G.E. Innovation Acceleration - Micro-factory

Ron Czapala

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/innovation-acceleration-ge-selects-louisville-140000238.html;_ylt=AwrBEiHF9E5TBkUA1PXQtDMD

Innovation Acceleration: GE Selects Louisville for First Micro-factory

Today, GE (GE) announced its first micro-factory, FirstBuild™, will be in Louisville, Ky., GE Appliances’ headquarters. This follows the March 13, 2014, announcement that GE is partnering with Local Motors, the open-source hardware innovator, to create a new model for the manufacturing industry.

The new FirstBuild micro-factory will be located on the University of Louisville (UofL) Belknap Campus and will officially open this summer. It will harness the power of an open platform and a global co-creation community to power micro-manufacturing capabilities to accelerate the introduction of the products consumers want, when they want them. The location will also enable easy access for engineering, advanced manufacturing and other student activities to build a strong local network of on-site community members.

The new FirstBuild community will focus on the future of cooking as its first set of projects. It will provide a platform for a global community of innovators to prototype, iterate and refine existing GE products, as well as surface new designs. Local community members will be encouraged to work alongside FirstBuild employees to bring the community designs to life at the East Brandeis Avenue micro-factory location. To learn more, sign up at www.firstbuild.com.

“We selected Louisville for the first micro-factory because of the strong collaborative innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that is nurtured by the UofL and our city government,” said Nolan. “It is also important to be close to GE Appliances’ design and engineering teams to ensure real-time iteration as small batch production of community designs are transitioned to larger scale production.”