How GE Aerospace Reimagined Delivery of Technical Manuals to Global Service Centres

Steve Pasch: [00:00:00] You would have a specific manual type that would, that would be consist of 30 plus binders and we're talking four to eight inch thick binders right per engine manual. And, you can see where we've taken the–and again, this is 20 years ago–we converted to digital, but we still didn't have the ability to share that information cleanly and efficiently within the shops.

And so that's where the e-manual solution came into play a couple of years ago.  

We have 16 shops today, that we've actually moved into the tool, into the application. And it's roughly about 3,000 people are using the tool today at any time.  

It's reduced the workload of a librarian by more than 50% just by the addition of the worfklows and the bulk upload capabilities that we've added to the tool.

We often talk about MVPs, right? When I work with this team, we move fast. We have to move fast, right? And so, we fail, we've made, we've made some mistakes, right? And we learn as we go through it. So, it's really making sure that we define our [00:01:00] process, we understand what our process is going to be to put the right controls around it.

Marc LeBlanc: This is solving for change the podcast, where you'll hear stories from business leaders and technology industry experts about how they executed bold business transformations in response to shifts in the market or advances in technology. I'm your host this month, Marc LeBlanc.  

I'm really excited to talk today with Steve Pasch, an SME digital leader from GE Aerospace. We're going to take a deep dive into the interesting approach GE has taken to application development under his leadership.

Steve is a technology leader with over 30 years of experience. Steve, thanks for joining us today on Solving for Change.  

Steve Pasch: Thanks Marc for having me. Appreciate it.  

Marc LeBlanc: Now, I'm a little familiar with your application, but maybe for our listeners, could you just walk us through the application that it is that's near and dear to what you're trying to solve?

What's the business problem behind that?  

Steve Pasch: Sure. So, a little background: I've been in [00:02:00] this role supporting as a digital leader for about two years now and I was asked by the business leadership to come in and figure out a solution for publications in the shops. We didn't have a standardized process or tool or application to deliver digital publications to the ATMR or overhaul shops.

And so, that's been my mission for the past 18 months with the MOBIA team is to go figure out how we go do that. Drive a standard application that delivers a common theme across all the shops. Delivers standard processes that also gives us the ability to add complex documentation or custom documentation along with some bulk upload properties, things that weren't there prior, but also the big one is probably advanced automated workflows just to give us the flexibility to do what we need to do internally within our shop structure across the matrix, [00:03:00]  

Marc LeBlanc: Right. So these publications, who's consuming them at the end in the shop?  

Steve Pasch: So today it ultimately is all of our component and overhaul shops. We have 16 shops today that we've actually moved into the tool, into the application. And it's roughly about 3,000 people are using the tool today at any time, users real-time.

And we were managing this application using AWS servers. And we've gone from basically about 40,000 pages or documents to close to 300,000 in less than 18 months. So it's quite a growth over the last 18 months.  

Marc LeBlanc: And where are these shops, these 16 shops, where are they located?  

Steve Pasch: So, we have the shops located a couple in the U.S. and then pretty much everyone else is global. Everything from Europe to Asia. And again, we've got Singapore, Malaysia, and now we're starting to go as far as Asia, China, things like that. So, [00:04:00] all of our major component overhaul projects.  

Marc LeBlanc: So quite literally global, they're literally everywhere. With 3,000 users, that's quite impressive.

I sort of recall an early story that you shared talking about the binders that you used to have. Maybe just talk to people about the origins. I know that's an old story now, but what are the origins of this application? What is it solving?  

Steve Pasch: Sure. So again, I think from our previous conversation that we had, we talked about the history of publications and at once being paper and now being converted to digital, right?

That was done a number of years ago, but to deliver that, you would have a specific manual type that would that would consist of 30 plus binders. And we're talking 4 to 8 inch thick binders right per engine manual. And you can see where we've taken the–and again, this is 20 years ago–we converted to digital. But we still didn't have the ability to share that information cleanly and efficiently within the shops. And so that's where the e-manual solution came into play a couple years ago, [00:05:00] right? So again, the solution itself has been in the shops for about six years. But with me coming on board, taking on this role over the last two years, we really focused on how do we automate it, drive it, and really make it a one stop shop for our shops to be able to use and be more effective and efficient.

Marc LeBlanc: I'm curious, do you have any as far as time savings of work effort, is there any measurement of that? Or is it just noticeable from the culture, the attitude of the employees?  

