General Electric (GE) recently announced a proprietary skills curriculum to train global supply chain employees for new jobs needed in the digital industrial economy. The new initiative will focus on lean, advanced, additive and digital manufacturing.
Built on GE's "brilliant factory" strategy, which uses big data, software, sensors, controllers and robotics to increase productivity, "brilliant learning" is designed for GE's global supply chain employees but will also be available to all employees in multiple languages across all levels of manufacturing roles.
Leveraging GE's training and development culture, the "brilliant learning" curriculum is adapted to individual site needs. It will include seminars, workshops, online courses and a series of immersion boot camps on lean manufacturing practices, advanced manufacturing, additive and other digital technologies. Instead of just classroom learning, many components of the trainings will be hands-on and held in the manufacturing sites.
"Today, manufacturing is driven by productivity, and when combined with the merging of hardware and software, the need for a highly skilled labor force is becoming integral to the success and modernization of our industry," said Philippe Cochet, GE's chief productivity officer. "At a time when the creation and retention of U.S. jobs in America's manufacturing cities is more important than ever, GE is helping to secure these jobs through the execution of 'brilliant learning,' and we hope it becomes a model for the industry."
According to the U.S. Labor Department, an average of two unemployed manufacturing workers existed for each open position between 2015 and 2016. U.S. manufacturing job openings are quickly outpacing qualified candidates, resulting in a widening skills gap across the industry. Through the implementation of "brilliant learning," GE seeks to bridge this gap by training existing employees to use cutting-edge technology and new manufacturing processes that will lower cost, accelerate innovation, improve customer delivery and elevate performance of GE's industrial products.
For more information, visit www.ge.com.
