After six years of total commitment to Six Sigma, we now have more than three dozen GE businesses speaking a common language, and it is the language of our leaders – present and future. We have trained 80,000 people in Six Sigma and completed 500,000 projects, which have greatly improved our process capability throughout GE.  We have invested $10 billion in information technology since 1998 to make Digitization a vital part of the Company. To GE, Digitization is the simplification of workflow, facilitated by the Internet. Six Sigma process excellence plus digital speed is changing the look of GE – smaller back rooms, faster decision-making in digital "cockpits" and increased customer-centricity and intimacy.

Front Room / Back Room…
The Internet allows every company to have fewer, more efficient and higher-value jobs. At GE, 60% of our resources are in the "front room" – customer-facing, growth-driving, manufacturing, selling and Controllership. The other 40% of our resources are in the "back room" – supporting as well as compiling and passing information. This will change. Digitized companies in the 21st century will have significantly smaller back rooms with more resources committed to growth and customer success.

Digitization allows companies to change their shape, focusing only on those things that drive customer success, profit and growth. Across the Company, we will take out $10 billion of costs over the next three years. Six Sigma, combined with Digitization, will shape a leaner GE.

Digital Cockpits…
Digitization has made GE faster and allows us to constantly measure what we do. Metrics – especially those 10 to 15 critical measurements that leaders need to run their businesses – are now online, real-time and shared by all.

Digital cockpits have had a profound impact on Plastics, a complex business with customers and factories around the world. Our leadership team reviews 15 key operating metrics daily, using a globally consistent standard. Cockpits contributed two points to productivity at Plastics in 2001.

Daily and weekly – rather than monthly or quarterly – our business leaders are making course corrections to their businesses, saving time and money while better serving our customers.

Customer-Centricity…
The combination of Six Sigma and Digitization is taking us into our customers' workflow.  We are focused on three areas that make a difference to them: repeatable processes (span), sales force capacity and customer profitability.

You have heard us talk about span, the "evil" variance our customers feel in our response to their requests for delivery, service or financing. Reducing span remains one of GE's key goals. Our Appliances business has reduced span by 70%, allowing us to meet the most rigorous standards for rapid home delivery. At Power Systems, as a result of Six Sigma process improvements, we have achieved a significant reduction in span on plant start-ups – saving time and money for our customers.

 We want to focus our initiatives on customer profitability. This starts with a sales force that is trained to take Six Sigma to the customer. It is backed with technology: Six Sigma-designed products to improve customer effectiveness or digitized Web applications to automate customer workflow.

Our customers feel the difference. We have more than 3,000 Six Sigma projects underway in the airline industry – 1,500 since September 11 – which will achieve $400 million in savings for these customers who are contending with crisis and change. This service to our customers will improve our long-term relationships as this key industry rebounds.