Welcome to the MR Innovation Competition 2011

Competition Rules
Chance favors the prepared mind. Louis Pasteur Competition Dates Competition Kick-Off: April 4, 2011 Application form due: April 21, 2011 First Round of Judging: April 22 thru May 6, 2011 Finalist Teams Announced: May 10 2011 Finalist Team Idea Development: May 10 thru Nov 10, 2011 Finalist Team Science Fair: Tentative Nov 17, 2011 Final Round of Judging: Tentative Nov 17, 2011 Winners Announced: Tentative Nov 17, 2011 1.0 How to Submit 1) Download the application form at sc.ge.com/@MR_Innovation and complete all sections 2) The application form must be detailed and well thought-out prior to submission (Remember: this is the only chance you have to sell your idea for advancement in the competition) 3) Submissions can be made as an individual or in teams 4) Be as specific and accurate as possible on the application form. If your team is chosen to continue in the competition, resource, budget, and time estimates will become vital 5) Turn-in application form by following the instructions on the first page of the form 1.1 Team Formation 1) Ideas can be submitted by already formed teams a. A team size of four (4) to five (5) members is recommended. If you exceed five members, the Innovation Review Board may ask you to cut your team size accordingly i. Note: teams exceeding five members will have any potential prize winnings capped at five times the prize level amount and distributed evenly (for example, if you have a team of 12 members and your team wins first place ($3,000/person), only five members will receive the award totaling $15,000 and is up
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to your team to distribute accordingly. 2) Individual submissions must form a team within two (2) weeks after the idea acceptance a. Tim Nustad must confirm the formation of the team to continue in the competition 3) Team formation can either be global or per site a. Global teams are recommended, however this can be based off of individual team commitments 4) Each team must designate a leader. The leader will be responsible for team actions, and engaging all team members in the idea and required tasks 5) Cross-functional teams are encouraged 6) If needed, teams are encouraged to include someone to serve in an advisory role 1.2 Judging Guidelines 1) The best ideas will be picked globally by the Innovation Review Board a. The Innovation Review Board is made-up of leaders from MR b. Ideas will be judged based on creativity, application to MR in shortterm and long-term benefit, customer impact, technical merit, business impact, etc 2) The Innovation Review Board will have an open review session anyone can attend a. During the open review session, each idea will have a time limit to be reviewed 10 minutes for idea owner to pitch (if requested) and discussion i. Idea owner presence is NOT mandatory at the open review session 3) A member of the Innovation Review Board will contact each idea owner or team leader to let them know if the application was accepted into the competition 4) If your idea is not chosen to move on, you are encouraged to continue to refine your idea on the forums/blog for the next Innovation Competition 2.0 First Round of Judging - Application Accepted: Next Steps 1) The ideas to advance in the competition are chosen by the Innovation Review Board (refer to section 1.2 Judging Guidelines for more details). For the

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remainder of this document these teams will be referred to as finalists 2) If your accepted idea was an individual submission, you will need to form a team to continue (refer to section 1.1 Team Formation for more details) 3) It is strongly encouraged the finalist teams/individuals start planning out their project schedule immediately after they have been notified of their advancement in the competition. This allows the teams to make the most of their awarded time out of office and provides enough time for P-card holders to acquire materials 2.1 Idea Budget 1) The budget for each project will be determined based on the application form 2) Each finalist team will be notified of the purchasing procedure by the team organizing the competition. If you are in need of purchasing items before this procedure is sent, please contact the team organizing the competition for a solution. 3) The finalist team is responsible for keeping track and keeping within their budget a. Any teams that are in danger of going over their budget will need to get prior approval from Tim Nustad for additional purchases 4) Any unused budget will be forfeit upon the completion of the competition 2.2 Innovation Time 1) Each finalist team will be awarded up to 10 days out of office to work on their idea a. The amount of time awarded will be determined based on the application form 2) A day used out of office can be used in any way (within GE Corporate standards) towards the development of the idea. Here are some examples: a. A day used at an engineering bay to complete feasibility of an idea b. A day away from the office to increase team productivity c. A day working with a manufacturing vendor to produce the prototype of your idea 3) The time out of office must be established between the finalist team and communicated appropriately a. It is the finalist teams responsibility to communicate the days they will be using out of office to their peers and manager

