The world has faced myriad challenges in recent years, from challenges to energy security and extreme weather events impacting the grid to the COVID-19 pandemic and the macroeconomic turbulence it caused. These have helped to catapult sustainability to the top of the boardroom agenda, with companies now striving both to succeed as a business and in contributing to solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges at the same time.
As GE Vernova prepares to stand up as a publicly traded company in April 2024, the company has laid out five central principles called the GE Vernova Way: “We drive Innovation in everything we do, serve our Customers with pride and focus, and operate with a Lean mindset, focusing on safety, quality, delivery, and cost, across our operations.
By mid-2020, normal routines around the world had ground to a halt. Early-stage quarantine plans to make the best of the spare time — to get in shape or learn a new skill — were giving way to languor and endless doomscrolling.
With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, travelers are flocking to airports again, leading to surging demand for jet engines, but supply chain issues are hindering the aerospace industry’s ability to deliver for customers. GE Aerospace’s Greg Pothoff is on a mission to make sure the company can deliver to its customers.
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.
“The Lean Mindset: The Pursuit of Progress” Brings Together Industry Leaders To Discuss The Mindset Shaping The Leaders Of Tomorrow
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — September 6, 2023 — GE (NYSE:GE) announced “The Lean Mindset: The Pursuit of Progress,” a first-of-its-kind event for industry leaders to unlock strategies for leadership innovation and efficiency.
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“Nick Perugini always stood out, starting from the first time I met him,” says David Burns, chief information officer for GE and GE Aerospace. “He had a passion for making connections and this innate ability to build rapport and trust with everyone around him. It’s part of what made him such a great leader.”
Inside a vast, 69,000-square-foot engine shop situated on the southern edge of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), a small group of GE Aerospace mechanics and college co-op students huddle around a GEnx engine. An engineer is demonstrating how to use a prototype ultrasonic wrench. As the mechanics crane their necks to observe, the engineer deploys the vibrating wrench to loosen a specific type of bolt that can cause damage to a part in the engine’s combustion case if not handled properly.
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.
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.
