27A engine built by Boeing in Canoga Park, Calif. The Delta launch team at Cape Canaveral Air Station will handle launch coordination and operations for the NASA mission. Alliant Techsystems, Magna, Utah, builds the graphite epoxy motors for boost assist. Aerojet, Sacramento, Calif., manufactures the second-stage engine, Cordant Technologies, Elkton, Md., supplies the upper-stage engine, and AlliedSignal, Teterboro, N.J., builds the guidance and flight control system. MEDIA ACCREDITATION Media without permanent accreditation who wish to cover the launch and the pre-launch news conference, should send a letter of request to NASA on news organization letterhead. It should include name and Social Security number or passport number. Letters should be faxed to (407) 867-2692. For full details, contact Lisa Fowler at NASA, (407) 867-2468. REMOTE CAMERA SET UP Following the press conference on L-1, a NASA van will depart the NASA-Kennedy Space Center News Center at 3 p.m. for news photographers who wish to set up remote cameras at Launch Complex 17. TOWER ROLLBACK PHOTO OPPORTUNITY A photo opportunity of the Delta launch vehicle for STARDUST will be available following tower rollback on launch day. Media wishing to participate will depart the Cape Canaveral Air Station Gate 1 Pass & ID Bldg. at 10 a.m. NEWS CONFERENCES AND LAUNCH DAY COVERAGE A pre-launch news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. EST L-1 at the Kennedy Space Center auditorium. Media covering the launch from Press Site 1 should meet at the CCAS Gate 1 Pass & ID Bldg. The caravan will leave promptly at 2:30 p.m. EST. A STARDUST mission badge is required for all news media covering the launch from Press Site 1. A post-launch news conference will be held at 6 p.m. EST launch day in the KSC News Center auditorium. NASA TELEVISION, V-CIRCUIT COVERAGE AND WEBCASTING NASA Television will carry the pre-launch news conference starting at 2 p.m. EST, Friday, Feb. 5. On launch day, countdown coverage will begin at 2:30 p.m. EST, continuing through spacecraft separation (approximately 28 minutes later). The post-launch news conference also will be carried, starting at 6 p.m. EST. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C, located at 85 degrees West longitude. Audio only of STARDUST events also will be available on the "V" circuits, which may be dialed directly at (407) 867-1220, (407) 867-1240, (407) 867-1260, (407) 867-7135, (407) 867-4003, (407) 867-4920. Information on viewing the launch over the Internet is available at: (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/launch_internet.html). SOURCE The Boeing Company