NORTON SHORES, Mich. (WOOD) — GE Aviation’s Brilliant Factory is now open in Norton Shores.
The company celebrated the $14.5 million investment Monday with company and area leaders. Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow was among them.
“When I met with the CEO of GE, he’s very aware of Muskegon County and West Michigan as being a place for highly skilled workers and engineers,” she said.
The 3,500 square-foot facility will develop programs and manufacture parts for the GE90 engine, which powers the Boeing 777 aircraft.
The site at 6120 Norton Center Drive is the first of several GE Brilliant factories where the company is using data to reduce machine downtime to less than one percent.
That data answers a series of questions, according to plant leader Kevin Prindable:
“How efficient is it running? Can you stop the equipment from malfunctioning and scrapping a part based on the data you have before it happens? Can you buy less equipment next year because you can run it more efficiently because of the data that you’re finding, that you’re collecting and analyzing?”
Managers tell 24 Hour News 8 they’ve hired about 90 people for the factory so far, and they plan to hire at least 10 more people sometime later this year.