GE Appliances has completed a $125 million expansion of its Decatur refrigerator plant, which added 255 jobs there.
The facility now employs 1,300 people following the expansion, first announced in June 2018. The Decatur plant is the largest employer at a single location in Morgan County. GE Appliances transacts approximately $58 million in business with suppliers across Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Commerce.
The expansion allows the plant to increase production of its top-freezer refrigerators by 25 percent and allows it to comply with 2022 refrigerant changes, making the Alabama plant a super site for GE Appliances top-freezer refrigeration production.
“Decatur is a great example of how we are infusing digitization and other new technologies to improve safety, quality and manufacturing efficiency in our nine U.S. factories,” Bill Good, vice president of supply chain for GE Appliances said. “Smart factories help us better connect with the consumer by creating a digital thread from the moment the appliance goes into production."
Good said technology allows workers to monitor the production lines from anywhere and pinpoint issues quickly, preserving supply chain speed and reliability.
GE Appliances said Industry 4.0 technology additions at the Decatur facility include data visualization, 3-D scanning, rapid prototyping and other “smart” automation. This includes auto guided vehicles, or AGVs, to move materials through the assembly process. There are also more than 50 robots performing heavy lifting and repetitive tasks. A steel refrigerator case can take shape in seconds.