Dear Management,
The Arizona manufacturing team is losing faith in you. Leaders at all levels have been leaving the site in alarming numbers and they are usually your highest performers. This is happening because your site is poorly managed. Employees in Arizona manufacturing have noticed that the factory managers that achieve high performance through creativity, initiative and leadership are replaced by managers who focus primarily on delivering the company message. These bureaucrats then promote or import those who are compliant over those who can deliver world class results. None of these new managers need to get input from subordinates or to consider how edicts from our development site might not work well in high volume manufacturing. There is no thought required at upper levels any longer. They just have to do what they are told.
The most glaring example of upper management being out of step with factory performance became obvious when our recent headcount reduction effort gave everybody a clear look into our last review period. Many of us were surprised by which of the leaders received poor reviews. It is clear that the most technically challenging areas, where people worked the hardest to push an ever more difficult technology envelop, had a very high number of bad reviews while areas that were less technical had almost none. It is impossible to believe this result was from a fair review of the year’s accomplishments so we are left wondering what criteria created this obvious favoritism. There are several theories.
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Our factory managers are trying to solidify their positions by giving bad reviews to the strongest performers and their possible future competition.
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Upper management is stripping the site of talent so that it will be easier to ship the site overseas due to the incompetence of the managers who remain.
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Our factory managers do not have a clue who is actually doing the work.
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Our factory managers care only about compliance and the more technical areas asked for more consideration due to the increased scope of their tasks.
There is a saying at Intel Arizona, “It is better to sit on the sidelines doing nothing than to tackle a hard problem and be noticed.”
Finally, Intel’s manufacturing management style is extremely centralized and has resulted in thousands of highly skilled employees sitting on their hands while they watch Intel’s product cycles fall farther behind schedule and farther out of step with industry costs. Please read up on modern management techniques that stress decision making at all levels, and getting the most out of every employee. Reward those that tackle the hard problems and challenge the status quo. Arizona used to be the highest performing high volume manufacturing site at Intel, before most of its leaders were systematically replaced. You still have a few good leaders who have stayed in Arizona out of loyalty to their teams and to the future of Arizona manufacturing, but their numbers are dwindling quickly. Make a change before it is too late.
Sincerely,
A Happy, Former, Intel Employee