The scene inside Raleigh-Durham International's general aviation building Wednesday was typical for the airport: quiet conversations, window-glancing, a little anticipation. Then JetBlue Airways' 100-seat Embraer 190 pulled into view, and everyone was downright giddy.
Like grade-school children, about 70 employees of General Electric's aircraft division scurried to the big picture windows for a better look.
"It's like seeing your kid graduate from school," said Stephen G. Cook, a GE technician who helped assemble the engines inside the Embraer 190. "You get to see it all the way through the process."
"We see engines all day long," said Bernie J. Septak, a GE technician and mechanic. "But not like this."
It has been three months or more since the engineers watched the two CF34-10E jet engines inside the Embraer leave the GE plant in Durham. On Wednesday, they were at RDU to watch the engines work.
About 100 employees from GE and JetBlue attended the event, which included a one-hour flight -- JetBlue's way of thanking the GE workers.
The event is also symbolic of a GE management style that encourages and rewards employee input and team-building -- two traits that are credited with making the Durham GE plant one of the Ohio-based company's top producers.
Since the plant opened in 1993, workers in Durham have filled many of GE's engine contracts. In 2004, the company won a joint $40 billion contract with Rolls-Royce to supply engines for Boeing's 7E7 Dreamliner jet. This month, it got the contract to build 41 engines for Boeing's wide-body aircraft.
"We've got orders through 2012," said Maria Deacon, plant manager. "We've got plans to continue to grow the plant. We currently have 15 [job] postings and will continue to hire throughout 2007."
There are 258 workers at the Durham plant, up from 120 four years ago. It was spared layoffs when GE cut about 1,800 positions after the economy declined in the early 2000s.
"The engines that are produced there are extremely popular," GE spokesman Jim Stump said. "That accounts for all the work at Durham."
Deacon said that the growth has a lot to do with the employees' work habits.
Over the years, she said, workers in Durham have significantly reduced production time while maintaining quality by using lean management techniques that emphasize reducing inventory to avoid waste and unneeded expenses. In 2003, the plant's workers were building about 650 engines a year. Now they make about 1,000 a year, she said.
"Our employees in Durham are world-class," said Deacon. "They are the best that GE has to offer, and we need to reward them."
Typically, that is done in the form of cash. Each month, the top-performing team is given money that its members can split or use however they wish.
Wednesday's JetBlue ride party was the first time workers have been rewarded on such a large scale.
Deacon credited Cook, the technician, with coming up with the idea of celebrating the flight with JetBlue.
Three months ago, when Cook heard about the flight, he went to his boss at the plant and suggested that GE invite JetBlue workers to the plant for a tour and celebration. As word flowed up the chain of command, someone suggested treating the engineers and technicians with the first flight.
"As soon as we heard the idea, we said, 'Yes,' " said David Ramage, vice president of technical operations for JetBlue. "It's not that often you have the opportunity to celebrate a brand new engine, new aircraft and new flight with a business partner."
COUNTING ON JET ENGINES
The CF34-10E -- the engine used to power JetBlue's 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft -- by the numbers:
- 2 - years it takes to design and test each engine.
- 10 - days it takes to build the engine.
- 24,000 - parts in each engine.
- 3,000 - pounds each engine weighs.
- 18,000 - pounds of thrust power.
- 15 - number of engineers and technicians it takes to build one engine.
- 2 - number of engines in a plane.
- 1,000 - approximate number of engines built in GE's Durham plant in a year.
