GE Opens First Phase of South Carolina Manufacturing Plant

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

GE’s Advanced Manufacturing Works plant in Greenville, S.C.

Greenville, S.C.—GE has opened Advanced Manufacturing Works, a 125,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art industrial plant in Greenville, S.C., to will serve as GE Power’s first advanced manufacturing facility.

To date, GE has invested $73 million in the facility with plans to invest an additional $327 million across the GE Power Greenville campus over the next several years to drive innovation and the faster development of best-in-class technologies that deliver more value for customers across the globe.

“GE is leading the transformation of manufacturing in the power industry, and this facility will ignite the digital industrial revolution for our company and the industry,” Steve Bolze, GE Power president & CEO, said in a prepared release. “The opening of the AMW is a pivotal moment for us. We’re building a skilled workforce and culture that’s devoted to delivering breakthrough innovations that deliver better, faster outcomes for our customers and unlock new productivity and growth.”

The facility was designed to revolutionize the way GE Power creates and improves products by serving as an incubator for the development of advanced manufacturing processes and rapid prototyping of new parts for GE’s energy businesses—Power, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas and Energy Connections.

According to Bolze, new techniques and production processes developed at the facility will bring new best-in-class products to global customers quicker than ever. The facility will include industrial innovations, from new materials science, 3-D printing (additive manufacturing) and automation to advanced software platforms and robotics are redefining manufacturing for the future.

GE first started in Greenville more than 40 years ago with a 340,000-square-foot site. With the latest addition of the AMW, the site has grown close to 1.7 million square feet of factories, offices and laboratories focused on manufacturing advanced products for customers worldwide.

According to CBRE’s First Quarter Industrial Market Report for the Greenville area, absorption topped 1.6 million square feet for the second straight quarter, driven by new construction, and more than 6 million square feet of space is still under construction in the area.

Earlier this month, GE had its grand opening of its first additive manufacturing center in Pittsburgh—another step forward in the company’s journey as the world’s premiere digital industrial company.