It has been confirmed that GE Power is suffering from major design and/or quality flaws in their current H and possibly F Class Gas Turbine fleets. The combustion system is failing at multiple customer sites. Customers do not want the risk so they are selecting GE's competitors for their gas turbine purchases. This problem could not have come at a worse time for GE as they have already reported major cost and cash flow problems prior to this discovery. If you work for GE Power understand that top leaders are short timers and the elimination of your salary will increase their exit bonus. The first round of layoffs happened in March 2017. Phase 2 is unavoidable so be prepared, The US will be hit this year. Europe will be hit massively next year. Neither hourly or salaried is safe. You have been warned !!!!
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Thank you -4Bqau
So you're saying that Power bought Alstom against Immelt's voiced objections? Hard to believe, but if you say so.
But still, I think the numbers in the annual report disagree with the claim that Power was the anchor.
2.8 > -6.8
The Power anchor is pulling GE down. Alstom is one of many bad decisions made by Power. Also, Power is well known to waste massive sums of money on ignorant NPI programs.
-4Bgei,
GE Power had 2017 profit of $2.8B, which is more than the combined profits of Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Transportation, and Lighting. Not to mention the $6.8B loss from Capital.
Are you sure that's an anchor?
Name one current combustion flaw. One.
GE Power cannot survive the gas turbine demand drop. GE Power used to fiscally save GE. Now it's the anchor dragging the ship to it's grave on the ocean floor.
GE's gas turbines have many more problems than the combustion flaws mentioned by the original poster. GE customers are talking about GE purposefully decreasing quality on the Thermal Barrier Coatings to help increase repair demand. Everyone knows GE makes their money on repairs. Third party repair businesses are offering higher quality repair services for much less money. Premature delamination is NOT acceptable!
GE Power is in worse trouble than we ever imagined. Defects continue to increase while sales continue to plummet. We will be lucky to manufacture 12 gas turbines in Greenville during the entire year of 2019. Many more people will be losing their job.
GE Power Greenville has turned into a cesspool. The facilities are so old that it's posing a life safety hazard. The cost to upgrade is so high it would be cheaper to move into a new facility. France should be able to handle the low volume. Shut Greenville down ASAP!!!
With the same management structure I do not see how GE can survive. Their financial brains are unable to connect the dots.
GE Power is in much more trouble than people know. Gas Turbine quality continues to suffer. Design and manufacturing defects continue to cost many $Millions. This is, in my opinion, a more serious issue than the "soft market" (as GE calls it). If GE can't get it correct when demand is slow, imagine the problems if they were busy.
The GE problem is damn the experience and knowledge of the old hands. The main problem is bringing in fresh college kids with NO experience to run the show. Their only concern is moving up the ladder as fast as possible. I'll go back years ago as an example. We had a fresh operations leader right out of college. He wanted higher production numbers. He wouldn't listen to us trying to explain why we were grinding the buckets at a certain feed and speed. We were told to crank it up or else. So we did. Production numbers went through the roof and he was a hero. Then the buckets started failing. Running the machines at maximum feed and speed was making the material too hard and brittle so the product started cracking, chipping etc. Hero to zero he went. He was simply moved to another department in the same position! The older engineers were called in to investigate. They showed him why there would be failure at those feeds and speeds and this was discovered years and years ago and that is why we were running at established speeds. By our methods! This example is why our shop can never settle down in a Groove. New and inexperienced guys and gals coming in and trying to impress to quickly move up the ladder has to stop. This kind of stuff happens so much I can't even begin to tell you how many times this crap happens. It must stop! Most of us machinist on the shop floor may not have a college education but we are professionals when it comes to making gas turbine parts. GE must go back to experience over young college kids. We need young men and women coming into GE. We welcome them. Just not to lead until they are ready and understand the process and not be too arrogant or embarrassed to ask questions. GE Gas Turbines
Any idea how much the Liquidated Damages are for the failures in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that we have been hearing about.
