GE Aviation opened a new $61.4 million Global Robotics, Automation and Instrumentation R&D Centre in Bromont, Quebec, with plans to create up to 60 skilled jobs.

The Bromont plant manufactures aircraft engine components, including the CFM56 engines for the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 aircraft, and GEnx engines for the Boeing 787 and Boeing 747-8. GE Aviation said its Bromont facility is one of its most productive global sites. The new centre will develop advanced robotic processes, software applications and intellectual property that will be exported to GE Aviation facilities around the world.

The firm received $8 million from Investissement Quebec and the Ministère des Finances et de l'Économie du Québec. The investment will strengthen GE Aviation Bromont's position as a global centre of excellence, the company said.

Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of GE said, "Advanced manufacturing - integrating hardware with software, is changing both the products we make and how we make and service them; it's the next industrial revolution. Today's opening is about increasing our speed of innovation, and refocusing the way products are designed, manufactured and serviced for our customers in Canada and for global markets."

"The GE Aviation Global Robotics, Automation and Instrumentation R&D Centre in Bromont is a vivid reminder of our enormous potential and Québec's know-how in the aeronautics sector," Élaine Zakaïb Minister for Industrial Policy said. "It is essential for our government to support such promising projects, which are consolidating Québec's reputation for excellence and enhancing its profile abroad."