GE Healthcare said Friday that it intends to outsource circuit board production operations now performed at its plant on West Tower Avenue in Milwaukee as part of a plan that, if implemented, would result in the layoff of about 175 employees.

In December 2008, the company announced that it planned to eliminate an unspecified number of jobs across its various locations and business units, reported The Business Journal of Milwaukee.

"To gain greater efficiency and productivity, GE Healthcare has announced its intent to outsource the Global Electronic Center circuit board operations at our Tower Avenue facility," according to GE's statement. "We are also relocating the manufacturing of several products to Tower Avenue, including GE Healthcare's Lunar products from our Madison facility, which will reduce the impact at Tower Avenue."

The company stated it will give notice to appropriate governmental bodies and will provide transition assistance and benefits to impacted employees once the plans are finalized.

GE confirmed in January that it would close its GE Healthcare Lunar facility in Madison by June and consolidate functions at another GE Healthcare facility in the state capital.

At the time, the company said it would move employees and production from the Lunar unit to the former Datex-Ohmeda facility in Madison now operated by GE Healthcare, as well to GE's Tower Avenue facility in Milwaukee. GE Lunar has about 150 employees and about 700 employees at the former Datex-Ohmeda site.

GE Healthcare also announced in January that its diagnostic-imaging business in Waukesha and clinical systems division in Wauwatosa will be combined, to operate as the healthcare systems division of GE Healthcare. No job cuts are expected as a result of that reorganization.