GE Aerospace announced its Indian aero-engine supply chain this week and has grown to 13 companies plus GE’s Pune multi-modal manufacturing facility. Indian companies are becoming globally competitive for a growing body of high-value, complex aero-engine manufacturing work. Marquee Indian companies* including Tata Advanced Systems, Mahindra Aerostructure and Godrej have set up GE aero-engine component production lines. These components are exported from India to GE’s engine manufacturing facilities. Hindustan Aeronautics has established an assembly line for GE’s LM2500 marine engine that power India’s newest first indigenous aircraft carrier, the Vikrant. These growing capabilities coincided with GE Aerospace’s increase in local sourcing spend, which has grown 20 times in the last five years.
GE Aerospace and its Indian partners are in the process of establishing the aero-engine manufacturing infrastructure India needs to achieve its self-reliance goals (locally known as ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’). “Indian companies have a keen willingness to partner with GE Aerospace and to join the aero-engine marketplace. They have demonstrated the ability to master the complex manufacturing and special processes required for aero-engine manufacturing while simultaneously maintaining focus on quality,” said Youngje Kim, Vice President, Sales for Asia at GE’s military aviation division. To support its growing Indian aero-engine manufacturing industrial base, GE Aerospace is pursuing an aggressive skill development program for manufacturing workforce in India. Over the past two years, this GE-funded program trained more than 150 manufacturing staff at the various partner organizations, and these trained workers have then gained employment with one of several GE suppliers in India. “GE’s Indian skill development program when combined with our growing Indian industrial base is a testament to our support of Make in India,” added Kim.
More than 1000 of GE’s aviation researchers and engineers work in India and have deep connections with leading academic institutions, such as IIT-Madras, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Patna. GE’s aviation footprint in India includes military aviation equipment, commercial aviation engines, marine operations, avionics, maintenance, product development and research in addition to local manufacturing. GE’s supply chain partners in India include: Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., Tata Advanced Materials Ltd., HAL Foundry & Forge, Mahindra Aerostructures Pvt. Ltd., Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Ltd., Tata Sikorsky Aerospace Ltd., Azad Engineering, Raghu Vamsi Pvt. Ltd., Ankit Aerospace Pvt. Ltd., Sundaram Fasteners, IndoMIM Tec Pvt. Ltd., Maini Precision Products Pvt. Ltd., Recaero.
About GE Aerospace
GE Aerospace, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet engines, components and systems for commercial and military aircraft. GE Aerospace has a global service network to support these offerings.
About GE in India
GE has been operating in India since 1902. Today, its 19,000 employees based here work in research, development, product design, manufacturing, project execution and services. GE runs 14 own or joint venture manufacturing units in the country including the multi-modal factory at Pune that builds aviation parts. GE has five technology centres in India including the 22-year-old John F Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru that houses over 6000 researchers and engineers, 1000 of whom work in the research and development in aviation. Over the decades, GE has built deep partnerships with local joint venture partners, customers, and suppliers. GE’s partners and customers in India include Government enterprises, large Indian conglomerates as well small and medium sized companies in Aviation, Healthcare and Energy sectors.