Louisville, Kentucky-based General Electric Appliances and Lighting (GE) announced Monday its plans to invest $432 million to establish four US-based refrigeration design and manufacturing centers of excellence and create 500 new "green" jobs by 2014 in the process, bringing the company's total US investment announced since 2009 to more than $1 billion and jobs created to 1,300.
With these investments, by 2014, GE will offer the highest percentage of US-made refrigerators among full-line appliance makers. The new centers of excellence for refrigeration products will be located in Louisville, Kentucky; Bloomington, Indiana; Decatur, Alabama; and Selmer, Tennessee.
Kevin Nolan, GE Appliances VP of Technology, said, "This is a new product development model for us. For years, products have been designed far away from the factory and the people who would manufacture them. By co-locating all the people who are involved in bringing a product to life -- engineering, quality, production (hourly and salaried) and sourcing -- we increase collaboration and problem-solving and shorten development time. The result is going to be better products for our customers."
A significant portion of the investment will also be used to reduce the environmental impact of the refrigerator manufacturing process. Units being redesigned in Louisville, Bloomington, and Decatur will be manufactured using a new "greener" foam insulating process, which will reduce the overall CO2 or greenhouse gas emissions at these sites by 90 percent or 687,000 mt per year.