Cold Competition: GE Wages the Refrigerator War

Investments in technology and in people can keep jobs and profits in the US. General Electric Co. engineers designed a compressor that could be manufactured at a lower cost than one made by the Japanese, but no product on earth had ever been mass-produced at such an extreme tolerance. Using US-made...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Harvard business review 1989-03, Vol.67 (2), p.114
Main Authors: Magaziner, Ira C, Patinkin, Mark
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Appliance industry
Appliances
Automation
Case studies
Design
Efficiency
Factories
Manufacturing
Strategic planning
Technological planning
Training
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Summary:Investments in technology and in people can keep jobs and profits in the US. General Electric Co. engineers designed a compressor that could be manufactured at a lower cost than one made by the Japanese, but no product on earth had ever been mass-produced at such an extreme tolerance. Using US-made equipment only, one of the world's first automated factories was formed. GE had a Columbia, Tennessee, plant that made air-conditioning compressors, and GE engineers began by adapting the machinery already there. The company wanted to staff the new factory in Louisville, Kentucky, with the assembly people from the Columbia facility, but most of them were unskilled. To remedy this, GE built a sophisticated blue-collar training center. Despite problems, GE now makes compressors that are 20% cheaper than any made by its dollar-an-hour competitors.
ISSN:0017-8012