I bet this situation will ultimately cost between $200 and $500 Million.
Any talk about more lay offs due t this?
Vic Abate also screwed up the steam turbine generator business by and after bad product decisions just like gas turbine combustion failures.
In both cases, experts were very vocal about things they knew well but Vic just did what he wanted. Since then GE generators are garbage with many serious core, end winding, and bar failures in less than 2 or 3 years of operation. This was all due to the bad changes he naively pushed through. Steam turbine design issues are also morbid, with major failures from high temperature creep occurring just as fast. Even more embarrassing is that engineering had learned to fix many of these issues that cropped up from 1950 and 1960 designs by the 1970 and 1980s. Many of the Vic Abate pushed redesigns starting around 1998 were actually worse than the original problems we encountered and fixed decades earlier.
When experts tried to tell Vic and his six sigma goons about the history and experience he replied that if anyone mentions experience again they would be fired. The steam turbine and generator product line is now a mess with problems that we once fixed decades ago. When you ask customers what GE says about these specific problems, they tell you that GE doesn't know what is causing it, or get political answers that obstructs the truth, and of course the blame. The new GE Power management is also getting a bad reputation for forcing the warrantees to run out, so that he customers have to pay for fixing very expensive obvious defects. There is huge dishonesty at GE these days instead of the rock solid honesty and engineering excellence that used to exist.
Bottom line - this is why stock is at 17.8 heading for 11 to 14 according to analysts.
GE Power is in worse shape than I thought. It’s following Westinghouse to its final resting place. GE has one foot in the grave!
There will always be technical problems. Also, the GE culture will not change. GE will over estimate how much it leaned from the last set of problems and be in denial as to how many problems will be coming. Overly confident and blissfully ignorant is the GE way.
As far as the management bashing, one problem is that GE hired way, way too many people in the last decade. Even first line managers will admit this. There's just not enough required work to go around.
I strongly discourage anyone from accepting a career at General Electric. GE has been known for their constant threat of layoffs for decades. There are even songs on YouTube dedicated to the endless job cutting at GE. Check out the old "Goodbye GE Jobs" song written back during the Jack Welch era. The song still applies today. Unless you enjoy the constant threat of being kicked to the curb, stay far far away from GE. Also, GE has a 48% probability of bankruptcy.
I'd not be overly pessimistic. Once we have solved the high frequency combustion issues and with the introduction of the HA.03 we should be in a much better position.
You're better off looking elsewhere. I know one guy who got hired here right before this disaster really came to the surface. They laid him off right in the middle of his relocation, leaving him on the hook for all expenses. Fortunately, he has finally landed on his feet at ZF, months later. Do yourself a favor and don't even waste your time on these bozos!
I was going to apply for a job at GE power. Seems to be a bad idea now with the ongoing HA failures.
Without a doubt, GE is FUBAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GE Power Layoffs again. Shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
The work environment at GE Greenville is getting more toxic day by day. You can feel the constant tension in the air. The good news is a natural business correction is about to happen. The bad news is a lot of good people will be impacted by the correction. Let's hope GE Leadership has learned from their damaging business culture and that more of them will be impacted by the pending correction than the hard working good people typically impacted.
I'm hearing of more problems with GE's gas turbine fleet. However, we are working on a potential solution. Although very slowly.
More customers are experiencing challenges due to the GE Gas Turbine Failures. Customers are asking very direct questions and are getting vague political answers from GE. Customers see clearly through the B...S....t. GE still thinks they can create "talking points" and people believe it.
This is funny....sort of. Who knows.
The next round of layoffs is underway. All field engineers are being laid off August 27. GE started a new company called Field Core, and they are making crazy low offers to the current field engineers. All to save their asses. No thank you. I am out of here.
The Pakistan Troubles have made the news:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1337625/pm-to-order-more-funds-for-power-generation
"The premier had inaugurated the 717MW open cycle operations of 1,200MW LNG-based Bhikki Power Plant on April 19 with fanfare when it was put to initial test run – much before the formal Commercial Operation Date (COD).
