New GE Engine Plant

It is a little high, however for a new plant this is just good planning as most companies have a history of outgrowing its space within a few years. In the Aroengine industry the space will mostly be used for product, testing areas and equipment. Jet engines are complex are not exactly small. The number of employees will probably grow depending on the demand for the product.

It all depends on the size of the product you are making. My workplace is 220,000 square foot of manufacturing space and 17,000 s.f. of office space and we only have about 140 employees.

This is interesting because I used to work in a plant in Durham, NC that manufactured medium size generators, slightly larger than a freight car. The plant closed in 1972 moving production to South America and Italy. They tried to sell the plant but finally started a jet engine assembly plant about five years later. We also have a jet engine blade plant in Wilmington, NC and a Gas turbine plant in Greenville, SC. Lack of skilled labor or even labor in the area probably kept its expansion down. The idea that unions in the North had that complex products cannot be made by labor in less educated poor areas was broken years ago. The cost of training is high but loyalty and better working conditions for the company balance off the extra cost.