They're adding jobs!
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that:
"To develop the first new product line at Louisville's Appliance Park in 50 years, General Electric pulled workers from their regular work and put them in a room with cardboard, Lego toys, string, foam blocks and tape.
"Embracing Toyota-style, lean manufacturing techniques, GE factory workers, engineers, designers and managers tore apart the GeoSpring hybrid water heater now produced in China.
....
"On Monday, GE will announce how this lean process will create 400 jobs making the water heater -- and eventually apply to all products at Appliance Park, including a new front-load washer, dryer and dishwasher."
So that's good. This confirms they will be making washers in the USA.
Interesting about the building they'll be using:
"The lean manufacturing team in Louisville -- they call themselves the Mega Team -- do their work in rooms inside Building 2, which has stood vacant since 1998, when GE moved range assembly elsewhere.
"Inside, unfinished ranges still dry rot on conveyor belts 60 feet overhead.
"I want to see 20,000 people back here working some day," Willie Lewis, a 31-year-old IUE/CWA Local 761 member drafted from the factory line to work on the Mega Team, said. "As we compete globally with out countries, we are one step closer to securing the future of everybody here."
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that:
"To develop the first new product line at Louisville's Appliance Park in 50 years, General Electric pulled workers from their regular work and put them in a room with cardboard, Lego toys, string, foam blocks and tape.
"Embracing Toyota-style, lean manufacturing techniques, GE factory workers, engineers, designers and managers tore apart the GeoSpring hybrid water heater now produced in China.
....
"On Monday, GE will announce how this lean process will create 400 jobs making the water heater -- and eventually apply to all products at Appliance Park, including a new front-load washer, dryer and dishwasher."
So that's good. This confirms they will be making washers in the USA.
Interesting about the building they'll be using:
"The lean manufacturing team in Louisville -- they call themselves the Mega Team -- do their work in rooms inside Building 2, which has stood vacant since 1998, when GE moved range assembly elsewhere.
"Inside, unfinished ranges still dry rot on conveyor belts 60 feet overhead.
"I want to see 20,000 people back here working some day," Willie Lewis, a 31-year-old IUE/CWA Local 761 member drafted from the factory line to work on the Mega Team, said. "As we compete globally with out countries, we are one step closer to securing the future of everybody here."
