February 28, 2019
GE CEO’S FIRST LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS
This week H. Lawrence Culp Jr. released his first letter to shareholders as chairman and CEO of GE. Culp began his tenure with the company in October, a newcomer to the organization but — as he wrote — a longtime student of its practices: “My earliest mentors cut their teeth at this company, and much of how I have operated and approached leadership and teamwork throughout my career is rooted in GE’s own storied management philosophy.” Coming to GE from the outside, Culp wrote, affords him the ability to look at the company and its challenges with a “fresh set of eyes,” able to ask new questions and identify new opportunities.
GE’s path forward: Following a challenging 2018, “it is clear we have work to do,” Culp wrote. “We are doing everything in our power to return GE to a position of strength, and we will need your support and patience to make sure we do so.” Three elements underpin Culp’s belief in GE: the team, the technology and the global network. GE’s employees design and deliver technology to every corner of the planet — whether it’s the equipment and solutions that are involved in two-thirds of the world’s commercial aircraft departures or more than 2,200 gigawatts of its power generation capacity. “This purpose has driven more than 125 years of GE innovation,” Culp wrote, “and it is as strong as at any time in our history.”
Read Culp’s full letter to shareholders — including actions the company is taking to improve its financial position and strengthen its businesses — here.
A NEW REALITY FOR HOSPITAL TECH
Not long ago, an engineer was learning how to repair, maintain and upgrade a piece of expensive hospital equipment. Working on the receiver subsystem of a telemetry unit, the engineer pulled out a component but — too late! — realized he should’ve turned off the machine first. The device, which cost thousands of dollars, burned out. Thankfully no actual money was lost, though, because the entire event occurred in virtual reality. Over the past several years, VR has evolved from a novel gaming interface to a crucial training tool, and GE is leading the charge in the adoption of the tech, using it to teach workers to fix turbines inside nuclear power plants, repair the electrical grid and maintain medical devices.
Traveling light: Every year, hundreds of students visit the GE Healthcare Institute in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where virtual-reality goggles are now as integral as blackboards and chalk used to be. VR simulations conjure up more than just lifelike replicas of the machines: They can also re-create many of the unique problems and procedures that engineers must master as part of their field responsibilities. For trainees, it’s “almost like having a trainer or field expert inside their head, inside their glasses, helping them go through those steps,” said GE Healthcare’s Arthur Larson. The goggles also make life easier for the trainers, who used to have to travel from hospital to hospital with enough equipment to fill an SUV. Now they just need some laptop computers and VR headsets.
Learn more here about how VR is helping train medical device engineers.
VIRTUAL LEARNING ON THE JOB
Earlier this week, when Microsoft introduced its new augmented-reality headset HoloLens 2, the company told the story of Chelsey Potts, who works on an assembly line building commercial trucks. That’s intricate, delicate labor, and if a worker hits a snag — or if she’s new to the job — it can be a hassle to stop and flip through a lengthy manual, and equally tricky to translate written instructions into 3D action. Microsoft hopes workers like Potts will benefit from the HoloLens 2 and an accompanying new mixed-reality app that “allows companies to create heads-up, hands-free holographic training for employees.” Such technology isn’t just for truck builders, though. Engineers at GE Global Research have been using the Microsoft HoloLens for developing training of their own. One day it could help medical workers learn their way around the human body.
Seeing the future: “Sometimes when people go in for a liver scan, if the sonologist is not trained enough, they mistakenly scan the heart,” said GE Global Research engineer Ratnadeep Paul, whose team is developing an augmented-reality system to train sonologists and eventually provide live guidance for ultrasound technicians. They programmed Microsoft HoloLens glasses to work in conjunction with a scanner. When a trainee wears the glasses, they can see on a dummy where a typical human’s organs are located and what they look like as the sonogram wand moves over the body. The headgear provides directions to specific organs and tells the trainee to move in certain ways in order to properly and completely capture the scan.
Learn more here about GE’s plans to use augmented reality to improve medical training worldwide, and here about Microsoft’s new HoloLens 2.
— VIDEO OF THE WEEK —
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“We need to shift our lens back to the customer and work backward to improve what matters to them. If we can do this successfully, our own growth and performance will follow.”
— H. Lawrence Culp Jr., GE chairman and CEO
Quote: GE Reports. Image: Charles Pertwee/Bloomberg.
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