Soon after, the plant struggled due to mechanical faults in the turbine and the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor could not sustain its generation. It is completely out of order for almost 20 days now."
I've seen the "leading candidate" fix for the combustion failure, and I wouldn't bet my career on it. It may be that the best course of action at the present time would be to back off on the Tfire... but the engineering egos and contract performance people would never go for that. Forward Lean too far and fall on your face. Just don't wait too long to get out. Good luck everyone!
Engineering is desperately trying to find a repair or fix to the failing GE gas turbine fleet. The pressure is on!!! Imagine the impact if the "pitched" repair fails. Siemens and Mitsubishi is loving every minute of it. And ALL of the leaders that got us in this mess are gone. Vic Abate should return and face the music. His arrogance was a major contributor. He is well known as "The Vic-timizer". Customers and ALL of GE Power employees have been Vic-timized.
Customers are making "Difficult Decisions". Well, maybe not that difficult.
GE Power Layoff target numbers are being finalized for this summer's cost reduction "difficult decisions".
GE Leaders destroyed good hard working people's careers by killing their jobs even though the problems where caused by the very leaders ordering the job eliminations. GE shouldn't expect loyalty. GE doesn't deserve loyalty. GE hasn't earned loyalty. The layed off employees should continue to help their new employers. Especially if their new employer is a GE competitor. That's business. That's life. LOL !!!!!!
GE's competitors are well informed of GE's gas turbine fleet problems in the field and are educating the customers about the problem in amazing detail. It's amazing how small the gas turbine world is.
The Young Kids are the ones that think they are entitled to the work life balance crap. While they're out balancing their lives the old schoolers are pulling all the weight. They are balancing all of us out of jobs. Layoffs ARE scheduled for THIS Summer for GE Power. Balance that !!!
Looks like the FastWorks decision to ship gas turbine before being properly tested turned out to be a costly decision. Who made that decision and are they being held accountable for the financial disaster it created? Why spend Multi-Million dollars to test if the test doesn't prevent such defects and problems for reaching the customer? Add loss of customer confidence. How much does lost customer confidence cost? They do dumb stuff like this and are amazed they have cash flow problems and angry customers.
Jeff should definetly distance himself from GE and any compensation for leaving. So should Steve Bolze. Another one should be Vic Abate. How could Vic escape responsibility for his horrible decisions. These guys have cost GE $Millions if not $Billions financially. Not holding these guys accountable is unethical.
Should be interesting to see what Jeff Immelt gets for a parting gift upon his departure. Jeff has done such a terrible job, ie; pilfering the pension fund, and driving most other sectors into the red, that instead of him getting a huge bonus, he should have to leave without a dime, and even pay back the bonuses he's received over the years, obviously he truly did not earn those bonus, not to mention his annual salary.
We have far too many parasite for leadership in our businesses, and government.
Go away Jeff, far far away.
Far too many KNOW NOTHING YOUNG KIDS being promoted before they have any idea what their responsibilities are. GE is the ultimate CORPORATE WELFARE SYSTEM, and their EEOC policy dictates placing minorities ahead of talent.
a Retiree
The test is fine, but thanks to "Fast Work" the configuration shipped to the customers may not have been tested before shipment. When the first test unit was installed on test stand at the same time its sister units were installed at the customer's site -- any problem found in the test, well, it's also there at the customer site. What has started out as a true validation test rig has long been turned into a bullet point in the sales pitch.
Combustion team was hit very hard in 2013 engineering RIF when certain leader came back to Power. The problems now are the culmination of brain drain started back then and the Fast Work mantra. Honestly, it shouldn't be surprising to any veteran in engineering. The F-class R0 fiasco and 1.6-100 wild fires are both caused by parts designed under this leader's breakneck speed while going through brain drain and failed right after he left. The fake Einstein quote rings very true here "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
All these past issues have been addressed, at a great price, but looks like GE Power may not have the cash to pay for it this time.