GE Aviation in Singapore celebrated its 40th year of operations in Singapore Monday (22 November) and announced plans to add to its workforce in the city-state after earlier laying off employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also announced it would be investing in additive manufacturing technology for its MRO facility in Singapore to repair commercial jet engine airfoil components.
The new additive repair technology for component repair was co-developed by GE AESS local engineers, together with GE Aviation Additive Manufacturing Technology Centers. This new technology is significantly faster than conventional repair techniques with twice as many jet engine parts repaired daily, enabling customers’ aircraft to take to the skies again in a shorter period of time.
“GE AESS has played an instrumental role in GE Aviation’s Component Repair strategy for the past four decades and continues this tradition with the use of additive technologies in component repair,” said Russell Stokes, president and CEO of GE Aviation Services. “The use of additive in repair enables improved turnaround time, which will be a game-changer for this site and our customers. I look forward to many more years of new innovations from our GE AESS team.”
“GE Aviation Services Singapore has been a leading facility for engine maintenance, repair and overhaul for the past 40 years and will continue to be a critical support center for the aviation industry’s multi-year recovery,” said Iain Rodger, Managing Director, GE Aviation, Singapore. “We anticipate that the growth opportunities in additive manufacturing, digitalisation, automation & robotics, advanced technology research, and sustainability for aviation will drive the creation of more than 300 new jobs in 2022. We are also committed to investing in our people to develop their skills and expanding next-generation capabilities essential to a transformed travel landscape that demands improved efficiency and sustainability,” he said.
GE Aviation said it will hire more than 300 workers here next year and has begun recruiting with about 260 jobs filled between January and September this year. Another 250 workers are expected to join the company by the end of 2021 and headcount will be back to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2022, officials said.
GE officials said about 4 to 5 percent of GE Aviation’s global jet engine component repair volume was shifted to Singapore from the United States and some GE Aviation plants in the US were forced to shut due to COVID-19. Singapore currently accounts for more than 60 percent of GE Aviation’s global repair volume. GE officials said they were looking to hire technicians for the shop floor and also looking to hire more automation and robotic engineers as well as data analysts as it adopts new technology. GE Aviation currently employs more than 1,700 workers in Singapore, of whom 56 percent are locals.
With support from various government agencies, GE Aviation continues to train and develop local engineering talent in current and future aviation technologies, including in automation, robotics and additive manufacturing that will empower new levels of productivity and efficiency.
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