3. What benefits has GE acquired while implementing such quality approaches?

Traditional Engineering VS Modern Engineering

Traditional engineering depends mainly on the sequential procedure in which the various tasks involved in the design and manufacturing of something are performed in a predefined and established order. This contributes to certain disadvantages wherein there is a loss of flexibility in the entire process and this may also lead to severe alterations or even scrap in the later levels of the product development life routine.

However, the arrival of Concurrent anatomist, which targets working interactively between the various techniques in the merchandise development, is relatively new. The term "Simultaneous Engineering" has been used since the ten years of 1990s. It was based on the idea that the life span cycle of the new product must fit in with the pre- existing product program lifecycles. It is a relatively recent process which utilizes cross functional assistance to assist in the creation of products which can be cheaper, better and also have a lower time to advertise. It isn't an isolated idea and encompasses almost all the functions like engineering, designing, support, marketing, accounting, and others. Though, this new engineering technique isnt favored in case of simple products or where there is only an incremental improvement in margin by the application of the strategy. General Electric Company (GE) is an exemplary case of this engineering technique. The General Electric's Airplane Engines Division had a strategy to introduce engines for the new F/A-18E/F super hornet. It used several multi-functional design and development groups to merge the look and developing process. The groups achieved 20% to 60% reductions in design and procurement circuit times through the full-scale component tests which preceded full engine tests. Problems surfaced before and were dealt with more proficiently than they might have been with the traditional development process. Routine times in the design and fabrication of some components have lowered from around 22 weeks to 3 weeks.

Moreover, General Electric (GE) maintains a corporate-level reliability program to train and certify GE engineers. Practitioner and Expert certifications are attainable, with the

latter including an additional external accreditation. These certified professionals carry their reliability toolboxes across the GE businesses, driving a culture of education and best practice sharing.

GEs process begins by establishing the reliability goals for the product. These goals are based on a variety of inputs, including benchmarking activities, application considerations, customer expectations and warranty requirements. Design teams perform a structured analysis that surfaces potential failure modes in a system. This would help engineers to design robust reliability test plans focused on the critical system elements and most likely failure modes.