Weblog - Rockwell AutomationArchives - December 31 2009 and previous
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Rockwell Automation in trouble - read the original article. Rockwell Automation is a leading supplier of industrial automation products - Allen-Bradley and Reliance are the major companies in the group. The current management group (CEO Don Davis et al) originated at A-B. These extracts from JimPinto.com eNews trace the news and developments at Rockwell Automation from 2001. |
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
GE, ABB, Emerson? I don't think so. Three other options, logic seems to be a venture capital group out of India. RA has moved engineering and support to India, and that's where the growth is (E&A). Omron is another option, RA already has ties with them in product development. Or Samsung, the OEMax line sold outside of the US is mostly (all) Samsung hardware. The soon to be announced new line of RA uLogix is Samsung hardware. All the blogs are old school thinking, this is a new world. Any of these three options could take the current hardware, add a DCS? solution and capture Asia & Europe. Note, don't forget China, someone there could be the needle in the haystack, waiting to spring into action. Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Being acquired is a natural path for Rockwell. Unfortunately RA becomes a small player surrounded by 2 or 3 digit U$ Billion energy / process control conglomerates. Also let’s remember that Rockwell is one of less capable players in terms of power distribution and energy management (that today is becoming more tied to process control); GE will complement this gap. Sunday, December 27, 2009 <> It is no coincidence that GE ended it's joint venture with Fanuc. Why would GE decide to essentially get out of the Automation business? Because they will be in it big time when they buy Rockwell. Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Who's the idiot who supposedly talked with the developer (see Friday December 18 entry - "Just so everyone understands the condo talk in Cambridge, here it is. I spoke with the developer of the site..."? Like the following entry says, the land and building are leased by Rockwell not owned by them! Lease is finished sometime in 2010 but I believe that Rockwell has the option to continue the lease (not 100% sure). Rather then telling blantant lies and trying to get a rise out of people, why not check your facts before you speak or in this case post an entry? Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Happy Holidays, all the best in New Year! Wednesday, December 23, 2009 To the Flex Office Guy The rationale is simple, Broadband is now like your utility supply. The company doesnt pay that, so why should it pay for a utility like broadband? And you can use it at the same time your wife watches TV, so your rationale is flawed. Next you will want us to pay for your dinner because you speak during eating. Hey and by the way, look at that new shiny blackberry we bought you.... Monday, December 21, 2009 First it was ABB, then Emerson, now GE I think the closer anyone gets to this imploding company the faster they run. Monday, December 21, 2009 If GE buys Rockwell there will be a huge number of casualties, and guess what? It won't be GE employees. Worst hit parts of Rockwell will be countries where there is a larger sales force comprised of account managers and specialists. Distribution will also be cut. In spite of all this, industry is beginning to recover, and companies are looking to hire people now so they are prepared for the upturn one year from now. Sunday, December 20, 2009 If Immelt is really interested in boosting GE stock price, he should look at the technique used by ITT when it was huge conglomerate. Rand Araskog separated the divisions, gave them their own stock. No one analyst could really figure out what the stock was worth due to the size of ITT. By separating the divisions out, and giving them their own stock and ticker, it became obvious what the value was. The effective stock value rose from $35 to over $200. Sunday, December 20, 2009 So Rockwell has decided not to reimburse sales employees for flex office expenses? I am not sure who did the cost VS benefit analysis on this one, but I for one would like to thank whomever is responsible for this policy. More specifically, my wife would like to thank this person as she was sick and tired of the time spent after hours responding to customer emails, doing PADRs, CRM reports, etc...in lieu of doing these things during the day when customer visits seem to make more sense. It would seem to me that the "personal time" spent after hours and during vacation responding to customer emails would more than justify the ROI for this "perk" in a given month. I would like to think that this policy was implemented to fix some of the work life balance issues that are so prevelant within much of the sales organization. However, I am sure the reasons for this policy where purely financial. Does anyone in management think for a minute that time spent working after hours at home, in a given month would not more than cover the cost of home internet? Friday, December 18, 2009 If Rockwell is taken over, or takes over another company, it won't be a "rescue". (Sometimes, David does buy Goliath, because the owner of Golaith doesn't want that product line anymore.) It will be slash-and-burn the similiar business lines, co-mingle them, to get rid of excess and un-needed headcount. If the take over is an expansion of product line to gain market spread (not market share), then there will be less slash-and-burn at the mid levels. I hope everyone who thinks they might be affected has gotten additional training in other skills. Consolidation take-overs and industry consolidations leave little room to save the careers of those affected. And with China, Poland, India, Brazil, and Mexico in the mix, it becomes even bleaker. Except for the share holders and those who get real bonuses. Friday, December 18, 2009 Rockwell does not own the building in Cambridge, they lease it. Friday, December 18, 2009 Just so everyone understands the condo talk in Cambridge, here it is. I spoke with the developer of the sit and yes there is great interest in purchasing that land where Rockwell sits so interesting that devloper is putting together a large offer to present to Rockwell Automation. Thursday, December 17, 2009 We don't need to be "rescued" by GE. As for the GE "Change" train - we've been constantly changing. Everything we do is based on numbers - if it's not the numbers of orders that are released on time, it's the number of jobs stood in one day, it's the number of orders processed in any one work center to the number of orders we ship on a daily basis. The GE train is just trying to get away from it's own mistakes in the financial area so they thought they'd go to the industrial area. Seems to me they're not too sure of what they're doing. Thursday, December 17, 2009 I believe the writing is on the wall at the facility in Richland Center too. Do some research and you will find over 40 job openings for the plant in Monterrey Mexico within the last few weeks. (Managers, supervisors, pca’s, quality and test positions, mech eng's etc etc.) Would like to hear some feedback from the other RA plants that have seen production levels drop or plant closings. I feel bad for anyone who lost jobs to Mexico. We are down over 300 workers from where we were a year ago (lots of hard working hourly workers and office types) Keith's vision of "making the world more productive and improve the quality of life for everyone" I wonder what the folks who are out of a job think of this! Wednesday, December 16, 2009 That light coming at you Rockwell guys is not some one coming to rescue you. It is a speeding (GE) locomotive called Change. Get on it, or be under it! Work, cause where this train is heading there are no under-performing people. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 GE purchasing Rockwell... does that make sense? Are there enough aligned businesses in GE and Rockwell to allow for consolidations and elimination of Parallel activities? Will the combination of the two be greater than the sum? I'm asking because I don't know. As far as the execs hanging on and cutting deep to gain some bonus on the other end, thats what Wall Street wants. Stocks don't gain for doing the right things; they gain for being seen as sexy and or on the move. And these potential bonuses are just for that - making it move. Besides, how many former GE execs are working at Rockwell? I know of 5 without thinking really hard. Its A SMOKING time to be in the executive suites, that's for sure. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Protect Jobs? Sending 2000 jobs to Monterrey is protecting jobs? Closing multiple US sites and downsizing the remanents is protecting jobs? What line of leafy material are you smoking? Those "bonuses" have nothing to do with protecting jobs or improving customer service. They are all about getting the stock price up, even if it takes gutting the US operations to do it. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 General Electric Co. is sending plenty of signals that it's on the deal war path for industrial companies. Industrial analyst Steve Tusa at JP Morgan says Rockwell Automation could be a prime target for GE. Mr. Tusa made the case in a note Monday that GE will make a $60 per share offer of roughly $8.5 billion play for Rockwell Automation Inc. Rockwell’s stock price jumped 3.6% to a new 52-week high of $48.12 on Monday on the idea. In the past year, GE executives have mentioned Rockwell as a company they would like to own. The case grows stronger as GE chief executive Jeff Immelt has spoken more and more emphatically about GE focusing on growing manufacturing and industrial businesses instead of financial businesses. Here is the link:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - To the happy positive blogger: GE agrees with you: Rockwell’s stock price just jumped 3.6% to a new 52-week high of $48.12 on Monday due the idea to be acquired by GE. GE will make a $60 per share offer of roughly $8.5 billion play for Rockwell Automation Inc. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 You all better stop spending time here blogging and improve your job performance. WSJ and JP Morgan speculating on GE purchase of Rockwell. With their penchant for forced ranking (it will be you bloggers) and geeting rid of all but gems in the portfolio, (there are none left) you all better be looking for ways to shine or ways to depart. Hope for a non-suitor or get some flexibility for when it comes time to grab the ankles. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 These aren't bonuses. They are part of normal comp, and were probably granted years ago. You ought to be grateful that these folks burn the midnight-oil to protect jobs and provide a fantastic work environment. Stop being so negative, probably because these types of job may be beyond your reach. Monday, December 14, 2009 No Bonuses? What do you call this then?
9-Dec-09 EISENBROWN STEVEN A
9-Dec-09 NOSBUSCH KEITH D Monday, December 14, 2009 - Re: Huge news for ROK Cambridge: Not sure where he got his information from but the land is zoned for commercial. Everyone knows what is being built there, it's no secret. Just another disgrunted union follower I guess, trying to spread rumours. Monday, December 14, 2009 Merry Christmas to all you negative bloggers. The reality is that Rockwell is doing OK, taking share, making money and as a result its shareholders are benefitting and to the most part its employees are secure. And before you beef about senior management, just think who took a bath with no bonuses or pay raises. Rockwell Automation the Pride of Global Automation. Saturday, December 12, 2009 Well, everything is possible, right? Is it a big deal to build the Test facility in Mexico? (Did they do it in China?) At the end, It is what it is. We all hope that this info about condo-building is wrong, but... First time shut-down for Christmas, first time no bonus, stil no info about "Annual Dance", first time in Mexico? Saturday, December 12, 2009 - Question for Dec 11 -- "No Plant in Cambridge": How do you figure that one?
Friday, December 11, 2009
December 10, 2009 BAS-Merrill Lynch Conference, Presented by Kieth Nosbush. Bottom Line: US manufacturing is on the decline, 30% of GNP 10 years ago, 20% now (before 2009). Keith talks about the importance of the survival of US manufacturing but is moving RA manufacturing out of the US. In his defense, our elected politicians supported free trade, allowing imports with no restrictions while the rest of the world protect their manufacturing. Kieth is looking out for the stockholders, that's his job. I don't like it, but until our elected officials do something to save manufacturing jobs in the US we'll be all be working in government sponsored health care or flipping burgers. As far as a buyer goes I've heard the rumors for 2+ years. The ONLY product they have worth buying is Logix. The new line of controllers coming out are the Samsung NX series of controllers from RA/Samsung. Software is in a state of confusion/transition, EOI (PV+ & PC's) unreliable, safety controllers (other than Logix) Omron & others, just re-branded. Don't look for a buyer, nothing worth buying. In the US they are hanging on to a dying market, Seimens doesn't even care about the US market anymore, all the growth is in Asia/Pacific. RA will survive as a global player for awhile as re-sellers; but in the end will fold like a card table, no legs to stand on. Friday, December 11, 2009 Huge news for Rockwell Cambridge: 2013 - NO PLANT WILL EXIST. Just saw plans for the NEW "facility" across the street from the Dundas plant, or what used to be the Dundas plant. Gone, and replaced with a nice Condo unit...interesting! The center of MVD excellence? More like the center of non-existence! Wednesday, December 2, 2009 All that glittera is not gold. The gem that Allen-Bradley once was is now a facade. The factory is an expensive warehouse. Vision 2000 beat us up for being vertically integrated. A million square feet of what? I'm sure the sales network is more valuable than the once iconic Milwaukee campus. Manufacturing expertise and quality, a humble beginning now means nothing to greedy CEO(s) and such. Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - Re - NHP's (Aus NZ) priority is to their customers not to Rockwell: Why would NHP risk losing a customer by making them wait 6-8 weeks for a part from the U.S when they can sell a better priced product which is pretty much available straight off the shelf. Go for the competition. So it's not a Rockwell product. Customer doesn't mind and NHP doesn't care, so long as the money's coming in from somewhere! Tuesday, December 1, 2009 If Rockwell is being bought, perhaps they will see the gem that is Allen Bradley and provide better management. It's about time that higher management gets "released" - they're the one's causing a lot of the issues by making decisions that do not help the business but continues to harm it. Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Hey folks, you’re getting bought. Tremendous down-sizing continues to occur, while the CEO has told the world that the industry has bottom out? There are few executives being release from management? All this points to the direction that the buying company has told Rockwell Automation Executive Management to get the work force reductions in place before we do the deal, and you will get considerations for further employment or incentives. Sunday, November 29, 2009 Sell direct? RA has more employees in sales and marketing than in engineering and production. The US economy can't stand all these unemployed blow-hard's out of work. RA is all about margin now, gave up on the market share at any cost model. Direct sales doesn't fit with increased margin. Sure you could save money by workforce reductions in sales and marketing, but the online sales model they have now doesn't work and the delivery and payment still goes through distribution. Eliminate sales/marketing/distribution and RA has to eat the bad debt that the distributors eat now. Ever tried to collect from a contractor? They also have to actually have something in stock to ship. Inventory cost money. Direct sales is not the answer. The answer is treat the customer right, the result will be happy stockholders and employees. Saturday, November 28, 2009 Rockwell has successfully rebranded Allen Bradley into Rockwell Automation. That is NOT a good thing, RA is NOT AB. The only thing saving RA is the distribution channel. They can't sell direct. The SAP roll-out doesn't even work for distribution, much less direct sales. Distributers have to buy from other distributers just to fill orders. RA doesn't have any stock to ship from. Customers complain all the time about the the reselling of rebranded product, no support, no stock. RA markets all the hype about supply chain and manufacturing efficiency but can't walk the walk. Why can't they use all their own software and integration expertise and deliver? Call RA tech support, the answer is: we'll get back to you once we call the vendor, we don't know how it works either. RA has no support at the district level, they fired everyone. If you want to buy direct and pay for support from India God bless you. That's just what RA is hoping for. Tuesday, November 24, 2009 The amazing thing is, Rockwell could turn everything back around over night. Customers love the product. Rockwell has gotten over the greatest hurdle for any product manufacturer, BRAND RECOGNITION. They have it. Customers know it & love it. All Rockwell have to do is figure out a way to get it to the customer without upsetting them so much. So, Rockwell, here's what I propose you do: Cut back on advertising, cut back on road shows and 'going on the road' annoyances. Fix your distribution problem by... OK, here's where I get stuck - I have no idea how you're going to do that bit... Hmmm, I know - SELL DIRECT! Sunday, November 22, 2009 Rockwell still has problems getting parts. It is done internally. Why don't they contract this out? Or at least try it. Who knows, it might work. They have spent a fortune trying different strategies on getting parts in, but we still have problems. This makes it hard to run a production factory, which leads to not getting orders out to our customers-who are our bread and butter. Sales are trying to do their job. Does anyone have the answer? SAP turning on in 2010. Thursday, November 19, 2009 All the marketing hype, territory reassignments, product launches and other noise doesn't mean a thing when you CAN'T SHIP PRODUCT. The combination of the SAP roll-out and the move to off-shore production has left the US market with missed/unknown product ship dates. We are given a date, when that passes we are given another date when we are to receive our orders, when that comes and goes we HAVE to go somewhere else. Guess what, your product is not that much better, even thou we usually have to pay more for RA "quality"? You can have the best product (even though the quality has also slipped), the best story, the best sales force, and the best distribution but if you can't deliver product on time you can't keep customers. RA management have come to visit and told us this was a short term hiccup but delivery just gets worse. Thursday, November 19, 2009 Don't think the person who thinks he knows Rockwell Australia numbers either knows, or is prone to telling the truth. If he can prove his statement, maybe we at Rockwell Australia will give him a big check as a reward. Needless to say, it's easy to make claims without having to identify yourself; he should be careful as he is making them in a public forum and may be forced to tell the truth. So for the sake of a useful blog, lets keep to the facts ,the truth and be ethical. That is how we all learn. Wednesday, November 18, 2009 New Zealand wasn't broken either Rockwell, but now you've really messed it up! Get rid of NHP before they take you all the way down. This is a total disaster. Rockwell, are you listening? Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Have you seen the latest on the NHP website? They (NHP) proudly spout that they were featured on the "7.30 Report" on the ABC. Well, apart from about five seconds of film showing NHP Teresaki circuit breakers, there was absolutely no mention of NHP. Maybe the point is that the close-up shot of these circuit breakers were the big deal. Hmm, wait a sec, I thought NHP were the Allen Bradley distributors (in part) here in Australia. How come NHP can promote Teresaki breakers when they are contracted to sell Allen Bradley? As an earlier blogger suggests - the tail wagging the dog? - absolutely. Tuesday, November 17, 2009 FY10 from Keith and leadership team - one time contribution to U.S. Salary 401K accounts is scheduled for Dec. 2, 2009. (on payroll Sept.30, 2009). The contribution will be equal to 1.69 percent of your annual eligible earnings as of Sept 25, 2009.(plus any overtime paid to you from Jan 1,2009 through Sept 30,2009.) We are able to do so because we have experienced some stabilization in the markets and in our fourth quarter of 2009 revenues, specifically in our product business. No mention of a wage increase until Dec. 2009.( for 2010). Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Rockwell, can you hear us? We are your customers from Australia. Can you hear us? If so, do us all a favour. Get rid of NHP and Inaco and put it back the way it was! It wasn't broken - why did you fix it? Monday, November 16, 2009 I work at the Dundas facility on the shop floor. There are a few things that concern me after sitting here and thinking about things. First thing: Last year we waited till December until we found out we had major cuts to our benefit package. When do we find out this Year? We will never get these cuts back; but the company will rebound and be in better shape on the other side. The other thing that made me think of is the consolidation of dept. 15 and 17. If you remember, we had a vote earlier in the year about whether we wanted dept seniority or plant wide seniority for posting for jobs. It has been a while, but obviously this shows that the company did not like the outcome of this vote. Why else would they combine the two largest departments? This is almost as hilarious as this skill-set nonsense. They want to choose who goes where. I wonder how much money this CI group got for capture the moment. I think there are a lot of backroom discussions on how to take from us without us knowing. They think we are stupid; sign that card before we lose all of our bargaining power! Monday, November 16, 2009 Well, Rockwell's Australia is the leading light for the Asia pacific region. Complete nonsense! Rockwell's sales are down $40 million AUS. Inaco and NHP are down $20 mill each, so how much damage have they really done to their market. Customers are leaving them in droves, and if it wasn't for the work that was done by the original Rockwell Distributors for Australia, their markets would be insignificant. NHP and Rockwell are consistently fighting and are not teaming to help customers, as in the past. Is it the tail wagging the dog? Yes, yes and Yes. The only winner is Schneider. They are sitting back saying, "Keep on fighting" while taking market share from Rockwell. Ethics, integrity some of the key words from the past, something that was part of Rockwell. Not any more. Sunday, November 15, 2009 - Responding to employee who worked for Inaco Australia: I too worked for that company. I thought I had a career at that place; I thought I had a chance to make a real difference - to begin with. BUT, working for those report-hungry micromanagers was a lesson in military school. I agree with the other post: terrible company to work for. Rockwell sells itself in Australia; you don't need to flog the sales staff to sell this. You need to have a better support structure in place. You need to listen to your customers, carry ample stock, pay your staff well, employ more internals, make sure the internals say HELLO to the customers with a happy tone. When the place runs well without even having one sales rep on the road, that is the time to look to the external sales force for growth. A message to Inaco: Just ask the customers this one question: "Do you like us?" A well oiled organisation can ask that question without hesitation. Sunday, November 15, 2009 The Rockwell Automation Fair went well, of course , but let's see customers spend money and place many $ orders. No doubt we can talk a good talk, but can we deliver a good, safe, quality product on time for the customer. Sustainability will prevail if we can do this. 2010 will be the revelation. Friday, November 13, 2009 All the buzz was positive at Automation Fair and I certainly saw more optimism. There was a lot of positive press about Asia and very much so about Australia leading the Global growth chart this year. I guess some of the earlier weblog commentators got it pretty wrong. Anyway great fair and my vote goes to Rockwell and thats all that counts to me. Thursday, November 12, 2009 As far as China goes, Rockwell needs to give all of the 2500 orders to China and Poland to do. Richland Center has all the bugs worked out of them, so they should be no problems with getting them out. At RC there are no defects or rework or engineered problems. What a great opportunity for China, if Keith would give them the work, which also would be cheaper. Brazil also does a great job on 2500. Thursday, November 12, 2009 - from attendee at Rockwell Automation Fair: Rockwell's automation fair another huge success. It's process users group rivaled most of its competitors. Keith has done a lot of behind-the-scenes work integrating the company. I have really seen that come together over the past three years. This is not only technology, but also attitudes, terminology and vision. I didn't know if they could do it, but there are many positive signs. Lots of challenges remain. Success in China and the rest of Asia is still far off - an essential component of its future success. But they're working on it. Wednesday, November 11, 2009 The question arises: Rockwell operations are now run by former GE personnel. Is the same model used at GE the correct model for Rockwell? I have no idea if the sales and marketing are GE related, but I do know that Operations is being run by former GE folks. Thoughts? Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Why is Rockwell spending so much time and money on Factorytalk, SAP etc. ? What was wrong with the old systems? 2010 they want everyone from sales to the factory floor and out to the customer to buy into Factorytalk. Why? What happens if it crashes, or does not work, or costs to much, or losea business? What if we fail? Is anyone else out there using Factory talk? How is it working? I get the impression that one size fits all. It seems one thing is for sure: it guarantees overtime. Just come to Richland Center and check the basement amat production area. 10 hr days, Sat and Sun, two shifts. The Plant Mgr calls it high level of company stuff. Charts are set up for standard, simple, plain, low dollar amounts) orders. What do you do when you have complex eng. orders? Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Rumor is that the next set of Allen-Bradley digital I/O cards will be reduced from 16 points to 14 points, as part of a cost saving measure. Customers who use :14 and :15 bits in their applications will be shocked to find that they do not work with the new hardware. Monday, November 9, 2009 I work at the Richland Center factory where we have laid off 300 people and have had contiuos overtime throughout the last 4 months, and we were told this will last for at least the rest of this year. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? Leaves one to beleive that the current management team at RA in RC don't have clue on how to manage. During the last layoff in OCT. 09 we never missed a day overtime. Thursday, November 5, 2009 Another day at the Rock comes and goes, rumors are rampant. The truth escapes the employees. Manufacturing in Milwaukee is dead - almost gone completely. No signs of life whatsoever. Plant manager or any management "No clue". They couldn't build a widget if their life depended on it. Firm up the shareholder support? Go to the Automation Fair. So sad. Thursday, November 5, 2009 I've left Inaco (distributor for Rockwell - Sydney & Brisbane, Australia) probably the world's worst company anyone would want to join. So, for me to say this is pretty big (as I no longer have anything to do with Rockwell). But, I gotta say, all this mudslinging towards Rockwell makes me think that there's some "bee in the bonnet" on this website about this company. From what I could tell, Rockwell have some huge strengths. Why continue to say "it's all over"? Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Lots of strong news coming out of Rockwell about them being sold.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 Rockwell Software has what they call Regional Information Managers, Software Solution Managers or some other hyped up title in charge of rallying the RA sales guys & distribution troops to sell the Pavilion, Inquity and Datasweep products. Mostly they send out emails looking for leads and pushing product features internally. My guess is if someone bought RSI, or they were spun-off, they would end up with these products and this highly skilled(?) salesforce. The real money is in the integration services, not the software. Dell and Xerox have recently bought companies that specialize in delivering end-to-end integration. The problem with RA is they have shed the integration arm of these formerly strong software companies to appease the shareholders in these tough times. They have to subcontract the integration to "partners" who have no clue how it should work. Another "growth by acquisition" strategy that has failed. Tuesday, October 27, 2009 IT IS WHAT IT IS... RA Cambridge now has released a successull burn down plan to catch up on the back log of MV drives. All the tools were put in place and now there will be FOCUS on better production. It can be done. It was done. It will be done. Last time there were 75 drives done. The only differences then were another full shift, 40 manpower employees, unlimited overtime, and a much better working environment. It is what it is, though. We will succeed. Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Don't read into this more than you should. Rockwell Software has no independent channel, so it is essentially valueless/dead outside of the Rockwell umbrella. Or, if it were to be sold off, it would be at a fraction of what Rockwell paid for the pieces and parts. Also, many of the execs at Rockwell Software are actively looking for new opportunities as they see the writing on the wall. Sunday, October 25, 2009 So are the former RSI products like FactoryTalk View, AssetCentre, RSSQL & Metrics part of the Architecture and Software Business within AB and not part of RSI anymore? Friday, October 23, 2009 Rockwell Software has officially decided to move its headquarters to Austin, Texas from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When Ralph Carter (President of Pavilion Technology which was an acquisiton) took over for Keven Roach (who left the company) he refused to relocate to Milwaukee from Austin. Since then, there has been several reorganizations within the Architecture and Software business which effectively pared down the size of Rockwell Software to include just the acquired companies of Pavilion, Inquity and Datasweep. The rest of the software business moved into another organization. As of last week, the announcement came out that the Rockwell Software headquarters would move to Austin and that a few of the Milwaukee based folks would be offered a relocation package to move to Austin and the remainder would be let go in February 2010. Several of the folks offered relocation turned it down so they are now scheduled to be in the group to be let go in Feb. unless they can find a new home in Rockwell before then. It sure seems that there is a possibility that Rockwell Automation is setting this up either to sell or spin the group off in the near future. The return on the acquisitions has not materialized as expected. The charter for the acquisition was to let them run as independently as possible and see if they can mount a pile of revenue using the distribution channel of Rockwell Automation. Well, the results may just be coming in and the management of Rockwell Automation is not impressed. It just goes to show that talking about a good plan, but leaving it up to the acquisitions to execute it, does not work either. It looks like another acquisition plan gone wrong at Rockwell Automation. Time will tell. Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - JOBS: Rockwell is looking for Production Supervisor and Quality Manager. Quality manager is on Rockwell web posted; Production Supervisor is not. Both are salary jobs career band.