Steve Pasch: That's a great question. So I will be honest and share with you like we have multiple librarians at each shop, right?

And we've done some time studies that would indicate–and again, we haven't done functional studies–but time studies would indicate it's reduced the workload of a librarian by more than fifty percent just by the addition of the workflows and the bulk upload capabilities that we've added to the tool. Which is quite extensive for an internal site.  

The other thing is the efficiency for our technicians of not having to go from application to application or engine manual to engine manual. [00:06:00] They're staying within one application. It's essentially a seamless application.  

And then the things that we've learned by voice of customer over the last 12, 18 months as well. As we really listen to the people that are using the tool and are adopting the tool now in the shops, we're seeing where we have improvements or opportunities to make improvements. So, we've gone to things like split page, we've gone to different things where we've added attachments, video capabilities. So, several functionalities we didn't have for years, now we've added that in for the needs of the shop.

Marc LeBlanc: You mentioned the voice of the customer. Maybe explain to me what you're trying to achieve and what you mean when you say that, just for our listeners.  

Steve Pasch: So for us within GE, voice of the customer is the end user at the end of the day. So, I'm very in tune with with voice of customer.

It's my job to make sure that the end user, as in the technician, whether it be the technician or the engineer that has to review and approve the workflows. We want to ensure that we're giving them the [00:07:00] tool and the application they need to use to be successful, right? Again, when you try to integrate a new technology into the shop and people are used to doing their job the same way for a really long time, they're comfortable.

So this disruption, we have to try to do it as frictionless as we can. So, the goal is to make it, I'm not going to say a pleasure, but make it so that it's easy. And so that's part of what we do is just making us accountable for the development and the launch of the products, but also to give them the flexibility and the voice to be able to speak to us when they need something.  

Marc LeBlanc: Right, and I heard a couple of things in there. You know, definitely making sure that you have the right requirements from that end user, making sure you're understanding the problem. I think that's paramount to being able to develop an application. But the other thing that's really interesting is managing the change around that transformation.

You're making a fundamental change in how they're doing their job. Were there any lessons learned along the way that you sort of saw that the voice of the customer was that important to [00:08:00] make sure that you could manage that?  

Steve Pasch: Yeah, absolutely. Every day. So, I tap into all the shops. When I leave here, I'll be going to Texas to the McAllen shop to actually do some more voice of customer.

And I literally go to the shop floor to have those conversations with the end user. So, when you talk about the transformation piece, the one lesson learned was the communication.  

Communication is key. And so we didn't do it well at every shop. We didn't do it culturally when you go across the globe, right? Everybody has a little bit different view of how you do things. So in ensuring that we've done it with the right level of communication and the right level of controls on how we do that across the shop, it's something that doesn't happen in a week. You can't just flip the old system off and put the new system on.

So like you said, as you transform the strategy and how you're moving with the product, you have to really work with the teams to ensure that they understand it. The training, all of those pieces of the puzzle are put together.  

Marc LeBlanc: Yeah, I'd [00:09:00] imagine–again, if I think back you were mentioning it's a very global set of shops–there would be cultural nuances that you have to manage through as well. That's really interesting.  

Thinking about some of the technology side of this are there things that you have learned along the way that you didn't know you were going to get into? Are there any eye openings that you thought were really interesting as you've evolved?

Steve Pasch: So, I've been around this piece. I was around it for many, many years. I have a very diverse background with both in the services and then prior to that was tech pubs many, many, many years ago in my early career. So I'm pretty comfortable with that. I would say that the biggest takeaways for me from this whole thing is, I'll say that post-COVID, it's really interesting to see the workforce and how it's changed.

And so the skill set of the younger generation coming in there, the way they define work, how they use the manuals, how they use the data to [00:10:00] maneuver in the shop is different. So, that was a big learning for me. Now again, part of that is education and training for them as much as it is a learning for me, but we continue to look at that and how we shape the technology and shape the product as we move forward.

So, the way we used to do things may not be exactly the same, even if it's digital. We may have to reconfigure and look at different ways to do this.  

Marc LeBlanc: Do you find there's a big gap? You mentioned the younger folks coming in who maybe operating a little differently. How significant is that gap between someone who's more senior or someone that's newer to the industry?

Steve Pasch: How big is the gap? That's kind of a technical question. So again, it takes experience, many years to get really good at what you do in the shop environment. And so a lot of the technicians that we're working with today don't even have the base, they have the basic training. But it just takes time to get immersed [00:11:00] in the data and immersed in how to use the manuals.

