Don's "Interesting" List of Definitions

This web page describes some of the many, many terms, acronyms & things that I have encountered in my life, especially while working at GE Heathcare in the X-Ray, CT & other businesses as a key part of the Quality, Engineering & Finance areas

I started building this list in the early 90’s as part of my CT Engineering staff leadership role with the intent of sharing these definitions, concepts, etc as “learning tools” for each manager & their units, & for the program leaders & their teams… It grew from a handful of key things to today’s list of ~100 items (with some new things: Universe, Climate Change, etc) which I hope you’ll enjoy, especially with some of my recent enhancements!!

Note: some of the links are GE-specific, requiring that you be inside their firewall…

When viewing with an iPhone or other narrow screen, it;’s best to rotate the device sideways!!

Definitions tagged with a "chuckle" icon
;-) are my Personal Viewpoints – please treat them as such!

As you read these perspectives, try to keep these two thoughts in mind…

"Insight is an Insufficient Guarantee of Truth when untested & unsupported"

Bertrand Russell, Mysticism & Logic, 1929; quoted here*

"Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds"

Ralph Waldo Emerson*, Essay II—Self-Reliance, 1841

Definitions
Links connect you to other GE Web pages

1-click Index: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z


Links connect to other definitions; flagged links "*" open IntraNet web pages

Account Codes

The many codes were changed when we moved to Oracle… using the wrong "code" to purchase items could have wreaked havoc with your business finance team & manager! Account codes were part of the 40-digit purchase codes & were different from Purchase categories

Assignment

Work that was established (as this definition was written) for a Project or Feature, performed by one Person (or by several people in a team) for a predictable delivery at an Integration Step, or for delivery at a Milestone

Acronym

There were any number of AcronymWebster* lists around GE Healthcare… A CT engineer (Ed Chao) captured a summary list of interesting & useful CT Acronyms*

See one of the many Acronym* external sources also

  

Black Hole

Black Holes* are extremely dense & distant places in our Universe with such strong gravitational attraction that nothing escapes, not even light… they are created when the largest stars collapse at the end of their lives

At their centers are infinitely dense points—singularities—the ultimate no-man's-land: matter is compressed down to an tiny point, and all conceptions of time and space completely break down… not understood at all by science today

BPR

The legacy Budget Performance Report (aka Budget Planning Report or Budget Prediction Report) was both a Financial planning/prediction tool & a report that was (as this definition was written) a part of the financial backbone of CT Engineering, despite the system changes to digitization

See Oracle & BPR Report Information also

BritExit

The ridiculous BritExit event was kicked into action after the UK’s December 2019 election, causing many UK people to say “Wait… I want to vote again!”

Sadly, the 50% vote cast the case & the UK walked away from 47 years as part of the EU; review the history here*

Browser, MIE,
WebSite Viewer

All website pages are best viewed with a standard browser; review the EDGE* conversion article for more info

Business

The GE Healthcare business is today a collection of Managers who drive both people & critical decisions directed at improving Products & services for their Customers, thereby helping to globally improve humanity as well as helping GE's stock price. These decisions include Top-down program definition targets & timing commitments (e.g. the MGPD), financial (BPR) & headcount (OP) targets, as well as support for the overall FTP to Quality+Safety & Regulatory* requirements

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Benefits

The portion of C&B that GE automatically provides with employment, funded by each cost center as a percentage of their salaries. The GE Benefits Page* provides a detailed explanation of how these funds were deployed

Centricity

The CT Customer Centricity* team (managed by me in 2003) held responsibilities for Engineering Compliance, IB (Quality), Validation & 6Sigma (see GTO)

eCheckbook

A checkbook was (as this definition was written) a legacy tool (created by me for John Chiminski's team) that helped control funds to be spent on equipment, materials or other key activities for a Program. These were predicted & controlled with a spending plan, aka the "Material Expense Plan"

The process of ordering, approving, monitoring & receiving items was done through GEMSbuy*,reported back to the program through the actuals, organized by "Journal Entry Numbers" (aka JENO)

