GE Lean and FastWorks

Lean Practices

About GE

est 1892

co- founder Thomas Edison

Fortune 500 # 4

Employees > 300k

Revenu > $100B

Global Research Center founded in 1900

“Innovation in great technology is the heart of a great industrial company”

GE reverse innovation: innovation in developing countries instead of developed high concurent

Historical approach to innovations

Innovations todaySpending $5B/year on innovation

Global Research Center employs 50k engineers

Placing R&D centers in different counties and cultures to grab the best people

Inviting Eric Ries and lean startup principles (in 2012) and introducing FastWorks

Lean startup principles applied to global company

1.Get closer to customer

2.Increase chance of success

3.Increase speed to market

4.Make it easier to get things done

Rejecting process complexity (spread teams focused on activity) in favour of simplicity (dedicated teams focused on learning)

FastWorks idea

FastWorks ideaSalespeople give design requirements and customers would be involved throughout.

“With FastWorks we learned that SPEED - our competitive approach”

Training leaders and teams

Team of 150 trained coaches

Launched 100s of FastWorks projects

Launched growth boards that allocate resources

FastWorks implementation

FastWorks Implementation aspects

Switch expected tons of money for periods of years to secure funding for short periods

Justifying programs to make people feel confident about their jobs

Dedicated team, not scattered all around the place

Changing culture: from understanding that “everything should be perfect from top to bottom” to “change in an inevitable thing in the business”

FastWorks challengesa) SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP - suppliers should be engaged sooner in the product development, were grateful to be asked to be involved, and have provided more flexibility.

b) FINANCE - required rethinking as teams speed up, it is hard to put dollar value to the learning. Traditional financial systems are risk mitigation tools, and there is typically no weighting on speed.

c) LEADERSHIP ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES - they inverted pyramid and research and development team moved leadership even faster then CEO.

d) EDUCATION FOR MIDDLE AND TOP EXECUTIVES, for Lean and FastWorks approach

Case: Series X diesel engine

product release in 6 years

After talking to Eric - series of MVPs, first – in 2 years

Case: Multiphase FlowmeterNeed: super precise meters

adapted existing technology

Internal startup that grew to a $100M business

Case: 500 MW Gas Turbine (2012)

7 years and $500M for first plant (to be built in 2019)

short development cycle

tricked existing turbines with little engineering to performs 10% better

Then added more engineering and achieved +22%

Released 4 MVPs, first in 2015, final in 2017

Put GE in “high-efficiency power” space early

Case: C-Arm (healthcare stuff)

First lab mockup in 3 weeks

Got customer feedback

Sold 4 pieces during first weeks

11 MVPs

Released new product in < 6 months

Case: Industrial circuit breakerReduced typical to this industry

60 month development cycle to 30 month

7 MPVs

20 customer sessions

Case: Silicon Carbide Power Semiconductor

Totally new internal startup that will effect all GE businesses

$250M of investment

ConclusionsSlides has been made in scope of course “Innovation Management” | MSIE4 | LvBS | 2016You can ping our team via prokopenko.serhii@gmailcom

Sources:

Video (12:43): Mark Little, GE’s Chief Technology Officer and Leader of GE’s nine Global Research Centers Lean Startup at GE, LSC15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgAk7xP2a1M&index=2&list=PL1M9pu1POlekMxS-EKorIuuO_JynFHQRmVideo (58:27): Johanna Wellington, GE–Fuel Cells: Running a Lean Startup Inside a Big Corporation, LSC15https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS07NcNdBn8&list=PL1M9pu1POlekMxS-EKorIuuO_JynFHQRm&index=31

And a lot more