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Yesterday I had the privilege to spend the day with the FieldCore Cincinnati Tooling Team in Ohio to get a view from the shop floor (Gemba) and hear from the team on the ground on what it takes to support the needs of not only North America but customers the world over!
I was amazed to hear this team supported over 500 outages globally! With a passion for delivery and a focus on excellence, they take it personally to deliver for our customers in support of their outages. From just about every state in the U.S. to countries like Australia, Columbia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and a few more in between! Any time, anywhere, any place this team is ready to support and deliver. Each of the tool kits the team assemble for outages contains several thousand tools, pieces of support equipment and various other supplies to ensure the team at a customers’ site has what they need to get the job done and then some!
Many of the tools we use today are similar to what we’ve been using for over 100 years to support the fleet and keep our units up and running. That said, and as we continue to improve with a focused approach on Lean, the team is working to make improvements to the kits that ensure safety, enable quality and drive cycle time reduction. The Tooling team across the globe are at the forefront of the next gen of what outage tooling looks like. Moving from purely mechanical, electrical and pneumatic tools and equipment to the digital, enables us to elevate to the next level. 
Arming the team with real time digital tools/devices to be used on the turbine deck, we’re working to make significant improvements to the way we work real time. All a part of the Lean Journey we’re on as we work to ensure our front-line teams have what they need to be successful! To read more about this digital revolution, click here.
This team exemplified to me what it means to support our customers and the men and women of our Field Services team the world over with passion, commitment and focus!
As you can see from the banner I’m holding in the photo above, and having lived in Cincinnati for three years when I was with Aviation… I’d like to give a shout out to the Team’s Cincinnati Bengals who are playing in the Super Bowl (U.S. Football Championship) this weekend! It’s been a long wait and I’m pulling for you!
Cheers,
Jim
