A year ago Salem plant had best Quarter ever for Mark 6 production. Then the "Lean Queen" process engineer told us that we had to change to Monterrey Mexico build methods to keep up with customer demand for our products. Up till a few years ago the emphasis was on employee safety, quality and taking the time to build it right the first time. Now we have short timers in management who know nothing of assembly or manufacturing but question employees as to why we take so long, (parts shortages due to foreign sourced parts cheap parts), manager incompetence, and elimination of testing or shortened tests to get out the door to make sales for the quarter. Now due to Greenfield and Schenectady needing less Controls, we are losing work. Add to this all the financial drama and cratering stock, and very little work for 2nd quarter, we know layoffs are coming, Tic Toc, tic toc...
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Think the TLOW is something, you ain't seen nothin' yet, wait tol the big TBAG (jobs Totally Blown Away, Gone) next June.
Another lean workout at Salem this week, this time production workforce as we are having a 'TLOW' week unpaid to help pay the light bill that our plant mgr told us couldn't be paid due to poor business results. Yet company convenience time was cut two weeks early because we were not meeting customer commitment dates. So it would be logical to have us work this week, right? Oh, that's right, competent mangement would be required for decisions of that nature! When we get back they will offer most departments overtime and begin the big push, asking the ever annoying "how much longer, when will this be finished, don't let part shortages slow you down" routine. Meanwhile employees utility and mortgage costs can't be delayed, since they are loathe to work with you.
RIF Lean Event held by GE Salem 2/13 Tuesday. Company "leaned" out 42 employees. Surprised the number was this low. However, don't think this will be were it stops with the business in the shape it is in. Plant Mgr. says the cut was this deep this time so "we don't have to come back to the well" of permanent layoffs. He will be coming back to the well as directed by Corporate, perhaps by June.
You tried.
@4pij You Tried.
So the "Lean Process Mgr." works very hard, huh? Well Obama "worked hard" too and look at the mess he left the country in. Oh well, let's face facts. Two product lines in wind turbine controls were discontinued at Salem in the summer of 2016. Usually we have something lined up to replace discontinued product but in this case, there was nothing. then started the decline. Second shift Sheet Metal and Fabrication eliminated in Oct. 2016, employees moved to daylight to stay in Sheet Metal or to stay on 2nd shifted to Assembly and Wiring. Then 2nd shift plant wide eliminated, everyone bumped down too daylight. Shift differential pay and higher rated jobs the casualties. Many engineers and technical supporting jobs have also been cut. When asked if there are plans to bring work to replace what has been lost, Plant Mgr. says defiantly says NO! without concern. Seems the plan is to diminish down to closure of manufacturing operations. Factor in the cannibalizing of inventory to supply Parts and Service kits as opposed to build lines, a Final Floor MSO who has been terminated from a major shipping company and a cable communications company, who shows interest only in manipulation of employees to satisfy his status and title, and the problems are many. As far as "Lean" goes, years of successful build methods have been destroyed, resulting in slapped together product that is pushed together through testing with the "how much longer,.. what is the delay...the expectation is" questioning. This and the problems with GE concerning cash flow, insurance shortfalls, underfunded pension do not bode well. Salem may have two, three years max. But hey, at least we have Alstom.
Lean could work if you do cookie cutter manufacturing. But we build custom equipment based on customer needs. Lean will always fail in custom shops....to many variables. But our management can't fathom that. And the lean queen is just milking it. She is intelligent.. She knows . With out lean....she's gone
Many people on this thread have said we need to work together as AT. But when you have a boss who's been fired from 2 different companies, In then he hires other failed bosses from other companies, any triesto control a process through micro management that he doesn't even understand or can fathom, then the concept of team fails.
Yeah suggestions made in the past have been completely ignored. I think in manufacturing, you need to spend 5 years learning the processes on the shop floor. Maybe 8 years if you have a 4 year degree. I really think that would help. BTW I do have the degree with high GPA and it's not worth much practically. It shows you can read and write and communicate OK but that's about it. This culture of promoting favorites because they are young, female, military, political party or other group has got to stop. This concept of "strong woman" is kind of demeaning as well. What does that mean? Are other women lesser? Or are the men lesser? I'm glad there is a forum here where honest views can be expressed. A few hurt feelings are less important than families who have lost income because of incompetence and greed.
