Haier (GE Appliances)
Canvas Category OEM : Electrical Equipment
At GE Appliances, a Haier company, we come together to make “good things, for life.” We’re creators, thinkers and makers who believe that anything is possible and that there’s always a better way. We’re a company powered by our people, made stronger through our diversity — allowing us to grow closer than ever before to our owners, anticipate their needs and enhance their lives. This is what we call “The GEA Way”. Since 1907, we’ve built innovative, quality products that are trusted in half of all U.S. homes. We sell appliances under the Monogram, Cafe, GE Profile, GE, Haier and Hotpoint brands. Our products include refrigerators, freezers, cooking products, dishwashers, washers, dryers, air conditioners, small appliances, water filtration systems and water heaters.
Assembly Line
China Mobile, Haier & Huawei Digitalize Production Material Management
Behind the Scenes: GE Appliances' $80 Million Dishwasher Line
Inside GE Appliance's State-of-the-Art Water Heater Assembly Plant
A variety of manufacturers produce electric and hot water heaters for residential applications, including GE Appliances, a Haier company. To increase production capacity, it recently invested $70 million in a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Camden, SC. The 265,000-square-foot facility also serves as the company’s Center of Excellence for water heater manufacturing. The investment included advanced systems for metal fabrication and welding, plus robots for material handling and processing.
GE Appliances’ engineers carefully considered quality, safety and ease of manufacturing when designing and laying out the plant. “Automation was selected to provide predictable, consistent quality of products in an environment that is safe and ergonomically friendly to our operations team,” explains Zimmer.
“We focused on creating a production process centered around operators,” says Scheffel. “We looked at different approaches to ensure the best way to present parts from an ease of access point of view. We paid special attention to ergonomics to ensure there were zero ‘ergo red’ jobs on the plant floor.
“In addition, the other big consideration was the efficient flow of material through the plant,” notes Scheffel. “For instance, we made the final assembly line a forklift-free zone. All materials are delivered to workstations with automated guided vehicles and tuggers.”
Einride Completes Historic Autonomous Vehicle Pilot on U.S. Public Road With GE Appliances
Freight mobility technology company Einride successfully completed a public road pilot of Einride’s autonomous, electric vehicle, in Selmer, Tennessee. After receiving the first U.S. approval for operations of this new type of vehicle from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) earlier this year, Einride completed this industry first by operating a fully autonomous, electric vehicle without a safety driver on board on U.S. public roads. The pilot, in partnership with GE Appliances, a Haier company, took place over the duration of two weeks as the vehicle supported real-time workflows and transported finished goods from GE Appliances’ facilities.
Working in close partnership with state and county officials and GE Appliances staff, the Einride autonomous vehicle conducted the safe movement of goods between GE Appliances’ manufacturing facility and warehouse. Einride also partnered with Ericsson, who provided a private connectivity network for seamless vehicle functionality and to enable a Remote Operator to remotely monitor the vehicle. GE Appliances’ Selmer, TN facility was chosen as the pilot launch site due to the nature of the environment for safe testing of operations while meeting the real demand for movement of goods.
Appliance Business Cast Off by GE Thrives Under Chinese Ownership
Kevin Nolan, GE Appliances’ chief executive, said the move out from under GE to appliance maker Haier has improved his company’s culture and decision making. It held 16.4% of the retail market for large appliances in the 12 months through September, its highest percentage in at least a decade, according to research firm TraQline. GE Appliances’ has found new life as their investment opportunities are no longer number twelve on a list of nine things that could be funded at GE.