A lot of people seem to think that technical manuals are easy to use and easy to produce. It's not an easy function. It's a very, very controlled environment, but it takes a lot of technical skill to be able to maneuver through them and use them.  

Marc LeBlanc: You know, I'd be really interested to dig into do you have any stories around frequency of shipping that new application? Before I ask actual question.

Steve Pasch: So, I'll tell you, the past six months we've really focused on... As we've launched the shops and gotten them into production, the next thing that we really focused on was bulk updates, bulk being able to manage the product. So that as we launch a new shop into production, and we still have several shops to go, it's ensuring that when we build the product to deliver– [00:12:00] e-manuals with the workflow is a prime example. As we integrate into that, again, I go work with a shop in Struther, Kansas that has, they probably have 20,000 documents on their site. It's really understanding what they have and what they're not showcasing or sharing with us and ensuring that we get all that documentation put into that ecosystem into that tool so that we're able to manage it correctly and put all the standard pieces that we've added to the tool with workflow. But it's quite a task to do that. But we're figuring it out and we have a plan and we've got a strategy on how we do that now with a lot of these tools that we built in.

Marc LeBlanc: Talk to me a little bit about, there's always development going on. What's the process to prioritize where you're going to focus those development efforts is a million things you want to probably do with the application. But how do you choose the top five things that the team's going to get focused on?[00:13:00]  

Steve Pasch: So I would say that that now that we've pretty well stabilized the application, a lot of it is again the voice of customer. It's a lot of those upgrades that we're continuing to do. I would say the other big pieces that we really focus on, it's really working on streamlining how we manage the documentation in the shops. And making sure that we're putting in the right tools and search capabilities and things like that, again, to keep that. Right, we're adding more and more data to this tool to ensure that it's efficient and fast. And so I want to make sure that we are always looking at those opportunities.

What's the term we used yesterday, Randy? Sorry, I'm going to go off. What was it? What was: tech debt? Tech debt, yes. Yeah, that was a new term that I had not heard yesterday. So it's ensuring that we're [00:14:00] building the right tools. We're building what voice of customer needs to stay and keep it seamless. But to reduce the tech debt. So that we're always cutting edge. We're driving to the next thing, right?  

Marc LeBlanc: Yeah, it's interesting. I think when people talk about technical debt, there's two kind of angles that they're talking about. They're trying to catch up on some of their legacy or heritage applications and infrastructure.

But there's also a lot of conversations around how do you future proof? How do you make sure you don't paint yourself in a corner? Because there's nothing worse than getting something that's got so much technical debt built into it that, to fix it, you're starting over.  

That's really interesting. I'm curious, it's a bit of a tangent for what we're talking about but tell me how compliance has factored into the development of this application. What are some of the hurdles you're facing in that space?  

Steve Pasch: Yeah, so aviation is very regulated, right? So you have to follow certain [00:15:00] quality procedures and processes.

And that's one of the reasons why we built the tool the way we've done it with the workflows, is because of compliance. And everything that goes through for an approval to be displayed on the shop floor has to go through engineering and reviews and approvals. And at any time the FAA, the EASA, any of those authorities. And from our quality plans, each shop is legally responsible to be able to have that at their fingertips. And that's one of the values that we built into this tool, was to make sure that we could pull a report in real time. We can audit at any point, any revision history that we've captured, utilizing the workflow capabilities and things like that.

So it's a big play, big play.  

Marc LeBlanc: So you're tackling a lot with your application and what you're trying to do. It's a global application, lots of users, there's infrastructure to support, there's application development to support, keep it moving forward. Were there any strategies that you looked at to help either [00:16:00] increase the velocity or reduce internal burden? How did you approach that?  

Steve Pasch: So again, I'll just say from my experience that I kind of had a vibe of where I wanted to take the application. I've been in the airline business, I've bought and sold airplanes. I've done a lot of stuff in this business. And with my exposure to it, I had a pretty good inkling of where we needed to go.

And then in my experience in the last decade of working in the shops with services and understanding where we want to take technology. So I kind of had my own plan, but this is where I've partnered with MOBIA. I've used your experts, your developers, your Dave White's of the world and Randy's. And from an engineering perspective, your architects with Kuhn and Dryden and Alicia to help support me on my strategy of where we want to take things.

So they're my sounding board, right? So whenever I have an idea, we [00:17:00] have a concept, we walk through that as a team. We work together to figure out does that make sense? And then I also have my teammates that I work with and people in the shop that I go to from expertise levels that will help support a vision and a strategy there as well.