Production Supervisor: Associate degree in supervisory management, electronics, materials management or related field. 4 years degree in industrial engineering, industrial technology or electrical engineering highly desirable. Rockwell has someone in mind in the plant; for some reason this job is not posted outside of the plant? Why? Times are slow in a tough economy and we are still hiring management? If interested, apply at Richland center. A lot of people are looking for jobs. Monday, October 19, 2009 - Why would anyone want to buy this company? ABB would have to be careful of AB/Rockwell pension dollar amount. Next year the 2010 club members retire; this was when Uncle Rock drew a line in the sand for - those certain group of people who are included in the severancve package deal.(dec31,2005) early retirement - they could save money if they cut it short. Monday, October 19, 2009 - Ref to the film "the corporation": Compelling and truthful. I left this company after many years of the Corporate people turning a blind eye to everything, and talking out of the sides of their mouths. In ref to the environmental fines of paying out the millions, this was very hush-hush throughout the company and we could not talk about this among ourselves. Corporations have an allegance to profits and shareholders, not to their workers or to our country. "Globalization" prevents our government from enforcing laws on those corporations. Friday, October 16, 2009 Everyone should watch "The Corporation" video from the Oct.15th posting. If you think RA is bad, wait until you watch this. A company actually bought the water rights in Bolivia and it was illegal for the population to collect rainwater to drink, it was legally owned by the corporation who bought the rights. Learn how corporations and governments think and work. Thursday, October 15, 2009 At Richland Center warmups in the morning, our supervisor told us we have a 80% part shortages. You wonder how something like this could happen, and why do they make charts and graphs on this problem. They have been doing lean activities and 5s and SAP to make us a better-run fine-tuned company. But if you can't get parts in here on time for customer's orders, then what are we doing here? Every month the amount to ship-out is getting less and less. This month they want 5.8 mil. We will have to slam it out in the last two weeks of the month, maybe. I can remember when buyer planners were in Milwaukee and they moved it to Richland Center because it is cheaper and supposed to make parts problems disappear. But guess what? Nothing has changed. 3/4 of our parts are made in Mexico. They package them up and send them to Richland Center. We assemble them at RC into a motor control center. Oh, this is not the first time an order was supposed to be built in RC and was built in Tecate. Customers have come to RC to witness test, or inspect orders that were built at Tecate. I find it interesting that some of the help go to Tecate to inspect there work, the person in Tecate has been in test and inspection longer than the person they are sending. Hmmm... interesting. It looks like if customers are willing to go to Tecate and buy from Tecate, there should be no problem. Rockwell wants more customers to believe in their product, no matter where it is made. Lets see how this witnessed-test works out again for the customer.... Thursday, October 15, 2009 For those who are interested, there's some information out there that may help you understand why corporations behave the way they do. A good book would be "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power" by Joel Bakan. Joel is a Law Professor and gives a good history of corporations and how they've evolved. The books is available on Amazon.com. Here is the link:
A good movie based on the book is also available to watch on Google video. You can watch it for free; same title. Here's the link: As a previous blogger had said, some have left because of their morals and personal integrity. If anything, seeing information available out there can at least give you some assurance that it's not only you that feel this way. The sad thing is that some think that if you don't agree with the corporate way of thinking, there must be something wrong with you. That's dangerous because it implies pathological thinking is the norm. Thursday, October 15, 2009 The problem is that Don Davis and Keith Nosbusch see their actions as good business practices. Nosbusch's income in 2008 was $5.22 Million; $2.45 Million of that was in stock gains; $1.10 Million was bonus. Yet they have to charge employees 25 cents for a Styrofoam cup. Their focus is that the value of the stock is the product. That's where the attention is. Over time, it works like a pyramid scheme in that things look OK for a period of time. Then it all starts to fall apart. The real growth only comes through an increase in sales, retaining customers, valuing employees. And all of that is contingent on having a good product in the first place. It doesn't appear as if they care, particularly if they intend to sell. It's a cash cow for them personally, as opposed to real leadership to steer the company in the right direction. It's become the norm, and it rots the country from the inside. The real integrity is long gone. This isn't the only company who's slid down that path. I guess what I'm saying is that the thinking is wrong, and when your thinking is wrong, but you think it's right, it's almost a lost cause. Like the alcoholic who's in denial, until he realizes that, things won't change. Thursday, October 15, 2009 - referring to Oct 14, "MCC built in Tecate even though the Customer expressed "must be built in RC": This is due to too MANY yes people that will not take a stand. We are curious to know if the new person transferring orders challenged the transfer request to Tecate and "stood on the desk of his boss or bosses boss" and questioned the decision. I know the previous person would have not only questioned it, but would have put it in writing disagreeing with the decision. Thursday, October 15, 2009 - ref the Oct 10 input: Rockwell RC has laid off over 300 employess (public info on local radio earlier this week) reasons given art the "economy". For those that work there, or other companies if they do not agree with production work in Mexico, China, Brazil or other countries, the only advice is: don't work for a company that takes any production away from their American workers. I personally know of individuals that have either quit or retired, that quietly chose to do this. And I know that this has an impact to their income. But they chose their morals on the principles of right conduct, rather than on legalities or customs of the company they worked for. The CEO's of many large companies are answering to their shareholders that usually have so much money they don't know what to do with it and are not thinking of the American workers. If a CEO cashed in $10.1m before the September 2008 market downfall, $3.1m December 2008 in addition to the $5.1m in salary for 2008, in addition to other perks (insurance, vacation, travel) - but the employees had no cost adjustment, no match to 401k, and had to give up "x" days a year without pay in addition to other losses, what does this say about a CEO of any company? The earnings of companies and their executives is generally public info and can be found on several public websites or company profile and earnings sites. Wednesday, October 14, 2009 The pending sale only makes sense. There are very few products design by Rockwell anymore; a majority of the products in their catalog are brand labeled. The business systems were converted to SAP so they can be assimilated into any modern business. The liberal distribution of "needs improvement" means that 10% of the work-force for years saw no merit increase. Holding wages low for older workers hoping to reach the brass ring of a pension, only to be harassed out the door or laid off to limit their pension liability. Don Davis and Keith Nosbusch should be ashamed of their actions to benefit their own interests above the good of a once great Motor Control Company. Wednesday, October 14, 2009 The truth came out today about a MCC order that was built in Tecate, even though the customer requested that the order was not to be built in Mexico. Now the customer is very upset and Richland Center is scrambling to send an inspector to Tecate to check for any quality issues. I can't believe this. So, I guess this phrase "customer satisfaction" is lost on upper management. This is not the first time they tried to get away with this stunt, and it won't be the last. RC has rebuilt a couple of orders within the last couple of months due to the fact that the customer does not want any product coming out of Mexico. I wish I could post some of the customer comments from the field reports that back this info up. Upper management must be turning a blind eye to this or they just don't care. I wonder if some of the other facilities are getting the same feedback? Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Public information released on our local radio station today stated that over 300 employees have lost their jobs at the Richland Center facility. This means there are 200+ left in the facility. Keith Nosbusch needs to find another home; he is "complacent" and is only protecting his job for retirement. He has nothing to worry about since when the contracts are negotiated for CEO's, and their contracts protect their families and themselves to the max! Monday, October 12, 2009 Interesting news from JimPinto's eNews No. 273 - 12 October 2009 For sale:
(Click)- GE will emerge as next big automation player
Saturday, October 10, 2009 As of now, over 200 hundred workers have lost their jobs since the start of 2009 at the Richland Center facility, to go along with other plant layoffs or closings in North America. Richland Center is a small town of about 5000 and Rockwell is one of the major employers in the surrounding area. Management likes to use the economy as the reason, but when questions are asked if the plants in Mexico are laying off, upper management likes to use the phrase "we are all hurt by the poor economy". This is all lies by Keith NOBsbusch. The truth is that the company has spent millions on the facilities in Mexico to get them up and running and will continue to do so because of the cheap labor and what they have invested in their "globalization vision". Thursday, October 8, 2009 Does it really surprise anyone that Tecate would reject any product other than their own? 'Course not, they want our jobs. They reject our stuff, but they can't build a handle or a switch to save their life. Don't see us playing those games. There is enough work for everyone -- you keep the standard stuff and we'll keep the engineer stuff. Thursday, October 8, 2009 So this is how the game is played in Tecate, Mexico: reject all products coming from Cambridge even though there is really nothing wrong with them, and maybe head office will close Cambridge and move all the jobs to Mexico. Boy, it sure is getting harder and harder to care anymore up here. How about permanent layoffs and severance packages now? Lots of us would dance out the door. Cannot afford to just quit, but would accept severance pay and a permanent layoff with a big smile. Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Nothing going on here in Cambridge yet - only rumours. We'll have to see what happens; everyone is waiting for the ball to drop. Wednesday, October 7, 2009 So we see Richland has suffered the infamous RIF. What are the other casualties of the further "cost savings"? I've yet to see any postings from Cambridge, Twinsburg or any of the other Rockwell facilities that pop up here regularly. Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Hi, so here in Cambridge it is October 6 and our fearless leader has not even came to thank us for our efforts at year end. This guy couldn't care less, in fact he does not serve the best interest here in Cambridge. So the petition has gone around to the hourly employees to sign and than be presented to headoffice because if we hear "This is how we do it in Mexico" one more time, then all hell will break out. So the union was outside the doors again and management wonders why. "If I want a guy in a certain shift I just move them there, thats what we do in Mexico". Guys, we are all adults working here. Please treat us like it and maybe put someone in charge the wants to be here and stay here, not a guy worried about weather. Down for 6 hours today at work. Why no engineer on off-shifts to approve anything? Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - in response to weblog, Thursday, October 1, 2009: The new scheduler that was hired does NOT have a clue. If anyone does not understand the term "wet behind the ears" let me tell you a few. Does chaos, panic and major disorder ring clear since he does not understand when orders need to be adjusted to the proper locations, does not understand updating the systems to inform all when orders are transferred, does not understand mains and internals, CIRCE functions, intricate scheduling and forced entry processes and does not know a 2100 from a 2500, does not communicate to the parties that need to know. We can go on and on to include correct forecasting for all parties. What the heck were they thinking? Or was this another "we will take what is behind door number 3" just to see what they would get? Who ever hired this person should re-examine the qualification issues or maybe this is the "yes" person they needed to support the connection of lost reality! OMG I dread going to work, and can hardly force myself anymore after these years. For my dear co-workers that have retired or were laid off, I wish I were in their shoes, but cannot since my spouse lost a full-time job recently and is working part time for us to struggle on. Be assured though, this is not an office; it is like hell with fluorescent lighting. Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Actually, the entire executive management team at RA needs to be replaced. How this group has managed to remain in place is beyond comprehension. New fresh blood is desperately needed. Monday, October 5, 2009 20 years ago it was common practice to bring "in house" as many outside services as possible. It eliminated the logistics problems and gave much more control over the quality of the product. I never, ever understood the whole "outsourcing" idea. What good is buying something in China for $10 if it costs you an additional $15 to process and/or service the purchase? Make it here for $25, or if you're smart, $20. The cheapest is never the best. Monday, October 5, 2009 I have to agree with the comment from Oct 4. It's time to bring someone in that has vision. We have no vision, no path and no clue in what we're doing. While most large American companys are bringing stuff back to be built in America, we continue to send them overseas. We need someone at the top who can lead us into the next decade. The employees do care about the company and want to see it succeed. Give Keith his parachute and let's move forward. Sunday, October 4, 2009 It is simple - it's time for Keith Nosbusch to go. He just has it wrong. It's time he gave others a chance to restore this company. Sunday, October 4, 2009 - from the ex-Intecolor Guy: Thank you for recognizing how loyal we were to our customers. If I can share a quick story. One customer had a minor problem with his console. (I was a Systems Engineer, I conceptually designed the consoles and quoted them.) Since I had no idea how we designed this particular feature that was presenting the problem, I wanted to see it first hand. I took a trip to this customers site. As I was there, they asked about making a change to the console. (unrelated to the seal problem) It would involve a new door, and charging for it. Long story short, I sketched the new door, customer agreed to pay for the change, and get this...was so impressed that I actually traveled to his site to solve his problem, he ordered an additional 6 consoles..! Saturday, October 3, 2009 - Energy Saving Campaign: Why do we have to run every time after Siemens? We don´t have products with regenerative power supplies like Drives and Kinetix. So where´s the value for our customers? Focus and develop on strength, don´t try to copy our competition. Friday, October 2, 2009 Rockwell Automation's problem is it's past. As Rockwell International, the defense and aerospace giant, they made a living off Government contracts. Oh, sorry about the delays and cost overruns, I'll need some more taxpayer dollars. Rocket failed on launch and destroyed communications satellite, Oops, we can make you another one but it's going to be 25% more. By the way Senator here's a nice campaign contribution, thanks, keep the work coming. Rockwell Automation's customers and employee's are a dime a dozen, they can afford to loose a few, after all, they grow on tree's don't they? There's an endless supply in this big world. They've already bled the North American customers, it's onward and upward to India and China. Friday, October 2, 2009 - To the Ex-Intercolor employee: Here is how Rockwell treated the customers you were loyal to: We had a fairly large installed base of Intecolor PC's. We were having a high rate of failure with one model. I ask our RA salesman if there was a problem with these PC's. He stated he personally spoke with the RA product manager and there no know issues, but we could get still get them repaired (for a cost of course, they were out of warranty). I called someone I knew at Intecolor and was told these units all had a common problem and Intecolor had been fixing them for free before RA bought them. I presented this information to our RA sales guy who was suprised but did do the legwork to get them repaired for us. He was getting the screws put to him just like we were. The product manager just wanted to sell more PC's, to hell with the sales guy, just throw him under the bus and let him deal with the customer. Of course this is the same product manager who tells all the RA salesmen how dependable the VersaViews are. What a company! Friday, October 2, 2009 It took four people to replace the one person that was let go from Richland Center order processing. Also we are still getting behind, because those four people are not as familar or as fast and precise. Customer's complain that they do not get their orders on time. 2/3 of the orders are being sent to Tecate or Monterrey. Moterrey are a lot of GE guys from their plant. What is happening is out of our hands; they have something called the leadership team that is making decisions, that way you can not blame any one person. 68 hourly people gone soon, with no supervisors or group leader cuts. RA combine some of there product lines, but not at RC yet. 2500 is done in Brazil, China, Poland and still at RC. They are more concerned about 5s and taping the floor and garbage cans, tool boxes etc. SAP should develop some day? Friday, October 2, 2009 - To the RC comments on 10/2: The plant manager had no influence on the Milwaukee closing. The closing has been planned and underway for several years. The union environment and cost are the reason's for the closure of Milwaukee. Who else from a salary standpoint was let go in RC? Friday, October 2, 2009 - To the engineer posting Oct.1: Rockwell seems to have the mentality that a job, or position, is just some description. The personal attention given to it by an experienced person doesn't seem to enter into their business "model". A perfect example is all the failed acquisitions in the posting before yours. They seem to think you can buy success. The reality is that any organization succeeds or fails as a direct result of the mix of individuals within it. I was a casualty of Intecolor about 12 years ago. We had a very successful company, and like you, I was one of the very few who actually thought RA buying us was a good idea. (Meaning I thought Rockwell was a top notch company) Unfortunately we all found out they operated more like the mafia than a respected company. Friday, October 2, 2009 - RC cutbacks 68 hourly and 5 salary: OMG, one of the salary people that processed incoming orders in Operations was let go, she was the last one! Who's brain child was this? We have orders to be processed and release to assembly but no one with the expertise to process them for production, other than a few people that came up to do them part time. Our puppet managers go into their offices and close the doors and are hanging on for dear life. Our supervisors, who do they supervise? Not many people left. Our grim reaper plant manager will not even give us how many people have been let go in the past year. BTW, the word in the shop is he was the driving force of the close of the manufacturing facility in Milwaukee. How can the Rockwell management team look at their faces in the mirror at the end of the day? They tell us the economy is the reason. Hello, it added up to bad management decisions at the top. It cost us some very dear customers that took years to get, and of course the CEO would not admit to his wrongs, so everyone else suffers the fallouts. But do not be deterred to much; we still have Lean people left to suck up the money and our retirement pay. Shame on all of the management, from top on down, to poor decisons or not taking a stand and challenging those in charge. Friday, October 2, 2009 Guys, I don't work for Rockwell and I believe the majority of automation companies suffer similar problems. The company that I work for has interesting problems I would live to share: Clueless Management: I don’t want high management that knows everything about Bits and Bytes, the problem is the complete lack of market knowledge (competition, trends, customer, technologies). Clueless people are worst than stupid ones. The VP fever: Now everybody is VP. The guy (sometimes the clueless one above) the guy has nobody under his structure and even no team is a VP! Excess of arrogance: Worst than a clueless manager is that arrogant clueless guy that believes that knows something. Unfortunately some of them fake some know-how based on Google search; and the majority of them become expatriate where their good life sucks up the company profits Problem: The clueless manager believes in the arrogant clueless guy because the clueless guy mixes trivia with arrogance to sell intelligence (and of course the clueless guy buys that. Because he is clueless !) More MBAs and Less PhDs (equal to more Powerpoints and less solutions). Virtual solutions: Brands, Mottos and etc… ; Taking 20 years solutions and invoke values like green, energy, performance and KPIs Thursday, October 1, 2009 In May 09, a long-time co worker retired from the RC facility. (She was offered another job she could not turn down). Her announcement came as a total shock to many. Even though she had over 34 years of service to AB/Rockwell, she was the 2100 Master Scheduler and had the pulse of everything that was coming in, going out (RC) (Tecate) and (Monterrey) bill of material issues, IT problems with orders, order runs and also had some involvement with Canada when directed. She managed all forecasts and dollar operations and scheduled all engineer orders. She had to manage order uploads prior to 6:00 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. daily, some nites at the plant until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. to insure orders were being placed to the proper locations and bill of materials not being duplicated on the next day runs. (No she was not paid extra for those hours). She knew how to fix the problems, or knew who to contact and send in writing to get the problems fixed for all orders going to those locations. As an engineer here in Milwaukee, we miss those communications, understanding and someone keeping us in check. When she retired another back-up person took over and did about 75% up to par. Then RC hired a young person with no experience in Master Scheduling cannot seem to get up early enough to manage the new orders coming in over-night and quite a mess since sometimes the orders are being built more than once and bill of materials cut in two locations. He does not seem to get that Tecate and Monterrey are in different time zones, or that he bit off more than he can chew. In addition to this they placed him in Milwaukee and the paperwork all cuts in RC. Talk about common sense - who thought this one up? I wished we had our Master Scheduler up there in RC; she KNEW how to manage orders and "stick to her guns". Unfortunately this is how RA has operated in the past few years - by not trying to keep the employees that they have invested the thousands of dollars in. As one of the newer engineers with less than 10 years, I am so frustrated. I believed I was hired for a top notch company, and I was dead wrong. Thursday, October 1, 2009 These are just a few of the failures since RA bought AB.
