GE quality 2000: A dream with a plan

GE had another outstanding year in 1995 by any measure: a 17% growth in revenues to $70 billion, 11% earnings growth to $6.6 billion, and earnings per share up 13%. Stretch targets are made when reasonable performance targets are set, and then sights are raised higher - much higher - toward goals that at the outset seem to require superhuman effort to achieve. GE has found that by reaching for what appears to be the impossible, the company can often actually do the impossible. GE has set for itself the goal of becoming, by the year 2000, a Six Sigma quality company, which means a company that produces virtually defect-free products, services and transactions.