Lean and Six Sigma are tools for looking inward to reduce waste, do things faster. Been the heart beat of Executives for a long time. Great story for the wizards of WS who really don't understand it or care. Nothing to do with sales, customer service, new product development. GE has focusing inward and on internal numbers for maybe 15 years. Even to the point where goal of development or customer service is to do it faster and cheaper. Customer, schmustomer. And nothing gets saved until you eliminate heads, suppliers lower prices or maybe reduce benies, move to lost cost regions. You work with suppliers to improve processes, but price stays the same so then you start beating on purchasing to renegotiate (or just make it happen) and start the financial wizardry - push out payments, vendor owned stock. Mean while caring for the customer, coming up with new products or services crumbles. Then I Melt tries to start making deals, yada yada. Six Sigma should have gone to pasture years ago. The bankers are in charge.
Its unfortunate you have to use this type of forum to express an opinion but everyone @ this plant knows how you will be retaliated against if you speak up against this group of management and lean team. Please ask yourself these questions and come to your own conclusions. 1. Why didn't Corporate lean come back to facility at end of year? 2. Historically does anyone at this facility stick their neck out and try new and innovative ways of producing product (lean) without being told to do so? 3. Does the current business model support lean at this facility? (Low Inventory Control) 4. Who do all these puppets report to? Especially the individual in charge of our lean events (Its not your plant manager either) . Please keep things in perspective guys and look at the bigger picture. Anyone remember the slide show of the mexico plant? Corporate told these people to figure out a way to tie a rope to the end of a job and drag it through the plant . In my opinion all they did was figure out a way to be able to timestamp each job and reduce overtime. Please stop pointing fingers and do your research on how ge is currently in such a financial mess. Don't look at the puppets but the puppet masters.
And another issue.....lean doesn't work on an incapable, non existent, or broken process.
lf Management there is typical of the other GE sites, they don't listen to the hour in order to "work together". The woman in question, and the one defending her, should employ a 360 evaluation. Those pretty much get right down to the heart of the matter.
We need to support each other. Hourly and salary. We can’t be successful without each other. Obviously we will be lucky to make it through this downturn. We can only hope and pray we do.
Wow! A lot of negative talk about someone who, right or wrong, does put 110% in to everything she does. I'm not going to say if the changes that have been made are better or worse, but I will say at least this person is trying. I know she is a caring, hard working, strong woman. As stated in previous comments, this girl started out working here while still in college She then became the supervisor over shipping. As she continued her education, she grew within the company. She puts in the time and effort needed to accomplish goals. If you have a problem with her, you should talk with her one on one and not through a thread that does nothing but cause hurt feelings and does absolutely nothing to change GE's financial situation or to save your job. If the person that posted this has a better suggestion during a lean event, step up and let your voice be heard...and that would mean not hiding behind an anonymous post. We should all be working together as a team. I do not agree with everything everyone does, but I don't get on the internet to slam them, very childish and very sad that this is the only solution you can come up with. Next time you want to vent...stay off the internet please.
When you shine a light, the roaches scatter. I'm willing to bet a lot of people on this board know plenty of 10+ year GE managers wh--e 100% in it for themselves. That's how their weird little crony networks work. My own manager has been with the company her whole life, she's fully guzzling the Kool Aid, and all the "certificates" in the world don't mean s*it, especially if they are from Cronyville.
Yes, we are facing tough times. Where I appreciate your candor, you must realize that most of this is factually false. Becoming lean helps with both quality and efficiency. The person you are speaking of is very well qualified and committed to Salem's success 100%. Remember, she started in shipping, as part of a co-op, while putting herself through school. She has continued to attain higher degrees and certificates while working full-time. If she were in it for herself, she would not still be there after 13 years with the company.
To put the company's current issues solidly on one person's shoulders is misguided. The industry as a whole is struggling right now. This is nothing new. How many of us has been laid off in the past and rehired? With the world economy in the current state and our competitors (Siemens, ABB) suffering the same low profit margins, we must try not to finger point at such a molecular level.
I can assure you, this type of talk is not productive in any manner, other than to stir discord among our ranks. Shine light, don't throw stones.
Who is the Lean Queen?
She has no qualifications and no experience but the old HR manager hired her anyway. Really, don't you think being a woman is qualification enough? It really helps the GE metric of having women in manfucturing!
I used to work there but am out of the loop. What are her initials? I have a pretty good idea, and obviously we can't mention names here but initials will help.
Being fired for raising a concern with the Ombudsman is possibly illegal (depending on the issue). At the very least, it is against GE Policy and against all “whistleblower” protections, so I’d sue my way right into a comfy retirement.
She has been a joke since they hired her. Everything she has ever done has been crap. Costing the company money at every turn. She has no qualifications and no experience but the old HR manager hired her anyway. She ruined the card rooms with one boondoggle after another and now she has been promoted. To work on Lean projects. She’s obviously well protected since one of the old engineers was fired for calling the Ombudsman trying to stop yet another one of her disasters. You just have to love GE.