A legacy eCheckBook tool was AutoReconciliation which helped automate the monthly translation of the 886 actuals into the eCheckBook format for each program. This tool concept was also used for T&L prediction & control, although in a different format

eCockPit*

The legacy Global CT Eng Leadership CockPit was (as this definition was written) the web site where our key business links & metrics were displayed

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Commitment

"Do-or-Die" agreements that a Person must deliver

C&B, Comp & Ben

C&B was the area (as this definition was written) where the majority of our BPR funds ended up. Compensation was the money* that GE shared with us all on a periodic basis, and our Benefits were calculated as a percentage from Comp (30% - 40%)

  

Competitor

The people who were REALLY nervous about FCT! These include Siemens*, Picker* aka Marconi (no longer an imaging business), Toshiba* (no longer an imaging business), & Philips*… More details may be viewed at GE’s FCT Systems Engineering Competitive Info* site

;-)

Compliance

ComplianceWebster* is simple: achieve conformity with our official requirements, also known as our regulations

This conceptually undemanding act has more depth & breadth than the largest ocean* on Earth, so it's a really good idea to consult with some Quality Wizards!

Cost Center

A cost-center was an entity (as this definition was written) in the Finance system, usually with P&L targets

CR&D

Corporate Research & Development*, the place where Magic* (click it to see) so often happens for our Customers!!

;-)

CT,
FCT

Computed TomographyWebster* was a part (as this definition was written) of the Functional & CT Imaging business at GEMS, & is an overall “Area of the Universe" that is perhaps quite well-known for the incredible metamorphosisWebster* of "Raw X-Rays" to near-perfect images (performed by Engineering* Artisans under the guidance of our Global Business* Leaders), providing virtual medical miracles daily that help us all to save lives, each & every day!

Think about it as you work on "stuff" today…

Review a definitive Siemens article about CT Technology*

;-)

Customer

These were the people out there who REALLY fund things for us, which was why we all worked so hard to make them smile & to keep'em!

;-)

CutLine Sheets
Example File*

A key legacy part of the WWPP that defined a number of key attributes of a given SSTR or program, e.g. deliverable timing, major features and a summary of funds

See SandBox sheets also

DDTS

The Distributed Defect Tracking System helps us all to manage our SPR's

Design

That sometimes-difficult activity which most Engineers try to get right the 1st time! The Quality system requires that many aspects of the design work be captured in the DHF

;-)

Device

The term that the FDA applies to the products that we design & build

 

DHR, DMR & DHF

The key quality compliance terms by the FDA are:

  • The Design History File (DHF) holds essential records of the development of a medical device; refer to 21 CFR Part 820.30*, Design Controls, Item (j) [scroll down?]

  • The Device Master Record (DMR) holds the manufacturing blueprint of a medical device;
    refer to 21 CFR Part 820.181*


  • A Device History Record (DHR) holds a record of each manufactured medical device;
    refer to 21 CFR Part 820.184*

 

Engineering

The GE Healthcare Engineering Team* provides the backbone for development of our Products using the funds that were allocated through the WWPP & the S-I & S-II processes

See GTO also

  

Engineering Manager

The Manager who is responsible for the Engineering team in a business

  

EQPM

The Global Engineering Quality Procedures Manual was structured (as this definition was written) around clauses of ISO & FDA regulations to define the quality requirements for all phases of the work done by Engineering as part of the overall GEMSAm Quality System*

Estimate,
Estimating

Estimates, the backbone of program predictability, were often significantly mis-calibrated, causing execution slips, delivery delays & other complexities. The art of estimation continues today as a skill for which there are a host of external references, such as the APM* site & many others. Be sure to also review another oft-encountered mistake, the Man-Year?

 

To generalize this concept a little further, consider that estimates are simply a set of "educated guesses" about what seems to be needed from various skills (e.g. SW, HW, Mech, etc) to design & implement a feature. The overall accuracy of an estimate is always highly dependent on the people involved in the exercise, usually improved when repeating something that's been done before, or is similar

 

Remember also that research in the Engineering Program Library will provide useful "lessons learned" information!

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Excel

Microsoft's Excel* is the spreadsheet tool that today is an integrated part of Microsoft Office 365*, a suite of tools that provided the backbone for many of GE’s FCT Engineering tools, as well as reports from the Finance team

Several links:

Context-sensitive help data are always on "F1" & the [?] buttons!

