Mitsubishi 2020

アブストラクト

The focus of this case study is the hurdles a Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. faced in trying to become a commercial passenger jet maker after 50 years of its last endeavor. Mitsubishi accumulated technological expertise over 40 years through being a tier 1 supplier for Boeing. With the high confidence in such technical advantage, the company aimed to move up the value chain and make the aerospace business as a key driver to Mitsubishi Group’s future business growth. In March 2008, Mitsubishi officially launched the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) project and established the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation to conduct MRJ business. The project was promoted by Japanese government as a great opportunity to revitalize a Japanese manufacturing industry and gathered large-scale public attention as the first “Made in Japan” commercial aircraft for more than half a century. However, the difficulty of developing a complete aircraft from scratch was a far greater than the company has anticipated, and a series of problems surfaced from the first moment of the launch. After experiencing 5 delays and cost overturn, Mitsubishi took several measures to get the project on track, including organizational change, rebranding of the project, and finally the purchase of its rival, Canadian Bombardier. Despite of such effort and investment, the future of project remained uncertain at the end of case when the new CEO Izumisawa was forced to announce the sixth delay of delivery. With the time and financial pressures increasing, the new CEO was pondering whether or not to move forward the project.

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