By Scott Miller
Only five of General Electric Co.’s 90 aviation plants across the world are employee-driven sites. One of them just opened south of Greenville.
At the new GE Aviation site at the Matrix Industrial Park in Piedmont, employees designed the layout of the 10 production lines, rather than having that dictated by management. And they have formed committees that give them an active voice in plant-related issues and decision making.
“It takes a leap of faith,” said Jamie Regg, the general manager of turbine airfoils who oversees this and three other GE Aviation plants.
But the result is improved efficiency, he said. By setting up their own lines, employees can maximize work space, improve product flow, reduce inventory and generally improve the ergonomics of the plant.
“There have been a lot of lessons learned when building these lines,” said Brent Hillock, environmental health and safety leader at the plant.
All the workers on a particular production line are cross-trained to do the job of the co-workers next to them. And they all dress the same, in blue jeans and blue polo shirts with the GE logo.
“We all wear common attire so we don’t distinguish between employees,” said plant leader Brad Brougher.
Representatives from GE’s other sites around the world are traveling to Greenville to dissect the process.
“They all want to know the DNA, the culture of how this is set up,” Brougher said. “It’s traditional for us that these high-performance work teams obtain double-digit performance increases year after year.”
Brougher said he hopes his co-workers have developed a sense of pride in the facility, which just stepped out of the shadow of its former corporate partner and neighbor GE Energy on Garlington Road in Greenville.
“(GE) Energy has been very supportive of us, but we want our own identity,” Brougher said.
GE Aviation relocated from that site this year.
The move tripled the amount of space to 150,000 square feet and resulted in a $15 million investment in new equipment to make the many blades used in commercial jet engines. The site will produce 350,000 blades this year, or about one per minute of operation, Brougher said. Demand is up about 40% from last year, he said, as older aircraft is discontinued and newer, more efficient jets pile up miles. GE Aviation in Greenville shipped $114 million in product globally last year.
And the growth isn’t over yet.
GE Aviation opened in Greenville in 2004 with just four employees. Since then, GE has invested $60 million in the business. Today, 150 people work there, with another 100 to be hired in the next three years, Regg said.
“Half the building is open for expansion so that should give you an idea of what our plans are,” he said.
Brougher referred to the company’s expansion plan as “raising a third flag in South Carolina” to go along with the GE Energy site in Greenville and GE Healthcare in Florence.
GE plans to invest an additional $30 million in the site, he said. Much of that will be used to purchase equipment for the unoccupied half of the facility, which totals about 75,000 square feet.
The expansion into the remaining half of the building, Brougher said, could include a combination of additional production lines for blades and a new coatings business that would bring a significant investment in new technology.
Right now, GE blades are sent offsite to be treated with corrosion-, pressure- and heat-resistant coatings. The blades, which contain the rare metal rhenium that costs around $6,000 a pound, must be able to withstand 3,000 degrees. The Honeywell Aerospace plant in Greer handles some of that work. Moving forward, GE may develop its own technology to coat the blades, Brougher said, or it could continue to partner with companies like Honeywell.
“We are keeping our options open because that is a very significant investment,” he said.
The procurement time is about nine months for this equipment, he said.
“We’re ready to pull the trigger this year if we decide to,” Brougher said.
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