A patient with a pulmonary embolism, usually in breathing distress, must lie in a conventional scanner for nearly half a minute compared with 6 seconds for the LightSpeed. Hospitals, for their part, now get a much higher utilization rate and hence lower per-scan costs. Yes, we've had some early product successes, and those customers who have been touched by them understand what this Six Sigma they've heard so much about really means. The customers in this chart feel nothing. The customer only feels the variance that we have not yet removed.
Variation is evil in any customer-touching process .
Improvement to our internal processes is of no interest to the customer. In 1999, our customers will feel and enjoy the same benefits of Six Sigma that we have been experiencing internally. We will improve variability. We will make this happen. This next generation of senior GE leadership, and the succeeding waves of Black Belts, share a camaraderie and an esprit forged by their Six Sigma training and the experiences of their tours.