FDA

The Food & Drug Administration, a key part of the DHSS (Department of Health & Human Services) controls our regulatory environment in the USA

Feature

A deliverable item for a Project, a Program or an SSTR that has an estimate of the effort required

Finance, Financial

The GEMS Finance Team* was part of the "back-office" organization (as this definition was written), providing critical data to managers & leaders

FMI

A Field Modification Instruction corrects a significant defect that has been delivered by a Program to our Customer who is usually trying to be patient with our significant screw-up…

See Global FMI PRD* also

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Folder ID

An Oracle term for the Program ID that you must have when purchasing stuff at GEMSBuy

GE, General Electric,
“The General”

The General Electric Company* establishes & funds…

The Environment in which we all work to define & deliver many interesting Products to our Customers which enhance the GE Stock Price*, thereby improving…

The Environment in which we all work to define & deliver many interesting…[ Repeat Ad Infinitum… ]

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GE Healthcare,
GE Medical Systems

GE Healthcare* is the place (which was fun for me!) where many of the people who were reading through this list back then spent most of their work time… also view the internal site*?

;-)

Global Climate Change
I added this element as there were so many, many things to be said…

Resolving today’s Global Climate Catastrophe* requires coordinated efforts from our leaders, governments, & each and every one of us—the Earth is getting hotter daily!

Primarily due to human activities & global warming, the consequences of climate change are a complex, global issue that requires a multifaceted approach & the commitment of leaders, governments, & individuals alike to address the rising temperatures everywhere, more frequent & severe heatwaves, sea-levels rising (making coastal cities difficult to live in), disruptions to ecosystems, & changing weather patterns…

Some actions (sourced from ChatGBT* etc) that you can take (or influence) to help make positive impacts on the environment without spending much or any money follow:


> **International Cooperation**: Leaders should engage in international agreements & co-operations, like the Paris Agreement, to set global climate goals & limits on greenhouse gas emissions

> **Reduce, Reuse, & Repair**: Make the most of what you have in hand—repair items instead of replacing them, find creative ways to reuse materials, etc

> **Reduce Food Waste**: Plan your meals, buy only what you need & use leftovers. Composting food scraps is an eco-friendly way to handle food waste (Action*)

> **Participate in Clean-Up Efforts**: Join your local community clean-up events to help keep your environment free from litter & pollution (Action*)

> **Share Your Knowledge**: Use social media or community events to raise awareness about climate issues & inspire others to take action

> **Use Your Voice**: Contact your local representatives to express your concerns about climate change & urge them to support policies that address it

> **Bike or Walk**: If possible, choose walking or cycling as your mode of transportation for short trips instead of driving or taking public transport

> **Educate Yourself**: Continue to educate yourself about environmental issues—many libraries & online resources offer free information (advice*)

> **Support Environmental Initiatives**: Volunteer with environmental organizations where your time & effort can be just as valuable as financial contributions (Action*)

> **Engage in Sustainable Living**: Reduce your consumption of new products (buy them secondhand) & focus on items that have a longer lifespan

> **Conserve Energy**: Turn off lights & unplug devices when not in use with natural lighting & heating when possible

> **Policy & Regulation**: Our leaders need to implement & enforce policies & regulations to reduce emissions; this includes promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, & sustainable transportation

> **Investment in Green Technology**: Invest in clean & sustainable technologies, such as solar & wind power, & support research & development in these areas (Action*)

> **Carbon Pricing**: Consider helping to implement carbon-pricing mechanisms (like carbon taxes or cap-and-trade systems) to provide economic incentives for reducing emissions

> **Education & Awareness**: Help raise public awareness & promote climate education to encourage individuals & businesses to reduce their carbon footprint (advice*)

> **Adaptation Strategies**: Develop strategies to adapt to the impacts of climate change, such as building resilient infrastructure & protecting vulnerable communities

> **Sustainable Land Use**: Promote sustainable land use & protect natural ecosystems to mitigate climate change & conserve biodiversity

> **Collaboration with the Private Sector**: Engage with businesses to encourage sustainable practices, reduce emissions, & transition to green technologies

