events
Secrets of Success: GE Hosts Industry Leaders, Entrepreneurs, and Athletes at ‘Lean Mindset’ Event in NYC
Many years ago, Larry Culp was puzzled by Toyota. He couldn’t understand why the Japanese automaker allowed its competitors into its factories to witness the legendary Toyota Production System in action. The company risked giving away “the recipe for the secret sauce,” GE’s leader thought.
Leadership
Leading by Example: New GE Study Shows Entry-Level Employees Want More Transparent Leadership Communications
It’s not an easy time for the global workforce. Companies are contending with an unsettled macroeconomic environment defined by high interest rates, persistent inflation, and stubbornly low consumer confidence. The sheer speed of AI technological evolution is disconcerting for employees.
Fighter Jet
The F-35 Stealth Fighter Is Crammed With Electronics. It’s Up to GE Aerospace to Keep Them Working
The Air Force’s chief of staff called it “a computer that happens to fly.” An Air Force squadron commander called its pilots “quarterbacks in the sky.” The F-35 Lightning II, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, can reach supersonic speeds and may be the world’s stealthiest fighter plane.
Wind Power
Leaning Into Quality: GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind Business Is Sharpening Its Focus for a More Powerful Future
Johanna Wellington was almost ready to approve the installation of a new gearbox in one of the wind turbines in GE Vernova’s U.S. fleet. But she paused because she was concerned about the manufacturing process of a subcomponent. The department she leads in GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind business had recently changed its name from Major Components Exchange to Major Components Upgrades, a nod to its new commitment: Any new part placed on an existing turbine had to be a higher-quality component than the one it was replacing.
Gas Turbines
Powering Up: This Venerable Turbine Repair Shop in Singapore Is Preparing for the Global Stage
On the western tip of Singapore, there’s a sprawling facility that began life in the 1970s as a shipyard for tugboats and drill ships exploring the turquoise deeps of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. But the site’s days as a local repair shop are no longer. GE’s Global Repair Solutions Singapore (GRSS) is now a global hub for fixing the key components in the world’s fastest-growing fleet of H-class heavy-duty gas turbines.
lean
Tapping the Lean Machine: How a Jet-Engine-Servicing Plant in Brazil Solved the Puzzle of Missing Spare Parts
Soon after the pandemic hit in 2020, a team of logistics employees at a GE Aerospace plant in Brazil that services jet engines detected something odd, and worrisome: The number of available spare parts, used to repair engines, had dropped dramatically because of a cut in air freight deliveries. And those that did arrive often came in patchwork fashion and wound up stuck on the ground at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport, stalled by lengthy import-paperwork delays. The consequences were potentially serious.
Lean Management
‘Once You Do It, You Can Fly’: How GE Gas Power’s Marketing Team Pioneered a New Approach to Lean Management
A few years ago, Meg Chapman attended a training program for GE senior leaders on how to implement the management philosophy known as lean. Larry Culp, who had recently joined GE as chairman and CEO, had placed lean — the idea of cutting waste and working more efficiently — at the heart of GE’s turnaround. It has since been implemented at a wide variety of manufacturing plants, where it’s streamlined production processes, improved safety, and resulted in millions of dollars in savings.
Categories
Lean Management
Smooth-Running Machine: Lean Techniques Help a GE Aerospace Plant in Italy Find Its Footing
Any GE Aerospace employee who has spent the day at Avio Aero’s plant in Pomigliano d’Arco, Italy, would probably agree that two aspects of the workplace are unimprovable: the view and the food. The GE-owned plant in northeast Naples, which manufactures blades, combustors, and other components for some of the world’s largest jet engines, looks out on Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii in ash two millennia ago.
People
Personal Best: Why Logan Mueller Runs with a Sense of Purpose
Logan Mueller’s work-life epiphany came in October 2018, in the middle of her first 12-hour ultramarathon. Mueller is an avid runner, but on a 2.2-mile loop she hit a wall around the eight-hour mark. The temperature had crept up to the nineties and she was losing steam. Things had gotten so tough she’d begun to sob. She stopped at a refreshment station and was seriously considering quitting when a volunteer asked what she could do to help.
“I don’t know,” Mueller said. “I’m tired and I’m hot.”
performance
Field notes from GE’s kaizens last week
The difference is, or should be, palpable. The good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly. For teams who truly practice lean and believe in it, those latter two descriptors are nothing but opportunity.