But I do lean into this team as part of my sounding board to ensure that does this make sense. Does it feel right from a strategy piece as well?  

Marc LeBlanc: I find sometimes with consultants too, it's easy to come in as a third party and you have a very unbiased opinion. Has that factored into the ease of working through a partner?

Steve Pasch: You know, I have never thought of it that way. I respect and understand where you're coming from with an independent view, or just having a different view of the world of how we would do things. I mean, I can say yes, but I really haven't thought about it that way. I've just [00:18:00] always been open to what the team has as ideas.

And they don't know much about aviation or aerospace, but that's part of the learning. And let's be fair, we often talk about MVPs, right? When I work with this team, we move fast. We have to move fast. And so, we fail. We've made some mistakes, and we learn as we go through it.  

So, it's really making sure that we define our process, we understand what our process is going to be. We put the right controls around it, and the team goes and delivers.  

Marc LeBlanc: I really like the MVP approach and that's another conversation you and I have gone down as well.

How critical was that to the evolution of your application you've been building?

Steve Pasch: Yeah, so I don't like to use fail often fail fast. It's like you test and you retest and you go through these different iterations of it. But from an MVP, I have to have the flexibility to move fast and be agile.[00:19:00]  

And so if I don't have that... I mean, it's been a huge success for me in my project management exposure and experience. If it's go do 50 steps and you... We can't work that way. The way it has to work in a lot of what we're developing is as the team's working, we need to review it, touch it, see it, feel it.

I think those are critical in how we work together as a team.  

Marc LeBlanc: As you're developing, are you bringing in additional teammates? Are you getting more eyes on from your team?  

Steve Pasch: Yeah, absolutely. So again, personal experience is there, but I absolutely lean into people all over within the GE matrix. Especially the technicians and engineers in the shops.

Again, I'll be down in McAllen at the end of this week having discussions around this tool as part of my check in time period with the teams. And just get that temperature gauge. It's part of the communication plan that we [00:20:00] do and make sure that we give the feedback back to the team.

Marc LeBlanc: And how often is that feedback loop happening?  

Steve Pasch: Uh, from the GE side or just are you talking about with the MOBIA team?  

Marc LeBlanc: Both.  

Steve Pasch: Every Wednesday we meet, Thursdays we meet. I'm one of those people–you'll talk to the team–that I text, we phone call. So, I think it's a bit different than your typical model in the IT world, in the developer world.  

But I like to work very closely with my team. You're my team. If I fail, we fail.  

Marc LeBlanc: Yeah, I think that cohesion is important but I think what I like about that feedback model even more so is if you're operating with that MVP approach and you have that constant feedback loop, if you need to re-vector, you can do so quickly and not get so far off course that you've wasted a bunch of time.

It's very quickly to make those micro adjustments.  

Steve Pasch: Time and money.  

Marc LeBlanc: Time and money.  

Maybe if we switch gears a little bit, tell me [00:21:00] about what's in the future for this tool and what you're working on.  

Steve Pasch: Yeah, so this tool, it's in my strategy plan for the future. I'm not going to say exactly when, but it's near term.

It has to be. Again, as we continue to grow our strategies within aerospace and where we want to take technology, e-manuals and the content within e-manuals is going to be a huge player. As we move forward to develop the right AI machine learning strategies that we're going to go attack, right?  

Marc LeBlanc: Makes a lot of sense. I think every industry is sort of trying to figure out what their approach is. So, this doesn't sound like anything else anyone else is... It's very early days of AI and the possibilities are endless.  

I want to recap some of the themes we've talked about, Steve. Make sure I've got the gist.  

One of the big takeaways for me is just how important getting that voice of the customer is. Making sure you're extracting and understanding how they use their tools, how they're doing their job so [00:22:00] that when you do build a product, you're getting pretty close to the mark.

The other half of that is really making sure you have that continuous feedback loop, making sure you're listening to your customers at their experience as it evolves and getting that back to your application developers quickly, so you can keep on course and re-vector as necessary.  

Lots of interesting challenges that you've experienced. This is a global tool that other applications that are more local may not have. Really interested to see how that develops as well.  

Steve, thanks so much for being part of the podcast today. It's been a pleasure having you as a guest.  

Steve Pasch: You bet Marc, thank you. Appreciate it.  

Marc LeBlanc: Thank you for listening to Solving for Change.

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