GE Healthcare plans to open its largest and most advanced repair center in Oak Creek, relocating operations from a building near the airport in the City of Milwaukee to a 280,000-square-foot facility at 120 W. Opus Drive.
The move is expected to create up to 40 new technology-related jobs in addition to the 87 moving from a 60,000-square-foot facility at 430 W. Grange Ave., in Milwaukee. Transferring the work is expected to take place in multiple phases and will be complete by this fall.
The current facility is at capacity and the new one will provide more space and room for future growth. Company officials said a number of factors influenced the decision to locate the operations in Oak Creek, including proximity to other locations, logistics needs and the capabilities and expertise available in southeastern Wisconsin.
The repair operations center will fix medical equipment, test functionality, recycle old equipment, manage service programs and ship parts into the field. The Grange Avenue facility processed 11 million pounds of materials in 2015 and reused, redeployed or recycled 92 percent. The volume at the new facility is expected to double, although some of that increase will come in repairs.
The building previously housed a Staples warehouse and GE Healthcare is investing several million dollars to install customized electrical systems, environmental controls and production automation. Local contractors, including ABCO Building Co., Pieper Power, Dillett Mechanical, Total Mechanical, and LabTech, have been contracted for work on the building’s infrastructure. The company decline to provide an exact amount for the investment.
The repair operations center is also undergoing a lean manufacturing review and will be updated using GE’s Brilliant Factory principles.
GE Ventures-backed ClearPath Robotics will supply OTTO self-driving vehicles, developed for material transport, that will be used to load and deliver parts to work cells for repair and then to the shipping departments.
