The GE Brief: May 6, 2021

CHANGE IT UP

Every hour a GE 7F gas turbine isn’t making electricity can cost power producers tens of thousands of dollars. Which is why it’s essential that service crews perform scheduled maintenance as quickly as possible and finish the job on time. “I’m always asking questions,” says Ezra Laurent, a director of global field services at FieldCore, the GE-owned service and maintenance subsidiary. “What can we do better? How can we change things? Who are our best performers? What can we do differently?”
 
A beautiful thing to watch: It helps that Laurent is an expert in lean management, the business philosophy that revolves around the idea of continuous improvement and powers GE’s transformation. Using lean, Laurent and teams as far apart as Hungary and South Carolina were able to find a way to cut the time it takes to replace a critical turbine component from 25 hours to 13. “It was a beautiful thing to watch,” said Funmi-Lola Ajayi, North America Region fulfillment leader at GE.
 
To read more about how lean solved the shroud problem, click here.

5G FUTURE

Switching from a current 4G network to a 5G system is like trading in your jalopy for a sports car. The 5G networks that have been popping up around the world can boast data speeds 10 to 100 times faster than what we use today. But 5G means more than just faster access to Hollywood blockbusters. The standard will change industry, too.
 
Digital disruptor: That’s why last week, GE Research and Verizon partnered to build a 5G test bed at the Forge Lab at GE Research in Niskayuna, New York. It will help researchers to design and test 5G tech that can gather and monitor in real time data from wind turbines, for example, and optimize their efficiency. In aviation, it could allow for augmented reality devices that give maintenance crews contextual information about the state of an engine powering a plane that just pulled up to the gate and smooth the way for smarter predictive maintenance. Eventually it could be the brains behind connected cars, and even help improve healthcare procedures like robotic surgery. Eric Tucker, senior director of technical products at GE Research, says 5G promises to be as big as “any other digital disruptor in the last 20 years.”
 
Read more about how GE Research is using its 5G test bed here.

2020 was a challenging year full of uncertainty. But GE employees mobilized to fight COVID-19 and strengthen the company for the long term. They innovated in healthcare, aviation and renewable energy, scaled lean management and deepened the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?

1. Switch it up
Researchers from MIT’s Whitehead Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, have developed a reversible gene-editing technique that can switch genes on and off without affecting their underlying DNA sequences.
 
2. Breathe it in
MIT researchers showed they can deliver more vaccines by inhalation, speeding immune response in the respiratory system by bypassing the bloodstream.
 
3. Concrete benefits
Scientists at Rice University converted rubber-tire waste to graphene, an ultrathin form of carbon that is stronger than steel, then used the material to strengthen concrete.
 
Learn more here about this week’s Coolest Things On Earth.