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b. Finalist teams are encouraged to work with management to minimize business impacts where possible 4) Any unused time will be forfeited upon the completion of the competition 5) This time is to be used for the development of the idea ONLY. Abuse of this system will have strict consequences including disqualification of the entire team from the competition 2.3 End Goal 1) The end goal is to create a soft prototype of your idea. The following are examples of soft prototypes: a. Working hardware prototype / proof of concept b. Research and data gathering c. Presentation d. Future recommendations e. IP Disclosures f. Solid business case g. Industrial design drawings h. New process workflow 3.0 Finalist Science Fair 1) The finalist teams will meet in Milwaukee to present the soft prototype in an MR styled science fair a. The science fair is a chance for the finalist teams to show their idea to the MR community before the final round of judging b. Details on display space will be sent to you by the team organizing the event. While working on your display, please keep in mind that space is limited. i. If you are an international participant, please work with the team organizing the event to help with your display if traveling with certain materials is a concern 3.1 Final Round of Judging (Day of Science Fair) 1) The finalist teams will present their soft prototype for a final round of judging 2) The top three winners will be determined by the Innovation Review Board

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3.2 Prizes 1) Suitable ideas will be followed-up with an Advance Technology Development (ATD) project that the winning teams will work on as part of their formal Goals and Objective (Gs & Os) a. If a member of the winning teams does not want to participate in the ATD, please communicate your wishes to the Innovation Review Board 2) All finalists will receive a cash prize of $100/person 3) The top three teams: a. Receive a trip to a technical conference of their choice b. Receive cash prize i. First place: $3,000/person ii. Second place: $2,000/person iii. Third place: $1,000/person 4) As stated in section 1.1 Team Formation, winning teams exceeding five members will have prize winnings capped at five times the prize level amount and distributed evenly (for example, if you have a team of 12 members and your team wins first place ($3,000/person), only five members will receive the award totaling $15,000 and is up to your team to distribute accordingly.

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List of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1) Can members of the Innovation Review Board submit ideas to the competition? 2) I am afraid of posting my idea on the forums/blog for fear that my idea may be stolen 3) Someone on my team is not working as hard as everybody else. What can I do? OR I would like to work more on the idea development, but the team does not assign anything to me? 4) What do I do if I have multiple submissions that win? 5) What happens if there are two submissions of similar ideas? 6) Who can I contact if I have questions? 7) What is the purpose of the forums/blogs?

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FAQs 1. Can members of the Innovation Review Board submit ideas to the competition? a. Yes. However, the Innovation Review Board Member can not be present during the selection process for the best ideas 2. I am afraid of posting my idea on the forums/blog for fear that my idea may be stolen a. All posts on the forums and blogs automatically attach your name, date, and time. Therefore, any idea that is posted will have a paper trail one can reference. b. If you would like to be extra secure, before posting on the forum or blog, write your idea down in an engineering notebook (or a notebook with numbered pages i.e. 1 of 250 pages). Bring your notebook and discuss your idea with a witness. Both yourself and the witness will sign, date, and time stamp the page(s) in your notebook that describe your idea. Finally, notarize these pages (this is especially important if you feel your idea will lead to a patent submission) 3. Someone on my team is not working as hard as everybody else. What can I do? OR I would like to work more on the idea development, but the team does not assign anything to me? a. It is the responsibility of the team leader to deal with these situations and seek advice where appropriate 4. What do I do if I have multiple submissions that win? a. The Innovation Review Board will approach the idea owner or team leader and will ask you to pick only one idea to be your main focus and the other idea less focus. It is expected the idea owner or team leader will continue to guide the team working on the idea with less focus. b. If both ideas place in the final three, the team member on both teams will receive the highest earning prize (for example, if one idea wins second place, and the other third place, the idea owner or team leader will receive the second place prize. NOT both the second place and third place prizes) 5. What happens if there are two submissions of similar ideas? a. The Innovation Review Board will approach the idea owner or team leader for both submissions and ask both teams if they are willing to work together on one idea 6. Who can I contact if I have questions? a. Please send questions via email to Bryan Schwitchenberg, SSO: 212038531 or Rachel Seitz, SSO: 212057641
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b. Feel free to post questions in the forums as well if you have a question, more than likely, someone else has the same question and will benefit from seeing the answer 7. What is the purpose of the forum/blogs? a. The forums/blogs are available for idea brainstorms, to meet other people that have interest in your idea or to find people whose ideas interest you, and for business leaders to post business opportunities seeking solutions. The forums/blogs will be available outside of the competition to serve as a place where you can start an idea and refine ideas with input from other users before the start of another competition

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