Thursday, October 1, 2009 RIFs coming to Rockwell Software next Tuesday. They are moving the headquarters offically to Austin, Texas, so several Milwaukee folks will be drawing the short straw. Thursday, October 1, 2009 Another round of RIF in Richland Center today. 68 hourly and 5 Salary Thursday, October 1, 2009 We just heard that our Rockwell Tech. Support guy was laid off today. As tough as it is going to be for him, it's tough being the customer when technical support for a big project disappears and we are left high and dry. Thursday, October 1, 2009 So how many more were pushed out the door yesterday? This is an annual activity at Rockwell with their year ending Sept. 30. Thursday, October 1, 2009 Deliberate ploy on the cutbacks - no matching 401k, no merit or cost adjustments, raised insurance costs for retirees, and the 75 to 85 point requirement for retirement a few years ago. These changes force people to leave the company voluntarily and then they don't have to worry about long term insurance and pension adjustments. It is normal for companies to make changes every 20 years or so. Wednesday, September 30, 2009
To: Keith Nosbusch If you take out the blackbelts you put in, the building works. And we know, that you know. It is profitable. Remember where the vfd's came from? And we are proud of it! Quit dancing around the sombrero and give us the support we need. We are right here, and it works. And you know it! Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - To the person who wrote the sarcastic comments on Tuesday: I guess you left Rockwell and joined another supplier, so now Rockwell are competition to you. I left Rockwell many years ago and have been a customer ever since, not only of Rockwell but other suppliers. True, there has been mistakes at Rockwell - in my view it's down to over aggresive sales targets in areas where they do not have fundamental capability - with the inevitable conclusion of not reaching customer expectations. In areas where Rockwell do have capability, I think they have easily matched other suppliers - many of whom also talk a good game but are poor on deliverables. As a customer now, with no vested interest in Rockwell, I find many of these blogs to be candid. This shows that many of the employees do passionately care about Rockwell enough to write the blogs. They only want to improve the situation. How many in your company care enough? Do they all "whistle while they work?" We are all in a deep recession and I hope you can all concentrate on delivering good customer service to your customers, and by listening to your passionate employees. Tuesday, September 29, 2009 I wonder if the Bradley brothers are resting peacefully, with all this turmoil and torment going on in the company they created? What a shame, an Icon like Allen Bradley going this way. Tuesday, September 29, 2009 Wow, I really wish I worked for this great American company. These blogs paint a fantastic picture. Strong leadership, great strategy, people centric, great products and technology, highly customer centric approach, etc... Sorry my mistake... I got that wrong... posted on the wrong blog! B.T.W. I know that senior management in Rockwell do look at these blogs.... So keep them coming... Maybe one day they will realise how deep these feelings run inside the company. Not that they will do anything about it, other than trying to track the bloggers down and publicly flog them ;-) Also... check out Linkedin - you'll see how many old RA folks have really landed on their feet. Life is far better outside the clock tower, away from the nobs that run the company. Monday, September 28, 2009 Doesn't anyone get it? All the cut backs to salary's / 401K/ yearly increases/ layoffs, doesn't anyone get it, and the stock continues to go up. They are up for sale for sure this time, and the golden parachutes will be deployed soon. They are cutting back to be sold. Its eaither ABB or Emerson. ABB has the ability to bring the rest of the global into the PLC world and they are respected overseas. Emerson has a strong product line with limited exceptance overseas and support unlke ABB. The RA management will soon all be gone. Their market share has been going down year after year with out RA concern. They continue to make the fat checks. Look out below the mud slide may run you over. Sunday, September 27, 2009 Until now, I have resisted contributing to this Weblog, but now feel compelled to write, especially as the subject of the Services & Solutions Business (SSB aka MPS) has been raised by a previous blogger. For their worth, here are my observations as to why notably in the UK the SSB business continues to freefall downwards:
What a mess. Sigh.
Sunday, September 27, 2009 Last week a group of Milwaukee executives visited the Cambridge plant and spent 2 hours with a randomly selected group of salaried employees (non-management) in what they called an "Active Listening" session. The questions related to employee engagement, and employees were asked to give honest, open answers. Whether they were ready for it or not, this is exactly what they got. The message was clear. The Cambridge facility is broken because of inept and backwards management practices. So to the Milwaukee executives: you listened, we hope you heard us and now it's your turn. You have the power and ultimately, the responsibility to the company, stakeholders and customers to make this right. We need action and it doesn't involve balloons and streamers in the cafeteria. And if you need a second opinion, set up the same session with the hourly folks who actually build the product. Sunday, September 27, 2009 WOW! Is anyone listening? And when I say "anyone", I mean Keith and his band of merry men? It looks like the sentiments are the same, no matter where you are geographically. There is a huge gap between what the workers are saying, and what Keith is being told by the people surrounding him. Rockwell Automation needs a big shake up. There are too many groups pulling for themselves, but no one pulling collectively. On any given day, one has to decide which company they are answering to today. Is it Operations, is it Materials, is it Engineering? And where does the customer fit in all of this? Saturday, September 26, 2009 The last blogs are all too correct, unfortunatley. At the Cambridge plant, some managers are not too skilled in their managerial efforts, while "team leads" are doing most of the managing, or what they might think is managing. Working team leads are what was supposed to be. But in essence, there are power-hungry and ego-inflated people who forget what a team lead is. Instead of leading and ensuring everyone is CAPABLE of doing the job, with proper tools, parts, training, confidence, team work, engineering support, and their best interest, these people sit down, walk around trying to intimidate workers, and pushing small weights around. One dept. is run by a person (I will not say manager, as this person is clearly not suited for management) that cannot speak a coherent sentence ... it has become an ISSUE. People dread going to meetings, trying to ask questions that get the exact same answer all the time, that has NOTHING to do with the question asked. It is quite obvious that his homeland is his target and objective while here "managing" the plant. All workers are keen on his lack of interest for the Cambridge plant's best interest. This bothers alot of people, and so it should. While he is running around trying to catch people with an unsigned cart caddy, he and all others turn their heads to REAL safety issues, assembly issues, traning issues, etc... If only the customers knew the ridiculous ways these machines are built, with ZERO training, unknowledgeable staff, tools that are meant for backyard garages, etc, the list goes on.... About tools: this company cannot even provide proper tools that have been requested, literally, for the last three years. A green belt project was given out, which to me, means a system has been implemented that works, saves money and is effective. Yet, a year later are now in the works of another tool project. Maybe I should lay down some lines, mop a floor, and put a nice big 6S star above my head, and see how much of a bonus I get this year. Oh wait, no, the favorites allready are picked and Keith says no to Bonus', except his own! Saturday, September 26, 2009 I will say goodbye to RA after more than 20 years of service. It's ridiculous that they will keep on with the head-count cut while paying out bonuses for plans that 'have achieved certain performance levels'. What are those plans? I bet one of them is the 'cost saving plan' -- you just killed so many good employees to get your bonus... Saturday, September 26, 2009 Keith needs to take a good look at the managers that are milking this company dry and get rid of the whole lot of them. From experience in Twinsburg we have the most incompetent managers that I can ever recall.( Thanks for hiring all the Ford boys.) There are also a number of Supervisors that need to go too. From Black Belts destroying processes so you cannot even do your job effiencent, but then wondering why the production isn't at levels where it should be. Hello look in the mirror, management.Wake up and listen to what the employee's are telling you. A lot of people feel that we are being set up for failure by this management team. This once great company that was a joy to work for, has now become a stress driven machine that has no idea what it is doing or where it is headed. Management needs to change . Hey. Keith how about a visit to Twinsburg for a meeting with the employees without any management present? I doubt that will happen. Saturday, September 26, 2009 Well now that Keith has communicated the wage reductions, no 401K match, forced days off and likely no merit increase again this year, it is time to depart this once great company. On my 5th anniversary with this company they will receive my resignation. Do I have another job? Not yet; but I can not sit in the office any longer and see what is happening around me. It would be best for me personally to get out now and not continue the stress that is driven by poor management. Several of the VP/GMs need to get kicked out as they are sucking the company dry with some of the worst mismanagement of resources and an even poorer selection of strategic projects. I would strongly encourage some direct meetings with grass-roots employees and skip the management levels. There are some outright lies being told throughout the management ranks. There are very poor management people that are holding back true innovation because they feel it has not been "socialized". To the 30+ year employees who are VPs: please do us all a favor and retire. The company can not continue to operate the way you did so many years ago. You sit back and wonder why the 20 & 30-somethings are not staying with the company. All you need to do is look in the mirror. You are the problem in most cases. Where is the new blood in the senior management ranks? And I am not talking about new management in the support organizations. I am talking about within the product-development ranks, in particular the VP/GMs in the Architecture and Software groups. These folks (other than CVB) are would never rise to the top of any other company. The SSCB VP is an absolutely miserable people-manager and is extremely short sighted. The I2O VP is over his head and needs to go back to marketing. The Portfolio VP has no clue when it comes to his area of responsibility. The MTC VP is more a finance person than an engineering leader. Come on Rockwell Automation. Get it together. Friday, September 25, 2009 I am writing this in hope that someone passes the message to Keith Nosbsch (slim I know). On your visit to the UK next, why don’t you actually speak to members of the workforce that have not been handpicked to feed you the information you want to hear. It is all well and good you keep asking for cost saving, but no one at grass-roots level is getting to hear what your management team are personally doing. Are you taking any financial hits like the average Joe? Are they large or small? After all in the good times your rewards are large. A good manager as the ability to mix at the top level AND with the general work force (not just the people selected to be in the office on one of your visits). So, if you want to raise morale and get the workers on your side, let's see you select a few grass-roots people to meet and speak to, instead of wasting more Rockwell money wining and dining only the management. Monday, September 21, 2009 The last comment is so correct - Rockwell is so concerned about the numbers and not about their customers. We used to do field service work and keep the customers happy, and get their product right, up and running. Now we are all about the shipping dollar. Customer's are left with GMS or Sales out in the field, to contract or try and fix their problems. Customers are a shoved aside and onto the next one. How sad! There are a lot of appreciative customers who like the one-on-one attention they used to get. That's gone. Now we spend those dollars setting up global plants and manufacturing product cheaper, selling at at the same dollar amount. Let's see how the next quarter plays out. Saturday, September 19, 2009 Response to Fri. Sept 4 comments, in the response to the Siemens guy: I find your comment on this weblog being written by ex-Rockwell employee's who left on their own accord absolutely hysterical! Yes some blogs are from unhappy ex-employees who were un-cermoniously dumped by Rockwell when they decided to right size their employees. I suspect a majority of this blog is written by current Rockwell employee's who feel that management is no longer listening. People can post things here without the fear of reprisals from management. The saddest thing is that management has forgotten about the customer and is so concerned about the shareholders. It's all about the numbers. Gone are the days when you thought about what the customer wants or needs. It's the customer that helps a company grow not the shareholder. Until we get back to the thought of the customer we will continue in our downward spiral. Saturday, September 19, 2009 I'd like to open up a topic concerning Rockwell's SSB (System Solutions Business)group. This is the old IAS (Information and Automation Solutions)which later became GMS (Global Manufacturing Solutions) then to GPS (Global Process Solutions)thene to MPS (Manufacturing Process Solutions) and now SSB. This is Rockwell's engineering solutions business headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. In light of the recent layoffs, overpriced solutions and lack of business direction, am I the only one that thinks that this business is being purposely overpriced in order for Rockwell to justify closing it down? Friday, September 18, 2009 RC facility (WI) moral is so low, personnel really down. But wait, some ovetime in the facility. Keith had a big write up in the State Journal earlier in the week calling about 12 personnel back. Yippppeee for Nosbusch, he sure is a joke, most may not be aware of the Rockwell stock "trading" that took place 2008 this is where your hard earned dollars went. Friday, September 18, 2009 Seems as if the blog has cooled off over the last few weeks. Perhaps everyone is getting used to the new realities. Best wishes to everyone! Wednesday, September 16, 2009 If you are that good then you should kindly retire since they are being so unreasonable. They could just take all of your pay at once. Talk to the folks that were let go in October and your 25 cent issue will look small. Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - To the powers that be in Milwaukee: Who on earth made the decision to start charging a quarter for a styrofoam cup in the cafeteria? You continue to cut into my personal wealth. You cut my pay, you stopped matching my 401K, and my health care will be going up 12-20% next year. People are furious over this latest debacle. If its about the styrofoam, then get plastic cups, I know, you want me to bring my own cup. I get that we are trying to be environmentally friendly, but seriously, at a time like this when employee morale is at an all time low, I can't even get a cup of water from the cafeteria anymore without being charged for it. What is next - a charge to use the restroom? Do I have to start paying for my parking? The cafeteria is a profit center; aren't they making enough money? Seriously, who is making these decisions? You can't keep taking and taking; something will give and it will be that good people will leave when things improve. I know with all the problems we are facing, this is minor. But there is no other anonymous forum in which to make your feelings known, so I hope someone out there is listening. I know people who won't even go to the cafeteria anymore. A quarter for a cup; what is next? Sunday, September 6, 2009 Manufacturing all your own products is not feasible any more. RA depends on the the products they can buy from someone else to fill in the holes. Relays, IEC contactors, IEC pushbuttons, terminal blocks, photo electrics, prox’s, and others all come manufactured from someone else. It's not cost effective to do R&D and manufacturing for all those commodity items. CLX, Software, PF7x Drives, Servo's and MCC's are about the only products produced in-house. It's smart business to do what you do best and buy the rest to fill in the products to supply your customers with the complete solution. RA's strength is the North American Distribution Channel, devoted to serving their loyal, long time customers. If RA can provide a suite of innovative control hardware and branded widgets to go along, they will survive and thrive in NA. NIKE never produced a single shoe in their own plants - all out-sourced - and look at their success. At least RA keeps their core products in-house. Try Modicon, Tele, Seimens, or Automation Direct, see if they will come to your plant and help you when the chips are down. RA knows what their distribution channel is worth and demands excellence from them. Friday, September 4, 2009 - To the "Siemens guy" Monday, August 3, 2009: Of course this weblog is a great read, like a quality soap opera. The majority of the negative comments are posted by ex-Rockwell employee's who left of their own accord and went over to the "Dark Side" (that being Siemens of course) and as you are scratching around at the moment with nothing better to do, why not post stuff on here instead of getting out there supporting your Customers and winning new business. Feedback from one UK (Water Utility) Customer is that an ex Rockwell Account Manager who left to join Siemens actually lost his temper and complained about a Customer who placed business elsewhere. Hmmmm Now there's a Soap Opera in the making. Thursday, September 3, 2009 PlantPAX is new lipstick on the same pig. A couple of years ago RA had the process extensions for RSViewSE (FactoryTalkViewSE) and the SE Process Toolkit Wizard. RA tried to get the distributor specialists to promote and support these "TOOLS" but none of them wanted to spend all their time trying to make it work with no factory support. PlantPAX is the fully supported package from RA. It's no different than before, only this time instead of the US distributor specialists trying to make it work it's the RA support engineers in India. RA is trying, but it's not a drop-in DCS replacement. There is a place for a DCS system and a PLC/PAC system, but RA is trying to sell a PLC/PAC as a replacment for a DCS. In their defense the DSC vendors are trying to sell into the PLC/PAC space also. A lot of utilities I work with have both, they both have their place, but both the PLC/PAC vendors and the DCS vendors want 100% of the pie. As the old saying goes, "let the buyer beware". Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - Ref: Tuesday September 1, 2009 blogger "If people want to send an opinion they should at least be educated....... etc" It certainly shows that the inbuilt Rockwell Automation arrogance still survives. Makes one wonder; what it will take to put some sincerity back into this company? Wednesday, September 2, 2009 Be careful when talking about PlantPax. It is not a new product; it is not a DCS system; it is purely a packaging together of existing Rockwell products so they can then be called a "system". There is some engineering to ensure the packages all work together; there is also "bundled code" to help with configuration of process control systems. However, don't expect a comprehensive, or well proven solution for process plants out of the box, and definitely not one specific for your industry. RA is a loonngg way off that! Tuesday, September 1, 2009 Inaco is well placed to capitalize on the distribution changes. They have existing capability and established business. They have gained territory in New South Wales and Queensland at the expense of four previous RA distributors but have lost their potentially lucrative Perth office to NHP. I think NHP has been given a poison chalice with strong expectations in their territories but no direct access to the NSW/Qld markets which belong to Inaco. NHP has lost most of its automation agencies that it would have relied upon to maintain its (limited) automation presence in NSW/Qld. So what do they do now that they can't take on national product representation for lines that compete with Rockwell. Surely the end game is to have a single Rockwell distributor in Australia! Question is - is that NHP (most-favored son) or Inaco (global player with leverage). Tuesday, September 1, 2009 If people want to send an opinion they should at least be educated. NHP are the most successful electrical enterprise in South Pacific. Period. Inaco is probably the fastest growing automation enterprise in South Pacific. Rockwell are proud to be associated with winners not whiners. So if you are a whiner, at least try to hide yourself. History doesn't lie. These companies have great track record before Rockwell, and now with the worlds best brand - what a combination. Smell our fumes guys, coz thats all you can do. Monday, August 31, 2009 We have heard a few comments about NHP as a distributor in Australia and New Zealand. I haven't heard anything about the second distributor in Australia, Inarco. NHP has been able to sell Rockwell Products for nearly a year now and to date I haven't heard any positive feedback about them in the market. I was wondering if the Rexel-owned Inarco are doing any better. We keep hearing about the vast amount of stock being held by NHP in New Zealand. But for some reason this isn't generating an increase in customer service. Perhaps they have invested in the wrong stuff? The local Rockwell people will no doubt be very happy with good sales figures generated by NHP buying this stock during a these lean times. Their next problem will be getting NHP to generate sales as the momentum created by the old distributors tappers off. Friday, August 28, 2009 - Re: the FF project: You need to be careful of the promise of PlantPAX. It does have some nice integrated features. However, FBUS is not an integrated feature. RA has a solution that has connectivity to the platform. Thursday, August 27, 2009 - Re: the FF project: If you choose the RA option with ControlLogix, you also have a "built in" DCS option, its called PlantPax. You can find more info on the RA website Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - Re: The FF Project: Thanks for the feedback. IF RA is successful the platform will be Control Logix, so we are locked into a "PLC" based solution with RA. My personal preference is a traditional DCS, but I'm not the one writing the check. My role will be to make sure that the system chosen works. Another concern is that a lot of the equipment will come in on skids from various vendors. So who can ensure interoperability between all the equipment? FF instrument vendors include Rosemount, Fisher, E&H, SMAR. I'm familiar with very large FF projects done with Emerson and Foxboro and I know that even with the DCS companies direct involvement their were start-up issues. But they were able to assign an army of associates to get the issues resolved. With RA I just haven't seen any large projects, so that's the G2 i'm trying to pick up here. Hopefully some end users of the FFLD will post and share their experience(s). Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - For the FF user colleague: For this ammount of FF intelligent instruments (if FF is your preference), I wouldn't use a PLC based solution, and even worse, based on protocol conversions (gateways) - I'm not a DCS fan, but for the ammount of instruments you have (and FF based) I would go to a DCS platform. You will lose some of the FF benefits having gateways. Wednesday, August 26, 2009 A close friend of mine recently left RA, this person was a highly trained professional. All the work they were asked to do was about one thing "Savings". Not improvements, not finding smarter ways to do things but just "Savings". Oh, and of course, whatever needed to be done couldn't cost any money. This person worked in EMEA where workers were asked to give up a number of days per quarter as to avoid layoffs. Most people complied and guess what? Yes, indeed, the layoffs have continued unabated. The people left at RA in EMEA, well, the good ones are looking for other jobs and RA is being left with whatever is left over after the good ones leave. The SAP rollout that was boasted about earlier on this blog is a giant joke, there is nobody left on the EMEA team currently that was supposed to assist in the transition to SAP, they've either been sent back to their departments or been made redundant. Staff is demoralized and stressed out, thats not how people do their best work and this state of affairs will only be aggravated because I doubt the end of the layoffs is yet in sight. I feel for the friends I have left at RA, its not a good place to work anymore. Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - To the Potential Customer on FF: I'm astonished by the size of your project! If you are talking about a batch facility with 3000 instruments you are talking also about some thousands of solenoid valves not mentioning agitators an other things! Anyway if you have this project - the FFLD's are good as any other FF interface. The "limit" is on the FF technology itself, so you can't connect more than 10 instruments for H1 segment including not more than 6 valves on the same segment (if you want to have a decent response time). Having said that, FFLD's (ethernet or controlnet) are working fine. I'm not aware of large FF based applications but I know few small to medium size (lets say a couple of hundreds instruments). I assume you want to use FF technology for asset management purposes. I'll not argue about this but -- I personally don't like FF much. Or, perhaps the fact that I don't see the point in using FF technology and run the control algorithm inside the controller. The concept is great, but the reality is quite weak. Good luck! Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - from Potential Customer: My company is planning to implement Foundation Fieldbus at a new greenfield batch process facility. We estimate roughly 3000 instruments so it will be a decent sized project. Rockjwell Automation is one of the companies under consideration (Siemens was an early out because they do not support FF). Has anyone had any experience with FFLD Ethernet or FFLD Controlnet gateways? Good or bad? Monday, August 24, 2009 To the Siemens guy: You can read these blogs cause you don't have any orders on your plate. What's Oprah doing these days? Bet you could give us a great update. To my former RA buddies: Do you think management will continue with no-matching 401K or have another RIF and bring the matching back? That's what on their plate now. Wednesday, August 19, 2009 The Anorad NY location had a RIF of 30 out of 95 today. Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - Richland Center facility update: Congrats, glad you're going back to work. We can't even get a disconnect shipped to us. Buying most of our stuff from other sources just to keep production running. The move to offshore production was a stroke of genius. When business picks up RA will really be in trouble. Who was the customer willing to wait 16 weeks for a MCC at twice the price? I don't doubt your workmanship but the engineering has to be right. Hail, India. Our software order took two weeks only to be shipped second day for $40. Tech support told me production problems with the software. Thursday, August 13, 2009 Richland Center facility update. They are calling back people due to a million dollar order. The workers were to be off for 1-3 months, and also had to sign up for federal cobra insurance and unemployment. Seems like they are having a tough time managing, or better said micro-managing. Tuesday, August 11, 2009 "Rockwell Automation announces manufacturing solutions for the Smart Grid". When I read that, I thought it was a joke. Sorry to say that, but for me is a way to manipulate customers selling buzz words. What is the next? Controlnet reduces global warming? Monday, August 10, 2009 I would like to propose that in the next round of RIF's we consider getting rid of:
Sunday, August 9, 2009 I am a union-worker for Kellogg's Snack Division and work in the maintenance storeroom/stockroom. A few days ago I heard that Rockwell Automation was going to implement RAAMP at our plant. Should I be alarmed, if organizing repair work was the first shift union workers job and that union worker is showing a Rockwell Automation worker how to perform part of the first shift job? I think I may be filing a grievance. Does anyone know if RAAMP has had a negative effect on a unionized maint. shop? Friday, August 7, 2009 - Responding to the weblog Wednesday July 8, 2009: So you thought I was from the U.S. Wrong, I'm from Cambridge. And my thoughts are still the same. You are all a bunch of backstabbing people, just trying to keep your jobs. You had it too good for too long. Wasting company money, while gossipping when you should be working. They still have a lot of weeding out to do in managagment before the company can actually turn around. Management helped the company go down hill by favouring the lazy workers and punishing the hard workers. I was there along with quite a few other people witnessing all of this. Clean up management at Rockwell Austomation on Dundas Street, and then you can clean up the regular workers. Oh, and say goodbye to whatever is left of dental and drug benefits.Goodbye - they're going soon, like everything else.! Som quit your whining about not losing your job. That's what unions were for. You all had your chance, but you were all foolish enough to decline it. So, suck it up, and move on. Monday, August 3, 2009 As a Siemens guy, I must say that this weblog is just a great read.... It's like a quality soap opera. Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Recently I’ve read a Rockwell paper about Sustainable Production. I still believe customers are smart enough to differentiate the real green and energy efficient solutions against companies embellishing all the old stuff and putting in a "green" package. Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Rockwell people wont post much from Asia because of the language - and hence most comments are from Australia and New Zealand, and most of those blogs are about distributors. I work for RA Australia and, whilst I was sceptical about what the Asia strategy was, I have to say its been pretty consistent for two years. It's paying off in market-share across the region, from what I can see. The management team seems engaged and actually truthful and realistic. As a result, people like me and my colleagues see a reasonable future and reasonable security. Whilst we have a long way to go with our new distributors in South Pacific, we now feel we can deliver better to our customers and that will benefit them. I also see the model has now expanded to other parts of Asia. Thursday, July 23, 2009 - For the Australian NHP post: Yes, there are definitely people interested in hearing about the region. Being able to hear the perspectives and comments from around the world is the exact reason I read this blog. EMEA posts come up fairly often, but not many posts come from the AsiaPacific region. You never know who will read these posts and turn them into a positive change. Keep them coming. Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Since I am so enraged here that I want to quit, I think I'll take my $250 gift certificate, go to Bayview Village, buy myself a new dress, see my attorney, and file a harassment suit. That's what I'm going to do. Care to join me, I'll buy lunch... Tuesday, July 21, 2009 For the blogger who starts "For all of you who are still whining over past events at the Cambridge plant: Get over it!": Lets put things in the correct context. People are enraged by others being forced out of their career through no fault of their own i.e. through broken promises, corporate opportunism and greed. Those worried and affected by job security don't bemoan matters for the sake of it. Far from it. When they see work being exported overseas for a pittance of a wage how can you NOT object? How confident are you that bad news won't come YOUR way? And, when it does, that you won't complain or feel let down that no-one laments over your demise? The put-up and shut-up approach doesn't need grooming, thank you. Your comments are not constructive or appropriate. Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Kudos to the individuals posting about whining. You're exactly right! First of all Rockwell isn't there to make you happy "if thats even possible" get over yourselves. Come in, do your job and go home, oh and shut up! This constant complaining is just monotonous. The thing that amazes me, is most of the same people have been complaining about rockwell forever. Do us all a favor and leave - go and find another job at this wage and these benefits, especially now. And i'll bet that when you find that perfect job you'll still be whining, still be complaining, because that is your purpose in life, to make everyone around you as miserable as you are. Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - To "Get Over It": Sounds like you got your bonus, destroyed a few careers and need to justify your existence in the management ranks. Most of us enjoyed RA and would like to get back to those days. We have heard about the green belt and black belt projects but have only seen the downside; RIF. For all the cost savings, why is there a need to reduce the work force? You should look around and realize that working in a hostile environment is only a matter of surviving. Feeling vested requires someone like you to grow individuals, teams and the company. Your need to stop justifying your existence and start justifying the team. Tuesday, July 21, 2009 I have been reading these blogs for 3 years (admittedly too much) as I want a different perspective from the standard marketing spin. My intent is to see if possible product, strategic news from employees, customers, or competitors may be useful for my own job or for dozens of my friends employed at the other listed companies. Most of us with common sense can discern good information from noise and simply smile when we see nonsense. Many posters have noted that it is skewed against Rockwell and Invensys. Perhaps some of this is deserved, of course each page is not neutral. Word choice for the headers of the negative boards with high activity include "decline, acquired" whereas safe, sterile, & low activity boards include word choice of "Bold, Strong". (Who's in marketing now?) I can take gossipy speculation..."July 5th is the date" (it was actually the planned roll-in of a business unit onto the new ERP...big whoop), Labor relations and the emotions that go along with it, and questioning of product/company capabilities. I guess I finally snapped with the silly comment for the $250 prize. Come on, every company does this (I've worked in engineering for two of these big guys) I've seen similar booby prizes for iPods, iPhones (Emerson), champagne and even cash for Siemens & ABB. Also note that many times these vendors will source marketing activities to small specialty companies who run campaigns beyond their control. Come on guys, think before you post. Rockwell has made it clear they are pursuing the process market. Why not? Their Controllers are rock solid in the discrete world. There is nothing that special about a DeltaV or server based controller that makes them holy. They handle computations for IO with various network protocols. It's the periphery (services, libraries, and install base) stuff which Rockwell doesn't have which will be their uphill battle. I would have also added instrumentation, but the E&H partnership narrows that gap. Their VFD offering is good (not great) they've really missed a big share of the market by not having a fully released sub-350kW grid tie ready for sale (although I've heard some are floating around out there). Finally the FactoryTalk group has show tremendous improvements over it's state when I joined up in 2005 (always bringing in new products and striving toward integration). Lastly the true value of Rockwell is their North American distribution network. None of the other guys come even close to that dominating defensive model with impressive coverage. Matched with an aggressive disrupting sales model for South America and Asia (yes we've all read about Australia) it shows that Sr. management is not just sitting back and collecting paychecks but putting trying to move this company to the next level - even if survival was the name of the game over the last year. No I'm not a Sr. manager, nor a marketing weenie. I'm just an engineer who has traveled the industry, carries a decent education, and uses common sense. Rockwell isn't that far off the mark of where it should be. It's not perfect but it's not the tragic mess that this board leads you to beleive. Monday, July 20, 2009 For all of you who are still whining over past events at the Cambridge plant: Get over it! If things have you so enraged - you should quit. Make yourself (and some of your co-workers) happy. If your situation or the situation of you superiors has you so irate - Leave! There are 100's of people who would love to be in your shoes - employed. Consider yourself lucky that you aren't out there pounding the pavement trying to find a job. Consider yourself lucky that you aren't working for a half-rate temp-service that farms you out to different jobs twice a week. You have it better than you know. If you decide to stay. Stop complaining! It's getting old. Come to work, do what you are paid to do and then go home. It's a simple concept. Try it! Monday, July 20, 2009 Wow, if you ask a Rockwell Plantpax multimedia CD you can win a U$250 visa gift card. Is it the right approach to convince customers that RA is playing in the process playground? I don't think so; it seems a typical retail product company. Maybe it is a subliminal reminder that RA is more a product company for candy machines than solution for refineries Saturday, July 18, 2009 Just a little update on the situation in Australia (if anyone else in the world is remotely interested). NHP are my new distributor for Rockwell, so I rang for pricing on a couple of soft starters. Although they didn't seem completely comfortable with the product they gave me price and availability on the units without any problems, they even offered