GE Fuels The Digital Industrial Economy, Creates 100 New Jobs At Global Research Center, Moves HQ To Boston
- Published: Thursday, 14 January 2016
- Author: Daily News
NISKAYUNA, N.Y. -- GE has announced it will add 100 new jobs at its Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York. These high-tech positions represent yet another example of GE’s commitment to its digital industrial transformation, which is delivering productivity gains and fostering innovative solutions for its customers.
“GE has a rich history of innovation in New York and this type of investment into our Global Research Center is essential to ensure we are pioneering solutions that help drive better outcomes for our customers and strengthen our country’s competitive advantage,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE.
Enabled by a global exchange of knowledge and technology, through its Global Research network, GE is creating capabilities that fuel innovation across industrial sectors, including GE’s Brilliant Factory, Advanced Manufacturing, and Controls strategies. It is also playing a key role in bridging the strengths of physical (deep domain expertise) and digital (analytics/artificial intelligence and robotics).
To meet the needs of the future, GE’s Global Research Center is creating new labs for a new age:
- Edge Lab – focused on artificial intelligence/robotics
- Performance and Cost Lab – focused on lowering product costs
- Science of Product Leadership Lab – focused on world class product leadership
“The role of research in merging the physical and digital in industry drives GE’s competitive advantage,” said Vic Abate, chief technology officer and head of GE Global Research. “Our transformation to a digital industrial company requires our workplace and employee skill sets to transform too. Growing our AI and robotics capabilities, and aligning organizations dedicated to product management, performance and cost reflect how GE is reshaping its research capabilities to transform every aspect of our business and keep our lead in the new industrial revolution."
Over the past decade, GE has doubled its R&D investment and expanded its global network of Research Centers. In ten state-of-the art facilities around the world, GE is applying expertise in fields from electronics to chemistry, biosciences to computing, metallurgy to fluid mechanics, materials to imaging against the world’s toughest challenges.
GE also announced it has selected Boston for its corporate headquarters location. “GE aspires to be the most competitive company in the world,” said Immelt. “Today, GE is a $130 billion high-tech global industrial company, one that is leading the digital transformation of industry. We want to be at the centre of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research and development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world. We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and creative city.”
There is no material financial impact to GE related to the cost of the move. Working with GE, Massachusetts and the City of Boston structured a package of incentives that provides benefits to the State and City, while also helping offset the costs of the relocation to GE. GE will sell its offices in Fairfield and at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City to further offset the cost of the move.
The content of GE’s headquarters will also change, with more emphasis on innovation. In Boston, GE will have roughly 800 people; 200 from corporate staff and 600 digital industrial product managers, designers and developers split between GE Digital, Current, robotics and Life Sciences. A GE Digital Foundry will be created for co-creation, incubation and product development with customers, startups and partners. The remainder of administration will be placed in shared service operations throughout the company.
GE has a significant existing presence in Massachusetts, with nearly 5,000 employees across the state in businesses including Aviation, Oil & Gas and Energy Management. In 2014, GE moved its Life Sciences headquarters to Marlborough, and in 2015 GE announced its energy services start-up, Current, would also be headquartered in Boston.
GE Global Research is the hub of technology development for all of GE’s businesses. Its scientists and engineers redefine what’s possible, drive growth for our businesses, and find answers to some of the world’s toughest problems. The company innovates 24 hours a day, with sites in Niskayuna, New York; San Ramon, California; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Detroit, Michigan; Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; Munich, Germany; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Visit GE Global Research on the web at www.geglobalresearch.com. Connect with GE technologists at www.geglobalresearch.com/blog and www.twitter.com/geresearch.
GE is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the GE Store, through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com
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