Boeing-MCG Tour Shows Suppliers B2B E-commerce's Benefits.

Business Editors

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2000

One of the nation's leading defense contractors and a rapidly growing business-to-business (B2B) software provider are teaming up to show suppliers how e-commerce technology can streamline the procurement process and reduce costs.

Over the past month, representatives of The Boeing Company Aircraft & Missile Systems Division and Mid-America Consulting Group (MCG) have been on a five-city tour designed to give Boeing suppliers a firsthand look at MCG's recently released SupplierGATEWAY(TM) proprietary software.

The modular, Internet-based sourcing and supply chain management solution enables organizations such as Boeing to manage order, performance and delivery information with multiple supply chain partners, in real time. Boeing is using the software in the production of the U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

"In a sophisticated and mature industry such as aerospace and defense, procurement is fraught with historical inefficiencies that were driven by the old manual, paper-based systems," said Andrew J. Banks, chairman and chief executive officer of MCG. "Today, e-commerce makes it possible to eliminate many of these inefficiencies, thus achieving significant cost savings -- especially as it relates to supply chain relationships.

"Suppliers who have been introduced to SupplierGATEWAY during our tour are very excited and want to learn more about the benefits they can achieve. After all, SupplierGATEWAY is truly an end-to-end supply chain middleware solution, encompassing the entire procurement life cycle -- from strategic sourcing to bidding and auctioning, order management, fulfillment and finally product support. As such, its capability goes far beyond the generally available packaged procurement and MRO solutions."

Mary Simmerman, general manager, supplier and materials management at Boeing Aircraft & Missile Systems Division, noted that SupplierGATEWAY is "an opportunity to utilize technology to achieve our business objectives relating to cost reduction, increased productivity and continuous process improvement."

Simmerman said SupplierGATEWAY can be an effective supply chain tool for supplies of the C-17 and other Boeing divisions. Since suppliers drive 70 percent of the cost of the C-17, the opportunity to reduce production costs has a significant impact on the marketability of the aircraft, she said.

Boeing and MCG are partners in a Department of Defense program that encourages larger, more established organizations to team on technology transfer with smaller, emerging companies. During the tour, the companies met with Boeing suppliers in Long Beach, Dallas, Phoenix, New York and Cleveland.

Tony DeLuca, director of the U.S. Air Force Mentor Protege Program at the Pentagon, commended Boeing and MCG for their successful relationship. "This program brings two complementary organizations together to accomplish something that is not only good for the two companies, but good for the nation, too," he said.

Ade Solaru, senior vice president and chief technology officer at MCG, managed the development of SupplierGATEWAY, which began in earnest four years ago.

"Boeing's suppliers and MCG's original requirements partners -- Hughes Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, TRW Space and Defense, Hughes Electronics and Raytheon -- contributed tremendous insight that evolved into the initial design," said Solaru. "While SupplierGATEWAY has applicability across many industries that rely on global supply chains, the B2B e-commerce solution is an especially natural fit for the aerospace and defense market segment."