me an alternative (?) in AuCom. They seemed a lot more comfortable talking about the AuCom units, and offered me a more than competitive price on them; with things in the industry being tight, this opportunity to save some money was appreciated. I am now the owner of a couple of AuCom units; I guess Rockwell have opened themselves up to internal opposition; their loss is my gain. Saturday, July 18, 2009 - Re: Lament for EJA / Wigan Facility: I made a couple of calls, and found out that the overall Project Manager and the key guy for the safety product transfers quit RA, and was not laid off as you stated. Turns out he got fed up with been passed over by senior management in favor of less competent but more politically connected people. So, he handed in his two weeks notice, and said they would need to complete the remaining product transfers without him. Since he departed it's taken 3 different people to backfill his previous role, the start up in the Dominican Republic has slipped 3 months, and there are massive amounts of customer orders that are past due that can't be built because the parts are not even set up in SAP. Sounds like maybe management let a key resource go that they shouldn't have. In the days before Functional Excellence this guy had been highly thought of and was been groomed for higher things. However, in recent years he'd been mostly moved aside by the Operations group in favor of new hires with little to no industry experience. But these new people knew how to suck up big time to the new central operations group in Milwaukee. Now that the S#@t has hit the fan, they won't admit to making a mistake, and are trying everything they can think of to restart production. However, from what I hear they are still not even close. So, to the previous post: You were right in saying it was about management playing favorites, and also is about them not knowing what is going on. Shame, as it seems another good company resource has been unnecessarily forced out by RA's bad management. Thursday, July 16, 2009 It's very amusing to see a manager "toot their own horn" on line and tell us how nice it is to have everything back to normal at Rockwell Cambridge. It is too bad though that most of the information stated in you blog is false. The toolbox re-organization green belt project you are referring to has failed miserably and cost the company thousands of dollars with no visible return. Having employees walking around looking for tools or creating downtime for other employees because they have to share tools isn't very cost effective. Appointing someone to walk around and check the boxes regularly just cost more money. Using an entire department to do a project for you, instead of your original team, cost the company a fortune. The organization of the toolboxes was not adopted plant wide because of this project and was implemented in department 17 long before this project was in the books. As for green belt projects as a whole at the Cambridge plant most boast these insane cost savings, yet the majority have cost the company big bucks and have went nowhere. Half of the original class that was trained at Rockwell dropped out. Management is to blame for this, giving out certifications like candy to anyone who can make it "look good on paper". Poor training and lack of knowledge and leadership also contributed to the problem at Rockwell. The proof is on the walls, failed and abandoned project are left posted for employees to see. Rockwell automations "Green Belt" certification is a gimmick and "is not" recognized outside the workplace. Words like "root cause analysis" are only used in jokes made up by employees to describe someone that runs the place. The company as a whole seems to be better in some aspects. I just hope it continues its direction because we definitely need to start seeing more positive changes. I truly believe our customers will be happier if the employees are, and this in turn will benefit the company drastically. Thursday, July 16, 2009 It's nice to hear some positive news about RA-Cambridge. Sounds like they are set for the rest of the year 2009. They re-design their metal side sheets, with a big green cost savings for metal material. (2100 product line) changed the tooling. Thursday, July 16, 2009 Well I would have to agree, it seems we are emerging from our difficult time. Although I believe that Rockwell took advantage of a situation and used the "recession" as a way to clean house. I also do believe that we have some great managers that make tough decisions as well. One problem though, we still have people that are team leads and nothing but a regular employee, making decisions they have no business making. Some of these people make managers believe others are not working or talking too much, or make errors just to plain make them look bad and make themselves look good and also to take the focus from their own lack of work. Our managers need to stand up to these people and tell them to get back to work and mind there own business! To talk about the Materials manager, and how "great" she is, on this weblog is actually a joke. Also talking about the tool project, also another joke. Well it sounds to me like someone is doing their best to toot there own horn. Does senior plant management know that the tool project actually fully stopped production from a FULL weekend shift. The whole crew stopped production to do this tool project for almost 2 full weekends. And countless hours of numerous employees other days. So many tools had to be bought to enable the tool project to be completed! Where is this cost saving? Countless times the manager and another employee having to leave several times a day to return a tool and get a different one. How many people does it really take to make a return and purchase? On another note, this same tool setup was already made practice in another department before the "big tool project" took place. Now onto the comment about senior management keeping only the most qualified and competent managers. I think that is a very disrespectful comment being made about managers who have lost their jobs. Some, I might add, are still with Rockwell but have been demoted. There is only one person I can think of that would write all of these comments. Everything on here revolves around one person and I find it unbelievable that you would stir the pot. One thing I can say is, it has been said before, we do stick together and do want to see Rockwell Canada succeed and remain in Cambridge. Thursday, July 16, 2009 - Re: Lament for the EJA / Wigan facility. I'm having tremendous problems getting products out of the new manufacturing facility. My customers are getting furious with me and RA in particular. Because of delivery issues, a number of them have dropped RA and are going for competitor products. They don't care about our internal problems, they just want their products. When I inquired what's going on, I found out that the lead project manager was laid off and the replacement doesn't know what he's doing. Is this another example of operations either playing favorites, or more likely not knowing what is going on. Wednesday, July 15, 2009 I would like to take this opportunity to express some positive views on RA-Cambridge operations. Too often employees may not realize how difficult it is to manage a large facility. I, for one, am grateful we have Managers that can make the tough decisions required. It seems that the Plant has finally emerged from a very difficult period. Most of the Kaizens are now starting to see a positive return on investment, some have even exceeded their original expectations – such as the tooling reorganization which was successful enough to be adopted Plant-Wide. Others have resulted in significant savings that have been applied directly to the bottom line. More and more employees are now certified Green Belts and regularly come up with ideas saving Cambridge more time and money. The Belt program is a prefect example of money well spent. The need for any further layoffs is unlikely as orders in all the remaining Departments are strong for the next two quarters, plus look as though they will remain that way well into the New Year. Most shifts are operating at the same staffing levels they had before the economic downturn. Senior Plant Management has been able to use this time to carefully select and retain only the most qualified and most competent Team Managers. As an example; thankfully the Materials Department is managed by someone who truly understands the needs of the production floor. The improvements in this Department alone have resulted in reductions in the time required to get materials, as well as solid cost savings. Transactional discipline by the employees is now common practice rather than the exception. The culture of asking the 5 whys and determining the Root Cause has also become part of everyone’s daily routine. With two new major Medium Voltage products now in production and selling well, the future of that Department alone in Canada is assured. Shortly systems will be updated to SAP and bring not only Cambridge to world class levels, but all of Rockwell Automation as well. As one of the remaining employees I am more than happy with all of the changes that have taken place over the last nine months. Only the very best of my fellow employees remain and you can feel the sense of commitment that we all have. The future for RA in Canada will only improve. I look forward to the eventual re-establishment of the EIP programs and merit raises. Rockwell is back to being one of the best managed and best places to work. Sunday, July 12, 2009 If the previous blogger is correct then I'm sorry for those worker bees in the UK that will be affected by the latest round of cuts. For the worker bees left behind then they have been left in situ on the assumption by management that they won't break until it’s their turn for redundancy. Don't bother trying to fight being jettisoned through redundancy either; matters will be as good as 99.9% sewn up. How? Well, ask yourself when a key member of UK HR Management team purportedly arbitrates on behalf of the Employment Tribunal Board then just how likely is it that errors will have been made in any of the proceedings? Topmost concern is the seemingly unwritten directive to rid RA of long timers. Better write offs for tax purposes or Lower National and Health insurance costs? Decreased pension’s cost etc? Core considerations for the business but which ignores any recognition for those workers who have given the most loyalty. RA’s actions certainly speak louder than words. Why hasn’t more of EMEA middle management been hit by redundancies yet? Isn’t that where more effective cost savings can be made; especially as RA must now be even more top heavy than it ever has been before? Finally, RA has pissed off more and more customers through lesser quality products, higher prices & mis-directed protective arrogance its no wonder that the business has resorted to feeding off itself. That is a problem created by sub-standard Business Management; not by current market conditions. Shame it’s the studious workforce - i.e. those at the proverbial coalface - that’s paying the price now more than ever. Saturday, July 11, 2009 Rockwell must use RIF lists. How else can they announce head-count reduction and then tell those affected two days later? Surely it would take more than a couple of days to decide, starting from a blank sheet of paper. Are any of the 22 going to be here at Bletchley? If so, then surely the business here is doomed - unless it's some of the useless management. We are a bit top heavy these days. This blog site seems to indicate it's the finance departpent going to be hit; that maybe logical - but this is Rockwell we are talking about. One thing with working for HR here, they are pretty safe, every quarter decisions have to be made, heads to be counted which means more work for them. So HR are probably safe - until the economy levels off. Friday, July 10, 2009 Q: What is a RIF list? A: Reduction-in-Force (RIF). Friday, July 10, 2009 Richland center is doing canada orders for 2100. Don't know why they are not sent to Tecate, MX yet, because they could handle them. For some reason, upper management is keeping on all management, engineers, and extra salary paying jobs - don't know why. Someone has to be paying these high wages. Technicians are being kept on, with assembly-lines benches (12 benches each line) maybe 1/2 full. We have 3 lines left; if you put all the day shift people on one line it would be full. For some reason they scatter the people between three lines and try to run 5-7 orders down each line. I cannot believe they don't put the people on one line and send the extra benches to Monterrey. We have a leadership team in management that makes decision? I can not see how this could be cost efficient or lean. But it keeps groupleaders,technicians and management employeed. I think Milwaukee management is sleeping. We have people on involuntary layoff for the next 3 months. We also have people on a voluntary layoff. Each week managers look at the numbers. Involuntary - you have to buy Cobra insurance; voluntary layoff you don't. RC is basically a numbers game for hourly. Good thing they have a calculator. Friday, July 10, 2009 Who says a RIF list is not legal? Get real. It happens all the time. Companies have lists of people that are HiPOTS (High Potential) and also lists of who will be let go in the next round of layoffs next month. How do you think they implement the RIF? Quit being paranoid. If you are viewed an employee who can not be replaced, then you have nothing to worry about. If you are perceived as replaceable, you may be at risk. The bottom line is that you owe the company a hard week's work and they owe you a pay check at the end of the week. To think otherwise is foolish. I have been at RA for over 20 years and enjoy working here. However, I realize I could be let go in a moments notice. The trick is to become an employee that would be difficult to put on a RIF list in your manager's eyes. You may call that 'sucking up'. I view it as survival and common sense. Friday, July 10, 2009 UK - Are you saying that 35 people on a 'rif list' will be told their job is at risk until HR decides who the 22 are? I don't believe that for a second. Why would HR scare them when there is only a risk of them going? Thursday, July 9, 2009 Thirty years ago, at my semi-annunal review I was promoted, and then laid off within ten minutes at a large computer comapny. It happens, needs change, forecasts change. I found a new job, you can too. Take your lay-off and move on. The moles, snipes & scumbags reside within every company. If you have a legit legal case against the company find a lawyer, if not find a new job. Quit Whining! I personally think that RA's quality and delivery are suffering by rebranding others products and the shift to offshore manufacturing in the hopes of increasing market share (& profit margin) outside of the US will be their demise. With a 50% market share in the US and a 10% market share in the rest of the world all the growth is outside the US. They are chasing growth outside the US to appease the shareholders, but are giving away market share in the US to achive this goal. The US customers made Allen-Bradley what they are today. But Rockwell Automation ONLY cares about STOCK PRICE. If they ignore and abuse the US customer base, ignore the customers that made them what they are today, they are destined to fail. They are willing to sacrifice a loyal and dedicated US customer base to chase a fickle global market. Seimens, ABB, Emerson, & GE are all better in process and integrated services. Do what you do best, PLC'S. Oh yea, forget about FactoryTalk Software, it's in worse shape than Microsoft. Perhaps you should rebrand it again as FactoryTalk 7 Software. Thursday, July 9, 2009 The problem is they wouldn't know "illegal" until someone in authority tells them. They're victims of what Jim calls in his book "creeping criminality". Usually when you leave a company there's paperwork to sign. It's usually an acknowledgement of severance, COBRA, etc. You're right in that they do not either have the right, nor is it enforceable,to have employees sign a "gag" order. Only the courts can do that. You can speak freely about the truth to anyone at anytime. Thursday, July 9, 2009 22 people to go from the UK. 35 people to be put on 'at risk'. First contact with those at risk to be made in the next 4 weeks. The names of the 22 will be finalised by the end of July. Thursday, July 09, 2009 I am now an ex-employee of Rockwell Automation. I was told that I had been made redundant but it seems like now that I was a victim of the RIF list. I will be taking legal advice on this matter and I would urge anyone who feels that their redundancy was not fair to do the same, as they too were probably victims of this illegal RIF list. I was a long standing employee of Rockwell and they need to be accountable for their illegal practices. Thursday, July 9, 2009 - to the person who called us "a bunch of whiney babies": You obviously are from the US. You should really get the facts before ranting like that. If you had any idea what you were talking about you would allready know 75% of the hourly employees are AGAINST a union. The only reason the union was called in was by a few disgruntles workers that were being treated unfairly. This is why they kept on coming as well. Management in the Cambridge plant is lack-luster at best. The policies and procedures are watered down with corruption and denial. The spy's and rat's are promised fortune and fame... You were right about brown nosing getting you somewhere, indeed. The food night was decent; tip my hat to them for trying! A+ for effort. All people really want are polices and procedures that are adhered too, to eliminate favoritism. When and if this is actually implemented you will then see attitudes and morale increase. The second biggest issue is the secrets! Why so secretive? If you are planning on making a new office, why does it have to be soooooo hush-hush? It is not hard to figure out when you walk by and see them working on it. If management actually practiced what they preached and put an effort into Teamwork, then we would be all better off! Wednesday, July 8, 2009 What a bunch of whiney babies you all are at the Cambridge Plant. The Union tried to get in years ago, but you all had it too good. Now with layoffs, you're all looking for the union. The management need to be trained in dealing with human beings. Their heads are too big and they don't know very much. Good luck in keeping RC open in Cambridge. As long as you have a brown nose you don't have to be a good worker. But you make the management feel good. So you should be okay for employment until they shut the doors and lock them behind you for good. Oh, and be sure to sign the paper before they walk you out the door that you will not discuss anything with media or anyone else so that you can get your severance pay. It's illegal for them to do this. Wednesday, July 8, 2009 Tropicana was the initial code name used while the plants in Mexico were being built. This was used prior to the general public even having knowledge that these plants were being built. It's become an obsolete term since the Mexico operations are now public knowledge. It appears at this time that the July 5th announcement was speculation of some kind. Tuesday, July 7, 2009 What about news in Canada (Cambridge)? July 5 has come and gone, still nothing. Lots of job postings, but still the employees feel there will be more layoffs by September. And still no information about "tropicana". For the people who want to talk business and marketing, let hear about what's going on. Don't be shy. Step up to the plate and fill us in. There were several