> **Financial Support**: Provide financial assistance to developing nations to help them adapt to & mitigate climate change

> **Long-term Planning**: Develop long-term strategies for transitioning to a low-carbon economy & improving climate resilience

> **Greenhouse Gas Emissions**: The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, & natural gas for energy production, as well as deforestation & various industrial processes, releases greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere; these gases trap heat from the Sun, preventing it from escaping into space, resulting in today’s warming effect (advice*)

> **Enhanced Greenhouse Effect**: The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased significantly since the Industrial Revolution. This enhanced greenhouse effect intensifies the natural greenhouse effect, leading to a rise in global temperatures

> **Deforestation**: Cutting down forests reduces the planet's capacity to absorb CO2, as trees play a crucial role in capturing & storing carbon. When forests are removed, more CO2 remains in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming

> **Changes in Land Use**: Urbanization & changes in land use patterns can create "urban heat islands" where concrete & buildings absorb & re-emit heat, causing local temperature increases

> **Industrial Processes**: Certain industrial activities release other potent greenhouse gases, such as methane & chlorofluorocarbons, which contribute to global warming

> **Positive Feedback Loops**: As the last one I am sharing here, certain processes sadly amplify our global warming, such as the melting of polar ice, which reduces Earth's reflectivity (albedo), allowing more heat to be absorbed by the darker ocean & land surfaces (Actions*)


Remember, every action taken counts by helping to raise awareness & inspiring others… You can contribute to the global efforts to combat climate change without a significant financial burden—leaders do play a crucial role in setting the direction for these efforts, but it's essential for citizens to hold them accountable & actively participate in reducing their own carbon footprint as well

GMP

Good Manufacturing Practices (laid out here* by the FDA) establish the environment in which we were constrained to operate as we built & shipped out our collections of things

  

GTO

The Global Technology Organization* was (as this definition was written) the group-level parent for all of Engineering, including FCT

 

HC, Headcount

HC was (as this definition was written) a critical measurement for the Top-down targets which apply to both Program & Unit people. This funding dimension does not directly equate to dollars, but converts to expenses using various C&B elements

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HII

A High Impact Inspection (HII) was the process (as this definition was written) by which Engineers work was done to ensure that various designs were robust, adequate & on track to meet the requirements. Many SPR's were created during the HII review cycle as action-item trackers

  

Infinity

The concept of Infinity* (symbol "∞") reflects something that is unlimited, endless, and without bound… found in the center of Black Holes, the three types of infinity may be distinguished as the mathematical, the physical, and the metaphysical

Integration Steps

The key markers in a Program plan against which we all try to demonstrate predictable progress & eventual success

Milestones were usually the key end-points in a series of Integration Steps

Integrity

An invaluable aspect of everyone's individual life, GE Healthcare regards this as an essential element for employment & assesses each of us annually in more than a dozen areas

Polices related to Integrity were accessible on the internal Policies* web page

ISO

The International Organization for Standardization has been developed for European countries by many, many people who worked feverishly over several years in Geneva, Switzerland to create the ISO*, which has resulted in the ISO-9000 requirements & their related complexities; see Regulatory info also

Laminated

A much-malignedWebster* term used for sealing commitments or targets into plastic wrappers to indicate their longevity

Legacy "Stuff"

Often encountered, the term "Legacy" described things that were once associated with well-understood stuff; these were frequently found to be virtually incomprehensibleWebster*

See FTP to Oracle or Finance Info* also

;-)

Leader, Leadership

Good Leaders* may be defined as people who have…

The Ability To Inflict "Pain" And
"Get Away With It"

In other words, good leaders are more able to persuade teams to endure short-term pain for long-term gain(s).

 

See "Leadership is Action, not Position", quoted by Donald H. McGannon, frequently referenced by others*

;-)

Longevity

The time that an entity exists is also known as "persistence"

Critical entities are relatively short lived, some measured in days, some in months, some longer term

A few examples…

> The BPR (once established) lived with minimal changes for a year
> Financial targets (such as T&L) were defined with the BPR, but may change quarterly, or even more often
> Key programs often have the critical dates, laminated to indicate that these dates will remain unchanged
> Finance Actuals (once delivered monthly; less frequently today) were effectively automatically laminated as they were permanent records
> Record Retention was a key GE Healthcare activity (as this definition was written) that described how you should to clean your desk & filing cabinet(s)
> Your annual G's&O's may have a shorter life span than you expected!

