LOUISVILLE—General Electric has just decided tolocate its first micro-factory, calledFirstBuild™, at the University ofLouisville Belknap Campus. The company hopes this new typeof facility will help remake US manufacturing by utilizingopen-source methods and tapping into the expertise of awide-ranging community of designers, engineers, and hobbyists. GEhopes this will speed innovation by getting new designs off thedrawing board quicker and into consumers' hands.

GE will partner with Local Motors, anopen-source hardware innovator, to create this new manufacturingmodel, which will focus on cooking appliances and open this summeron E. Brandeis Ave. The university will own the building, but itwill be a partner, rather than just a landlord. Students willconduct research and get practical training in manufacturing.

“To win in the appliance industry, we have to innovate fasterthan ever before since we are now competing with companies thatapply their rapid electronic products introduction strategy to theappliance industry,” says Kevin Nolan, GEAppliances' vice president of technology. “FirstBuild willalso enable us to move select products to larger scale productionwith more confidence because they will have been vetted by the newplatform first.”