of you that wanted to change the topic but we haven't heard much from you. We would like to know what you have to say. Tuesday, July 7, 2009 RIF LISTs are illegal. I would activley urge anyone who finds out if such a list exists to report it immediately and ensure that management are aware that the list existance is public knowledge. Anyone who is lined up for the cut, although unfortunate may be able to use such knowledge to negotiate a higher lump sum. Unfortunately it won't save your job but will make HR's job harder. After all, its clear that the personnel in HR UK are only there due to their skills in negotiating such packages so they must be used to it by now. Tuesday, July 07, 2009 As we go into Q3, the new RIFT LIST will emerge. HR in the UK are working tirelessly to calculate the figures for the unfortunate employees whos names appear on the list from the States. The UK's finance department will be hit the hardest, as they will be embarking on a so-called departmental restructure. The head of finance has been saved for now and he will now be working on an EMEA project that they have made up for him - he knows where all the skeletons are buried, just like me. If you're a team leader and not in the 'in team' in the telephone contracts department in the UK, watch out, you're name has been put forward by management to give you the push. So as you will see Rockwell Automation is not such an 'ethical' company. They chew you up and spit you out at their convenience. Keep watching, more news to come soon. Monday, July 6, 2009 Richland center plant: They were working overtime, about 30 people hourly and salary, getting ready to turn SAP on live in ESB monday morning starting time. SAP is one of their new programs. No one else was cut. Monday, July 6, 2009 Well July 5th 2009 has come and gone. Where is this big news (posted June 3rd) we were to watch for? The day is here. Posted June 4th - It's not really big news. Rockwell are just selling over to a company - it's been referred to here before a few times. Who is the person with the crystal ball? Monday, July 6, 2009 I don't know how much all these inside comments are true, but, for the simple fact that tons of the recent postings are just about the same stuff (instead of any discussions about strategy or technology) it seems that Rockwell is really poisoned. Sunday, July 5, 2009 Pity about EJA in Wigan, UK. Hopefully a few of those hardworking folks have got work with Idem Safety who are nearby the old EJA premises and who produce a similar, but much improved range of products. Idem can make them in the UK cheaper and far better than Rockwell Automation ever did. Idem is headed by an ex Rockwell Engineer of the Year. Sunday, July 5, 2009 Drove by the Richland Center facility tonight, just prior to 10:30 CST (after the fireworks here in Richland Center). The production plant is not open, (Holiday and Sunday no work) however management IS there in Operations---have not seen Sunday activity this late at nite for over 30 years. Will be interersting to hear what the next announcement will be this week who and what is the next axe to come down. Last week they let go one of the "Lean" Managers, as if they are doing very much other than colored charts and graphs. Sunday, July 5, 2009 - from the "new to this blog, and I am very shocked.....". I am not a "Newbie" so to speak. I have worked in many other industries doing many different careers for many many years, and I can tell you that no organization that runs any differently than Rockwell. Except for many of the perks. It is a business. It is going to adhere to the bottom line. That's life. If they don't make money. They close. I have been through plant closures a few times. Here is where YOU may be the "newbie". I have done the whole case senerio. Like I said before, plant closure is a lose to everyone. Newbies and those who have been there for a long time. It's a no-win situation. People who have worked here for a long time deserve to retire with their pensions and those who have not worked here as long deserve to try to get that pension or in the very least make their mortgage payments. When comments are made to close the place, I tend to get a little ticked that someone else is toying with my life. You are entitled to your feelings and I am entitled to mine. This is an open blog and I am just trying to be a little positive about a very difficult time right now. If the plant closes, I will definately survive due to my other skills from previous plant closures. Calculate your age into that new feeling of education that you may receive from E.I. because believe you me, it plays a huge part in whether or not you find new employment. Or whether the field that you choose to enter will except you or not. I am no babe-in-the-woods my friend; just someone who has been there and done that, so I am wise to the real world that awaits those who are so eagerly lead towards the negative. Maybe Rockwell will disapoint, take advantage of, kick my butt. But they are paying me quite well, and it is Work after all. Once your education is finished or your E.I. runs out - and it will run out - then when your looking for a job at $10 an hour, you will wish that you still had Rockwell. That is not just my opinion. That is just another fact. Saturday, July 4, 2009 - Ref: "I am new to this blog, and I am very shocked.....". Well, many of us were just like you - once. The fact is you play by the rules, put yourself out, make sacrifices and go beyond expectations and what do you get? After a period of 5 - 10 years you get churned for a newbiew ((like yourself). Don't count on being at RA for long. Careers don't exist, unless your face fits; you are well connected and can BS heirachy. Now you know why many at RA are disgruntled. Friday, July 3, 2009 I am new to this blog, and I have to say that I am very shocked at some of the comments made here. Some I understand, while others are just shocking.I am just a worker that goes to work every day and am thankful for the opportunity to do so. It is a very very scary place out there right now, and when I read how some people say just shut the place down, it verifies to me just how uneducated these people really are when it comes to the economy.
I love my job. I enjoy the people. I know that there are a lot of things that are unfair; but who said life is fair? I have had job postings disappear on me. Not fair. I have lost jobs in the past and not because I didn't do my job, but because of being that number. And believe me, if Rockwell shuts its doors, you will be a number, and not a high one. So, trust me when I say BEING A NUMBER SUCKS! I hate being a number, and that is what the unions do. They make you a number. I firmly believe that everyone who works hard should be able to achieve their goals. Unions stifle that opportunity. We are a great group of people, and we have more talent at Rockwell than you can shake a stick at. So lets find a way to make it better without a union. Remember the grass is always greener on the other side. I have not been at Rockwell for 30 years, so trust me when I say that it sucks out there in the world of EI. It is not the answer. It is the spring board to hope. New careers are great but without experience you fall back to manufacturing and so many people are unemployed the good jobs are already gone. As for the barbeque. Thank you. It was free. And I am thankful for the extra 15 minutes. Long live Rockwell, and the opportunities that we all benefit from! Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Thanks Jim, for allowing us to post on your website. Why is July 5th important? Why did RA corportate notify Dublin, GA and Sumner, IA one year in advance that they will be closing their doors in 2010? When RA changed the pension clause in Dec 31, 2005 allowing certain groups of people to get the supplemental with their pension, and most of them being management at Richland Center, why 2010? Amazing - does canada have the supplemental clause in your pension? Being a profitable facility and with lean taping of our garbage cans area and telling us what our drawers in our tool carts should look like, it is amazing they survive lean-5s-8d- etc.. 2010 is an important year Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Wow! If you were in Cambridge today for the Canada day barbeque, you will know exactly what I am referring to! (Not even a Barbeque - it was cooked in the kitchen). Talk about laying it on thick! It was almost like a Monty python skit. Any intelligent employee would have seen right through it. Company cut backs? For the incredible hard times we are facing, we can't seem to find the money for new tools to do our job properly. But we can splurge for a barbeque to obviously soothe the savage beast. We have the incompetent management team to thank for the UAW at the the main gate. Don't get me wrong; the food was great, the line moved very quickly, they even gave us a 15 minute extension on our lunch. Very nice! We have never seen such enthusiasm and circus-like atmosphere in the 25 years I have worked here. The painted smiles of the managers, silly hats and the willingness to help, gave me indigestion... Without the C.A.W on our door step, I am sure that the new policies and the good food would have never been on the agenda. Just the continued poor treatment of the unprotected worker. Maybe we do need an alfa-dog like the C.A.W to keep the management muts in line. It is obvious that the management team has never taken courses in people management. Abuse of power is the biggest problem. The incompetent team lead is making far too many important decisions without guidance from the department managers. I have never been a fan of unions. In fact, it just might be the best thing for everyone involved to just stop playing the games and close the place. Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Just a lament for a great UK organisation in Wigan called EJA. This week the last production workers said good by to their plant, where the great Guard Master Safety switches were Designed, Marketed and Manufactured. The factory was ahead of its time in the deployment of Lean Enterprise and it R&D personnel sat on ISO committees determining the world standards for the design and manufacture of safety switches. Because of its agile leadership, its time from Development to Manufacture was exceptionally fast, which allowed the company domination of the EMEA Markets. Sadly it was closed because Labor costs were perceived to be cheaper off shore. Tuesday, June 30, 2009 Rockwell doesn't give a hoot about any of its centres. If the facility is not cost effective or manufacture/supply of the goods/services concerned can be hashed to return increased margins, then thats exactly what it will do. Nothing is sacrosanct except for the survival of the same mercenary heirachy incl. "jobs for the boys" via the school tie network. This is how its always been; how it always will be. Tuesday, June 30, 2009 Years ago I worked for Rockwell and lost my job, but about 1 year later took a job with a competitor (doing well). I recently spoke with an individual that left Rockwell and let Management know that he did not agree with the direction of where the Company is headed. If you have not made plans on your next job moves, or retirement, better do this soon before all is lost. Ask yourself why key personnel are leaving, including a key finance person. Why did Keith make over $5m with nearly $13m in stock options - ttal of $18m for 2008? (this info is available)on several bonafide business and newspaper sites.) The employees leaving are quietly telling Keith they do not agree with his management of the company. All of the cut backs impacts your retirement if you are vested. Monday, June 29, 2009 Commenting on a PUBLIC WEBLOG, that has no affiliation with RA whatsoever, has absolutely no bearing on the current state, or future of business for this company. That comment is obtuse. People are giving their opinions on fact. Hoping that someone who can help make changes at this plant can get the ball rolling. Why can you not understand the concept that people have rights? Voicing a concern and never letting it fester is a pro-active approach to gaining new ground. Monday, June 29, 2009 I'll say it again just to drive the point home. Petty BS is what destroyed the Duluth, GA location. That location was to be the location for all of Rockwell's Industrial Computer Business. A lot of very talented people worked there. All of that business and potential business lost. If you can't learn from past mistakes, perhaps it's time to turn the driving chores to someone who knows how to drive. Sunday, June 28, 2009 I'll thank Jim Pinto as well. He's allowed people to post here that have real concerns about the real problems they're observing or experiencing. As for the "industry professional" - understand that people who post here are "professionals" as well. The only "losers" are the ones that think only they count. If you have any experience at all, you know you find out the health of your company, or industry, by reading posts like this one. Expressing you concerns openly at your job usually labels you as a troublemaker. Doesn't have to be that way, however, that's what some of us have experienced. I also enjoyed the "ratgate" or "molegate" drama, as it so clearly illustrates what the real problem within this company appears to be. Any problem can be resolved, but only if it's openly discussed. Since most agree management reads these posts, it's the only "safe" way they feel they can express themselves. That's a good thing. I'm interested in the "mystery date" of July 5th as well, no reason to be cryptic about it. Sunday, June 28, 2009 Thank you for keeping this site open to all individuals, so that they may express there views about anything involving Rockwell Automation. In many instances this is the only forum or outlet that people working at Rockwell have. Please do not limit the responses. Sunday, June 28, 2009 I would like to thank Jim Pinto for posting the comments that are from employees of Rockwell Automation. These are from frustrated employees who are not being heard at the plantm - not union losers with petty BS. These are "CRITICAL" concerns that have been going on far too long. Everyone knows that management reads these posts, so if this is the only way to have them hear us then this is how we will get it through to them. The petty BS actually is going on at the plant and we are proving that we've had enough and will not tolerate it. To the person who some call a "rat": If you get away with yelling, with profanities, on the shop floor, this will also prove what has been written on here. That management is showing favourtism by allowing you to do it without concequences! This is also not petty BS. Most other employees would have been walked out immediately. If anyone wants to talk about sales and marketing on here, you are more than welcome to do so, but if you find there is too much BS on here, just don't read it! There are many other people who use this site, not just people who "claim" they are someone else. Saturday, June 27, 2009 - For "industry professional: OK, then, lets have your views on just how well Rockwell Automation is doing in the market place. Give us a clue! Friday, June 26, 2009 A.B. Canada pumps out massive product for Rockwell as a whole. We have been running overtime pretty much since January. Almost immune to the recession we are probably one of the only plants still making large amounts of money for the company at this time, and thing said on this blog are important to us. Sorry if you are not interested on the current topic then write something about marketing or sales, O wait I just did. Thanks again Jim Pinto for letting our voices be heard. Friday, June 26, 2009 - from Industry Watcher: "Ratgate", or "Molegate" as it is to some, had me and my colleagues in stitches. Maybe some of those "disaffected union losers", as the previous blogger calls them, should consider a career writing TV comedy sitcoms. On a more serious note - anything new regarding the cryptic date "July 5th 2009" mentioned previously on this blog? Thursday, June 25, 2009 Enough with the disaffected union losers posting their petty BS in just one small part of Rockwell, in Canada. Can you please limit topics to sales and marketing related issues? As an industry professional that is where my interest in your weblog lays. Thanks! Thursday, June 25, 2009 I haven’t worked for Rockwell in over a year, but I know that John Whibbs will be successful in any company that's lucky enough to land him. The fact that he's left Rockwell (or asked to leave) is an indication of the deteriorating condition of the company. If Rockwell really wants to get out of this mess (in Canada), they should start with the firing people who are liabilities. Wednesday, June 24, 2009 Remember when Management cancelled shifts and all those employees had to find jobs. No one was allowed to bump, and senior employees had to take lesser jobs and work our way back up. We didn't here a peep from anyone on how unfair it was. You were able to sit in your comfy chairs while the rest of us suffered. Did we complain or try to organize representation? No we sucked it up. So now the shoe is on the other foot and there's a whole lot of whining and complaining. What a bunch of hipocrites you all are. You are only looking out yourselves and care little for you fellow workers. All this innuendo and hearsay shows how pathetic you really are. Who cares about your senority and whether you end up in a job you don't like, or on a shift you don't want. You sure didn't care about us before the new year. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 RA recently sent this email announcement (extract):