Macro

A set of instructions for an application (such as Excel) to process one or more actions or functions. These steps are encoded as Visual Basic* scripts & vary in complexity from simple selection tools to sophisticated, erudite manipulation & conversion of data – also see the VBA* overview site.

 

Don't forget to check the many, many pages of useful help data that are in Excel's VBA tool, as well as the "Macro Record" feature, which provides instant coaching to get you started!

  

Mandelbrot

The mathematical term Mandelbrot set* is used to refer both to a general class of fractal sets and to a particular instance of such a set

In general, a Mandelbrot set marks the set of points in the infinitely complex plane and is the set obtained from the quadratic recurrence equation: “ z_(n+1)=z_n^2+C “

Manager, Mgr

A person whom may share the idea that "The Buck Stops Here*" as a Leader who was responsible for controlling multiple, complex business deliverables

Manufacturing
(aka Global Sourcing)

The organization responsible for building the many Products that Engineering had designed. The blueprint for each product was then captured in a DMR and the quality system records for each system built were captured in the product's DHR

 

Man-Year,
(aka Person-Year)

A theoretical standard for the intervals of effort that were required to develop estimates for program features (also defined with Man-Months)

The true complexity of this often-misunderstood term is the attempt to convert Man-Years to the Equivalent Applied Work Hours, an error that was often the real root-cause for program delays. Conversion of estimates to effort could have varied significantly from business to business, region to region & culture to culture… one must also consider points about the “Natural Intervals of Time*"… Enjoy!

Studies on this subject abound
(Fredrick Brook's 1975 book, "The Mythical Man Month*" is a very well-known software project example)
but for our environment, an effort analysis may help clarify the issue:

·   Contemplate pre-technological society (a couple thousand years back) for a minute or two, where Friday's were not payday nor the day before the weekend, but simply another dawn in the current season: Cold days, Warm ones, some in between. A little less complex…

"Why are clocks required?" & who said that Mornings are the best?

"Who decided on 7 days in a week, anyway?" & why?

·   Just a few decades back, letters to family, friends & the newspapers were each hand-written (not typed) & took some time to write & to read/reply. A few hundred years before that, communications were local, person-to-person or took weeks or even months to get through. Makes ya hate eMail!!

·   Rules & Regulations abound… "Is lunchtime always a fixed thing, or can it float to your hunger need? How about starting & quitting time? Days off?" etc


Also see an interesting " threads of Time" discussion here*

;-)

Metric,
Measurements

Measurements are a fascinating aspect of engineering life, some more so than others… hard-to-quantify measurements might include success, leadership, design aestheticsWebster* etc

As metrification of US measurements can be confusing, here are the key conversion ratios:

view from left-to-center or from center-to-right

1 (x) *

Factor

=

Metric

*

Factor

= (y)

1 Inch *

2.5400

=

cm

*

0.3937

= Inches

1 Foot *

0.3048

=

m

*

3.2808

= Feet

1 Yard *

0.9144

=

m

*

1.0936

= Yards

1 Mile *

1.6093

=

km

*

0.6214

= Miles

1 Lb *

0.4536

=

kg

*

2.2046

= Lb

1 oz *

28.3500

=

grams

*

0.0353

= oz

1 Fl oz *

29.5740

=

cc's

*

0.0338

= Fl oz

1 UK Fl oz *

28.4100

=

cc's

*

0.0352

= UK Fl oz

1 Gal *

3.7854

=

liters

*

0.2642

= Gal

1 UK Gal *

4.5460

=

liters

*

0.2199

= UK Gal

°F (x

-32)/1.8

=

Celsius

*

1.8+32

= Fahrenheit

Visit NIST* (National Inst. of Standards & Technology) also

 

MGPD

Business direction comes from a Multi-Generational Product Development plan… this was how our Customers get to love us more & more while our Competitors simply stand in awe!

