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GE Aviation will expand its Greenville plant in the next few years beyond what it first announced, plant leader Bradley Brougher said Thursday at the Power Hour event presented by GSA Business. The company has decided to bring blade-coating operations in house, said Brougher, pictured in the light-colored suit.
By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published July 30, 2010
GE Aviation will expand its Greenville plant in the next few years beyond what it first announced, plant leader Bradley Brougher said Thursday at the Power Hour event hosted by GSA Business.
The facility makes the turbine blades for GE commercial jet engines and currently ships them offsite to be treated with corrosion-, pressure- and heat-resistant coatings. GE has considered moving that business onsite and has now committed to doing so, Brougher said Thursday.
Brougher said he didn’t know how many jobs would be created as a result but called the decision a significant investment that will take two to five years to realize.
“Cycle time is very important to us,” Brougher said. “To send a part around the world for a coating that takes 30 days is not something I’m willing to do anymore.”
GE will continue to contract with local suppliers like Honeywell Aerospace to do some of that work, he said.
GE Aviation previously announced plans in March to hire 100 people over the next three years, bringing the total to 250 employees at its new plant at the Matrix Industrial Park off Highway 25 in Greenville. The company also planned to invest $30 million in new equipment.
“This investment is above what we originally planned to make,” Brougher said.
Brougher joined Westy Bowen of Proterra Inc. as the panelists at last night’s Power Hour presented by GSA Business. Bowen and Brougher both talked about demand increasing for their products. (Click on the video at the left to view photos from the event.)
GE Aviation is gearing up to supply the Boeing 787 assembly plant under construction in North Charleston. The Greenville plant produces the blades for the GEnx engines that will be used on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
“This is the biggest ramp up we’ve ever had in our business,” Brougher said.
GE Aviation established operations in Greenville in 2004.
Proterra has established operations at a temporary site on Whitlee Court off Interstate 85 in Greenville. Already, Proterra has 30 people on site and three electric buses on the assembly line, Bowen said.
The company continues efforts to localize its supplier base, he said. Specifically, the company is looking for local suppliers to handle metal and composite fabrication and electrical wire harness production, he said. Some of that may be done internally too, Bowen said.
“There will be a supplier base that will be brought to this area,” he said.
Proterra has ordered six months of product from its suppliers in Colorado, where the company was founded, said Bowen, pictured in the black suit.
“That gives us six months to go out in this area and localize our supplier base,” he said. “We want a single-source partnership with our suppliers.”
Proterra plans to begin construction later this summer at a facility at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research that will produce around 100 buses next year and around 1,300 in five years, Bowen said. When fully operational, the plant could employ 1,300.
“Believe it or not, I’m excited to see gas and diesel prices go up. I’m not happy about the BP oil spill, but these are the things that make the case for our product,” Bowen said.
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