Milestone,
eMilestone*

A major checkpoint in an SSTR or Program plan (e.g. "M1", "M3", "TE", etc), usually PRD-derived & often constructed as the end-point of a number of Integration Steps

MTBF

The Mean Time Between Failure of a device is the critical reliability measure, established by life-testing

NPI

New Product Introduction was the process (as this definition was written) that defined how we design, created & delivered Products to our Customers

OHR ID

Your "Oracle HR ID" was used (as this definition was written) to access GEMSBuy & other things; see Oracle for more info. To discover your very own “secret access code”, you went to the HR web site*, entered your last name & clicked "Search" to see your OHR ID. You recorded this for future use!!

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OP

The Operating Plan was (as this definition was written) a financial position statement for a business that defined how funding will be deployed

Oracle

FTP to Oracle* was (as this definition was written) our new overall finance environment as well as the backbone for manufacturing. It was also the database that forms the heart of GE Healthcare's financial system from which the BPR was created. Many external web sites, such the Oracle Magazine* provide more info

See OHR ID, Unit # to Oracle ADN, GEMSBuy & FTP to Finance Info* also

People, Person

The folks who MATTER & get all this stuff done!

Phasing

This legacy function of a SandBox defined work (as man-months & material estimates) at a high level for the WWPP. The effort was loaded as percentage-per-quarter for years 1-3 & by year for 4 & 5. The loading tool was used to divide the effort in 1 of 3 ways:

  1. Sum = 100%… represent HC/$ as loaded
  2. Sum <100% to reload last year's #'s with work done
  3. Sum >100% to multiply loading across years

Pivot Table

An often-misunderstood tool (see Excel) that allows you to quickly build simple summaries of large amounts of data

See how to set up a Pivot Table in a PC with SimplyLearn*, how to structure one for a website using pandas* which is an online structure around Python* and using Ask Mr. Excel* to create one

Don't forget the many, many pages of help built-in to Excel!

Planet Earth
I added this element as there were so very many things to be shared

Planet Earth* came into existence* around 4.5 billion years ago, very early in the evolution of our Solar System… this is the where everyone & everything lives today

The planet was given the English name of “Earth*” (meaning “the ground”) many centuries ago—derived from the Old English words 'eor(th)e' & 'ertha'… it is also culturally named as “The Mother Goddess” & in the distant past as the “Primary Fertility Deity”


We live today in the Meghalayan Age* of the Holocene Epoch* which reflects everything that has happened with our planet over the past 11,700 years… earlier epoch’s stretch back to the beginning, the Hadean Eon* when nothing at all existed but endless searingly-hot melted rocks

We are also currently living in the **staggeringly** difficult-to-manage Climate Catastrophe where it’s unsure as to how & when this will be resolved before our world becomes uninhabitable*

Science projects the Earth to end in ~5-billion years (providing we experience no planetary destruction* events beforehand) as the Sun destroys* itself by having exhausted all of its nuclear fuel—it will rapidly expand into a Red Giant* enveloping the Earth…

Hopefully, our species will have made progress to be able to live & survive off of our planet!

A small number of people live & work today in the ISS*, a satellite out in space and, in the not-too-distant future, a few people will be relocating to begin their new lives on Mars*… a thought conceived* as essential for our future by one of today’s key inventors, Elon Musk* with help from NASA*

As the planet orbits our Sun* it also spins in a counterclockwise direction on it's axis, continuously creating our daytime & nighttime. There are also 3 cyclical orbital movements, known as the Milankovitch Cycles*
> Eccentricity causes variations in the shape of Earth’s orbit
> Obliquity changes the angle Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to Earth’s orbital plane
> Precession changes the direction Earth’s axis of rotation is pointed

Arising in the East at dawn daily, our Sun (which is around 93-million-mile away) provides warmth & light to every living thing on our planet, allowing them to exist… the time of dawn varies with both the calendar & the latidude*

Our night-time light comes from the Moon* (where a handful of people actually visited* in the 70’s) which has the 28-day cyclic-change* from a “full Moon” (well-lit) to a “new Moon” which is dark. The Moon can also occasionally block the sunlight during the day, creating an eclipse*

Policy

The GE Healthcare Group Policies defined both the need & the overall requirements for key business activities. These may be viewed at the GE Healthcare Policies* web page; an Engineering subset* is also available

PRD

The Global Phase Review Discipline was (as this definition was written) a GE Healthcare-wide process intended to improve planning, prediction & execution of programs; view the latest release of the document on the eLibrary*

The PRD was tightly coupled to the EQPM & in turn to our auditable requirements for FDA* & ISO* regulations; it also shared a skeletal program plan upon which features were built

See the GE Healthcare eNPI* web site also

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P&L, Profit & Loss

Businesses operate on a P&L sheet, established by finance & management for a cost center based upon planned & predicted income & expense. Engineering cost centers typically generate zero income but always have expenses

Predictable

Predictability was a critical attribute of many things we work on. Some examples:

  • Budget…"So, what's the end of the quarter expense?"
  • Program Deliverables… miss one & discover how complex the world is outside the office because we're now missing our customer commitments
  • Design…try letting the MTBF of your circuit board be worse than what you predicted, or letting a tricky SPR in your code slip through to Validation!!
  • Quality is more than you think you have time for…

Product

A product (aka a device) was typically a simply remarkable offering that we have created for our Customers that will often cause our Competitors to frequently experience fierce burning sensations*, resulting in significant organizational changes after furiously engaging in many loud, late-night debates about how they're running waaaay behind us!

;-)

Product Planning Mgr

The Manager who was responsible for developing and delivering several business-critical items, including the WWPP, the OP, & a BPR with several other tools that support them

Program

A set of structured activities (a collection of projects & features with a Material Expenditure Plan) that creates a Product for our Customers; usually tied into the WWPP

  

Program Manager

The Manager who was responsible for planning & delivering a Program, including the tieback & phasing to funding & the MGPD. This person is also the source for a multitude of useful data, including the 3-digit program ID

Note: program codes were also available at the LTR site

Program Plan

The plan for Program deployment… see the aforementioned set of structured activities, too…

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Project

A set of estimated, structured activities that, when executed to the commitments, will predictably deliver one or more items of significance for an SSTR or for a Program

  

Project Lead

The Person responsible for defining & delivering a Project

Quality

Quality*, a critical attribute of the work that was done for GE each & every day, was often abused (as this definition was written) & frequently misunderstood; it's never easily defined & almost always interesting!!

Several relevant Quality-related links:

·   The FCT Quality System* pages provide eGuidance for FCT's Quality Management System

·   View GE Healthcare's official Quality position at Policy 1.12 (on Policies page)*

·   The GE Healthcare Quality System* defines global processes & procedures; the GE Healthcare Legal* page shares additional related info

·   GE Healthcare Regulatory info may be viewed at Regulatory Support Central* page; advice on our regulated environment was the final link in this collection


For an invaluable perspective, view* the train wreck ("A Picture Tells A Thousand Stories") — that was not able to stop at the station as it was speeding (running late) on October 22nd, 1885… it took several days to recover the station

The Bitterness of Poor Quality Lingers Long
After the Sweetness of Meeting the Schedule

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QuickPlace*

The server for GE's FCT Quality, eEngineering & eFinance data & tools, part of GE Healthcare's Domino* eTools suite. Difficulty accessing compressed files? Visit the site for a solution…

Record Retention

Record Retention was a critical activity for our regulated businesses, directing document longevity. This was especially important to quality, where regular audits of various elements require reasonably rapid production of the required documents

View the policy at the GE Healthcare Policies* web page

 

Regulatory

RegulationsWebster* are the external influences that direct & control all aspects of our technical work
at GE Healthcare

This vast compilation of international laws, rules, policies, guidelines & apparently incongruous & unconventional things collaborate (sometimes in conflicting ways) to form the complex regulatory environment inside which we were legally constrained

This set of laws was established by a multitude of expert lawyers, policy-makers & politicians around the world. Folks at the FDA developed the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 (Food & Drugs), Chapter I (Department of Health & Human Services, Subchapter H (Medical Devices) which is stored here* & is the basis of our GMP

The folks in Europe built the ISO regulations; many other international organizations also have key roles:

·        IEC*

·        CSA*

·        NEMA*

·        IEEE*

·        TÜV*

·        UL*

These teams place Safety & Regulatory boundaries around our designs the details of which were interpreted for the dilettanteWebster* & uninitiated masses by our SRE* folks

More information was available at Control Engineering Online*

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Reliability

The main objectives of Reliability Testing* were as follows:
a) the capacity of a device or system to perform as designed,
b) the resistance to failure* of a device or system, and
c) the ability of a device or system to perform a required function under stated conditions for a specified period of time

 

Requirements

When used within Engineering, Requirements were the output of our FCT System Designers who translated Customer needs into a coherent list of for each Engineering function, probably our most critical activity. You will also encounter requirements for the Quality system, which in this area implies Regulations

 

SandBox Sheet
Example File*

The legacy input tool for the WWPP that identifies the target timing and phasing, the feature list, estimated heads by skill & various funds for a given SSTR or program

See CutLine sheets also

ScoreCard,
SCI ScoreCard

The legacy SCI Scorecard ("Simplify, Clarify, & Identify") was (as this definition was written) part of the eMonitoring activity for CT engineering finance in 2001

See a (not quite) a Visual Map* of the scorecard?

Skill

A skill was something that our people possess (e.g. "LPI", "Manager", "EE", "SW", "Validation"…) that facilitates their work, thereby allowing programs to more competently & predictably develop & deliver features for their business-critical integration steps and milestones, resulting in…

THE BEST CT PRODUCTS IN THE WORLD!!

;-)

Solar System

Our Solar System* in the Universe is the place where we live on the 3rd planet that we named Earth… the other planets in the Solar System (Mars/Jupiter, etc) were each named after Greek & Roman gods & goddess’s, with the many more-recently-discovered moons (Ganymede/Triton, etc) named by the astronomers who found them

SPR

System Problem Reports were created with the DDTS system to log, track, control & close those irritating little headaches that managed to creep into our "stuff" as we designed, implemented & deployed the parts

SPR's were created throughout the life cycle of a product (from requirements to validation), from HII logs & various bugs in the design phase to PQR's arrived once our work was out in the real world

SSTR

A SubSystem Technology Roadmap defines where our vision will be taking us, providing that we all did our homework during the MGPD. The features, skills & timing for the SSTRs were captured as WWPP entries, allowing Programs to evaluate the in/out phasing for their deliverables

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S-I, S-II

Sessions 1 & 2 were the financial checkpoints that were put together in September & October to form the baseline for next year's planning, especially for Engineering's BPR

A visit to the GE Careers* page is worth the load time!

Target

Targets mean many things to different people. For this environment, targets were established as a deliverable objective for a person or a team to achieve. While some targets have virtually immutable longevity, others are well known to be short-lived or dynamic

  

Technical Lead

A skilled Person responsible for delivering a Feature

Top Down

Information ($, Heads, etc…) was set by the business leadership

Travel & Living, eT&L

People incur T&L expenses as approved by their Manager for trips related to their business operation

Legacy-prediction & planning for a unit was done (as this definition was written) in a "checkbook", similar in format to Program Materials; the actual process of reserving, booking, monitoring & reporting trips were done through the GE Healthcare eT&L Portal Site*

 

Unit

A collection of People with similar skills under a Manager

  

Unit Manager

The Manager who was responsible for a Unit

  

Universe

The Universe* is the place in which we all reside as part of our Solar System on the Earth

 

Verification &
Validation, V&V

These 2 terms (often incorrectly interchanged!) refer to the activities that Engineers perform to check their design work, a critical area of our Quality system

Verification was the testing that was done at different levels through the implementation phases of a design to confirm that both design & implementation meet the requirements

Validation was a higher level of system-testing that confirms that the device meets the customer needs

WWPP

The World-Wide Product Plan deploys a view of 3-5 years to help predict the future of an organization

See SandBox & CutLine sheets also

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Disclaimer         Entries are from Don Shave's exclusive & personal viewpoints, some with creative elements…         ;-)
You may not quote any element from this page without Don's prior written permission!

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