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 And the rat speaks! A mole is someone who strategically infiltrates an organization to get information or documentation regarding secretive or sensitive information. You are not a mole. A "rat" is someone who goes into a group knowingly and willingly putting themselves out there for everyone to see and then informing the higher ups on what exactly took place. I think rat is definitely a better description of what you are. I hear that today you went on a little rampage at work, accusing not one but two people of writing about you on this site. You must have missed the crowd gathering behind gawking at you. I would really watch who you accuse and what you say to people because you might just find yourself out on the street. I think HR frowns on harassment and verbal abuse of fellow employees. You should think yourself lucky you don’t get hauled into HR because of it. Fact: You did write down how many people were in attendance at the union meeting. Now to me that does not seem like valid information and has absolutely no relevance to the questions that your friends would have asked. Unless your friend was the plant manager or a "manager friend" as you put it. Secondly, your manager friend kind of blew it for you the next day anyway. I guess she just couldn’t keep her mouth closed and told her entire material-handling team about the meeting the next day. Maybe it made her feel smart, or maybe it gave her some sense of power knowing everything that went on at the meeting, and letting the whole group know that she knew. Last, but not least. For you to sit here and write that everyone else is wrong and are oblivious to what you are and do is just foolish. You have lied and misled fellow employees and management repeatedly. You have also been involved in trying to get fellow employees fired, and have done everything in your power to claw your way up, regardless of who you have stabbed in the back along the way. I feel no pity for you. The mess your in now is of your own doing. A "coward" is somebody regarded as fearful and uncourageous; this word you use is incorrect. The word you're looking for is "courageous" - the ability to face danger, difficulty, or uncertainty, without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action. This includes harassment and scare tactics from your management friends. I suggest you apologize to everyone you have wronged, and try to gain a little dignity and self respect back. Then maybe, you will not be so despised by your co-workers. Remember you have another 25 years to go. Do you really want them to be the same as the last few? Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - Re: "Rat in Cambridge": We all know you'll be back! Well, I have to say you outdid yourself this time. You approached 2 people today; too bad you didn't yell at the right person. How can you expect that anyone would believe that you would have anything at all to do with a Union? These 3 people you were taking notes for; come on, everyone knows that anyone can phone at anytime to ask questions they didn't need you to go to a meeting for them. You have told people at work that the plant manager himself calls you at home when he "needs" to talk to you. This would be why nobody believes you were there other than to support management and give them information. You don't know what someone is talking about when they say you leaked information about 2 managers? Well they aren't managers anymore and you went and told people there before they even knew themselves! Everyone was talking about it before they were "demoted". You don't want to admit to it because this would show what your "manager friend" is really like. But we all know what she's like anyway. Just a manager that makes everyone else have a more difficult day, including other managers. They know what their employees are doing, and don't need you to "rat" every little thing you see and hears. Don't forget the way she deals with her own mistakes. Makes up lies about employees to try and have them fired!! As for the job you are doing now. Let's be honest now; we know that we have an employee who fell ill and one who has a very sick daughter. That has nothing to do with you being given "special assignments" so you don't have to do your own job. You were doing something (nobody really knows what) long before these tragedies and long before you had surgery. Make sure you are giving us all the facts here. Let's talk about the pressure you have to deal with. Whether it's okay to eat lunch with your "manager friend" and where you will go. Now on to the bigger fish to fry. Everyone knows that you are doing exactly what your "manager friend" did, whatever it takes to get a management job. So we know you don't really want our jobs. You just want to rat everyone out so that you look like management material. So really, it's the other managers that you are out to fry. Be careful, I think some of them are on to you two. Hopefully you get fired first. One last note. We all also know that you aren't the only "rat". We know about the other one, but I guess we talk more about you because you and your manager friend really don't care about who you hurt in the end, and what damage you could possibly do to a fellow employees family. You two have done others things besides being "rats" to obtain that reward, and I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. You have a lack of respect for the lives you have tried to ruin, whether it is intentional or not. Hopefully your "manager friend" gets to read all of this. So just remember, as it has been put before: Remember what you do and how treat other employees at Rockwell Cambridge. We stick together and will NOT tolerate your BS or your manager friend's BS either. Eventually it will all come back to bite you and we will not be there for you, except to laugh you out the door! Tuesday, June 23, 2009 I can't believe that you even wrote on here, Rat. You are a a poor excuse for a fellow employee. You are uneducated person, that has no regard for anyone other then yourself. You think anyone in that office really cares about you? I still can't believe you had the audacity to go up to another employee and start to yell at him because you thought he wrote on this Blog. Well guess what - you've got a lot of nerve. There are many of us that write on here. Go up to you're buddies office and tell him what you did. Oh wait - HR was already told. You may be lucky to even have a job by tomorrow. You just can't sneak around peoples backs that you work with. You are going to find this out the hard way. I hope you get what you deserve for messing with people jobs and lives, Rat. Time will tell! Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Thumbs up for the "mole". Actually you aren't a mole either - just going to work everyday doing your job. Isn't it amazing how people "percieve" things happening that in fact aren't happening at all. Feel free to post here anytime. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 I was wondering - if you were not at this union information meeting, then why were you taking names down? That is the question I have. If you are doing this for the company and the "bully" then where do you expect to go in this company? If you get a management position with some authority, then no employee will respect you. And when they down size, you will be the first to go because they know you can't be trusted. If you stay hourly, then nobody will want to work with you because you can't be trusted. You may not like the idea of a union, I don't really know, but the hourly employees need their rights back. The company continues to change the rules when they know it will benefit them. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Looks like the upenders forgot were they came from. The lies and the vindictive little games are over. We will not stand for this anymore. You both have played everyone for fools and now we all see it. Your days are numbered. We as management still have some pull in Cambridge and we will see that the plant manager learns of all your lies. You are the reason people want a union. A perfect example of how things have gone wrong. Your lies and games have ruined peoples lives and morale in this building. It ends soon. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Shakespeare wrote... the more you protest proves the guilt that you have. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 I would be the person in which you cowards are all refering to. I don't need to leave my name because you have all figured out that I am "the rat". Please get your facts straight. Firstly I would like to say to the first coward: I was not rewarded a job for being a rat. I was put in a position because I have some seniority. I was on a disability after surgery, and most importantly I was asked to step up to a difficult task because of a couple of tragedies that happened to two other employees. I feel bad for you that you would even insinuate that, when the person I am filling-in for is dealing with a very sick child. Secondly, I sat at that meeting, writing things down for 3 people that were not able to attend the meeting. I was there mostly for my own ignorance of unions. I know nothing about them to be honest. I for one have been in a very tough situation here at Rockwell for the past two years. Those of you that know me well enough (such as my "management friend") would know the struggles and disappointments I have gone through in the past year here at Rockwell (that doesn't really sound like management doing me a lot of favors). As a matter of fact I challenge any one of you to step up and do what I am doing now. There is a lot of pressure, hmmm once again, doesn't sound very rewarding. I sat in on, what? One of how many union meetings? I sat there very openly. You insist on calling me a rat (I prefer mole; much cuter). You however had to scurry over to where I was sitting and snoop through my things (I apologize, I guess you weren't snooping, because I left everything out in the open) while I was outside calling my children, and oh my goodness, supporting my, how did you put it, nasty habit.(BTW, i keep my desk drawers unlocked please feel free to sneak a peek when I am not looking). Third, i would like to say straight to the point. Someone had posted that I was involved in leaking information about two managers and the future of their jobs. To speak candidly, I don't have a clue what you are talking about. Believe what you will about me, it doesn't really matter, I couldn't care less. The only reason I am writing this is because I am getting so sick and tired of being a victim in my own company and not having any say. I am tired of having to face your little potty-mouthed, jobless cheerleaders handing out flyers when I come into work in the morning. Union or no union, I have bigger fish to fry. I just want to be sure that I have a paycheck every week. I don't work for you, I don't work for me for that matter. I work for my children and that's what matters the most! You need not respond to this message. I am sure you have some great comebacks for me. However, don't waste your time. This will be the very last time I visit this ridiculous web site. Monday, June 22, 2009 Rats are everywhere in this sinking ship. On talking about the individual who is a "rat" sure sounds like one we have here in Richland Center. She, is a very good friend of one of the used-to-be Production Managers and has been placed in many jobs that she was not qualified for, but they Always have looked out for her. Furthermore, why is she allowed to work her business during working hours and on the Rockwwell e-mail selling beauty products? Does the fact she is a very good friend of one of the managers (and so is her husband) who used to work at the RC facility say anything? Does Paris Hilton "looks" say enough and she plays the game with the majority of the men. If this was me selling items during working hours or honeying my way to the top, I would have been fired years ago. But I'm proud of my 30+ years; I go home and look forward to retirement hopefully. Monday, June 22, 2009 Richland Center facility does 2100,2500, DSY (drives) ESB (eng spec boxes)AMAT etc. and employees 380 people, minus a few on VLO. Moneterrey, Mx. is gradually taking over the orders for 2100, drives and esb. Monterrey plant has GE workers. 2500 are done in Brazil, China and Poland. 2500 have many connection points and you can not move them around or add to units. Very hard to run wires up the wireway to top or side wireway to terminal blocks going through a control plug also. Future units need to be installed at the beginning. People out on VLO save their vacation days, what is going to happen this fall Oct-Dec. when everyone wants to use their vacation days. Did any of the employees from the two plants closing in 2010 get offered jobs in WI facilities? Monday, June 22, 2009 The young work force does not challenge me; it is the butt kissing that makes my stomach turn. I guess when I was hired I was under the impression that I should shut up and listen to my elders, Learn about the product from the older work force and do good work. I guess if kissing butt and being a fake is what it takes, then I will have to lower my standards, which I would prefer not to do to compete with them. I can charm and BS with the best of them and not care how the company goes. Thanks for opening up my eyes. This will make me a better person. Too bad the 8 hr. days drag out so long at work, but I guess I will be like all the green astronauts. Monday, June 22, 2009 Do not use the ombudsman's office. I have first hand experience with them. The first thing they do is "notify" the person or persons you are having problems with that there is a problem. Then they tell them "who" you are!!!! This is not a privacy first office! Do NOT contact them unless you want to lose your job! Monday, June 22, 2009 Well, TechEd is going on now down in Orlando, FL. It would be interesting if senior management looked around at the RA attendees and see how much money is being wasted. Why would finance people attend or HR folks? I guess they are there to teach courses on our hardware and software. No wonder we have troubles. Spending money on expenses for the wrong people to attend. Where is finance reviewing the spending for this event? If they are not doing it proactively, then the money is already spent. Oh I forgot, finance is attending the event!!! They are just as guilty as the other folks who attend that are not customer facing. Monday, June 22, 2009 Maybe the younger workforce is challenging you due to their willingness to change. A 35 year veteran in absolutely worth their weight in gold, if they get involved in the change. If they stand in the way, their value goes from positive to negative. They become a liability. Especially in these times. I recall overhearing this comment one day from a supervisor: "I can't and won't challenge the employees, they are my neighbors, and my family members". Thoughts like that get plants downsized or worse. Monday, June 22, 2009 12 years is a green-horn? Wow! I thought that kind of requirement was saved for astronauts, not assembly work. Regarding watching the mighty fall. They don't fall. They have skills. They leave and go somewhere else for more money. Monday, June 22, 2009 - from the guy from Duluth, GA again. Although what I said about Ombudsman's office is true, and yes, the investigators do work for Rockwell, Rockwell is under no obligation to act on what Ombudsman's office recommends. That's the kicker. When I looked into the "legal"issues related to the Ombudsman's office, this is what I found: They keep no records of their investigations, and they are "barred" legally from testifying in court. In my own mind, when I think of the Ombudsman's office I think of Mom. Instead of calling Ombudsmans office, call your Mom. Well, she'll look into it, if she believes you were wronged, she'll side with you, but in reality she can't do anything about it. So just cross out the word "ombudsmans" office and replace it with "Mom's" office. Same thing. In case anyone might be interested in the results of the investigation, I'll quote, "I know they disagree with you, but the results of our investigation are that your termination was inappropriate". I understand their HR department well. When you have to go to the feds for protection, the line between public corporation and Mafia blurs, you no longer can tell the difference. Unfortunately, that's been my experience. Fact is, it doesn't have to be that way, it was their choice. Once it goes into criminal territory, it becomes a DOJ issue. Monday, June 22, 2009 Does anybody knows anything about the future of EMEA folks here? It would be very interesting to know about that, many of our "big" Customers have plants down there. Having such feedback would explain regarding the next future as well..... Sunday, June 21, 2009 As I read about Sumner-Iowa, Dublin-Georgia - with plants closing in 2010, I am sure they have all facilities figured out when they are going to be closing them, based on transfer of work to lower cost markets and Rockwell Automation North American-based facilities operating below capacity. Our facility(RC) used to ship $12-18 milion a month, now we are down to $ 5-6 milion, through no fault of our own. But engineering product line are being built in Tecate, MX and sc-pe2 orders built in Monterrey, MX. Yes, maybe it is cheaper and that's what it is all about. We also have people with few years of service back-stabbing older seniority people, trying to make themselves look very job-performance knowledgable. Management is buying into it. Years of dedicated service (35+) does not mean anything, when green horns with 12 years know it all. How you treat the old individuals who made A-B the Cadilac of the MCC world should come into play. But guess what? They are cutting there own throats by believing in these green-horns and shipping jobs south of the boarder. Let's hope that they also pass the cost saving onto the customer, at a lesser price than the American dollar, when it is made in Tecate or Monterrey. Starters have been made in Mexico for years now. Hopefully the customer got a discount price. Someone had to pocket the money. Why do you think I shop at Walmart,versus a local store? Because it is cheaper price. Respect of the older personnel has to be earned, not given out freely. This will either make or break this company. Saturday, June 20, 2009 Cambridge has a proplem... When sides are being formed, it's clear that a battle is on the way. Saturday, June 20, 2009 Well, let them promote those two to management (or at least salaried) positions. After all, we know how easy it is to get rid of salaried employees (whether it's with good reason or not). I can't see Rockwell Automation letting this go on at one of the few facilities that is actually doing well. If Operations is causing all this havoc, there should be a change soon! And then.... watch the mighty fall! Friday, June 19, 2009 Call the Ombudsman's office first. They'll investigatate your complaints very quickly. They're very objective and complete their investigation in about a month. They're very helpful. You'll be assigned an investigator, and you can call them to check on progress, etc. My experience with them was very pleasant. They'll present their findings to upper management above the plant level. At that point, it's up to upper management to implement any changes, based on what the investigations discover. The advantage of using the Ombudsman's office is that often a problem can be resolved before the "trainwreck" happens. That's why it's there. By using the Ombudsmans office, you are seen as someone using the right tool to resolve a problem you see as detrimental to the business. That's been my experience. I'm the guy from Duluth, GA. In my case the "trainwreck" already happened, and once things get to that point, nothing can save it; it's gone. So if you're thinking of calling them, do it now. They really are good and effective before a problem get's out of hand. Friday, June 19, 2009 Yes, I agree. There are no ethics with some managers and friends. One employee was to be laid off and was written up for missing two days from the previous year (which was done, over and dealt with) - and then literally kicked out of the buidling by the manager being talked about. This employee is still home "laid-ff", while people with less skills, and senority are doing their job and other jobs they used to do. I guess a grudge can go a long way when you have some power. Why is this? Is this not a direct violation of ETHICS? Nope, it's not a violation, if you DO NOT PRACTICE THEM! HR is absolutley useless to talk to. All they do is shake their head, "yes, yes, OK, yes..." A lady that worked for HR actually quit and was quoted as saying, "This is the most corrupt and unprofessional office I have ever worked in; I have to get the hell out of here." THE OMBUDSMAN: A paid Rockwell employee, paid by ROCKWELL...hmmmmmm. The chances of someone actually winning are worse than OJ's chances of people actually believing he's not guilty! Friday, June 19, 2009 What is the name of the Canadian equivalent of the US's National Labor Relations Board? Ask them to intervene and investigate. You better contact them. You need to know the rules, and fast. Friday, June 19, 2009 - Concerning the "person": Has it not occurred to anyone that, whether or not her and her buddy manager use this information to help management, this is a direct violation of the ethics training we all take. This not the first time these 2 have done something like this to further their own goals. Unless something is done, it won't be the last. Is management gonna stepup and prove to us that all that they have been saying and promising lately regarding truth and better relations between us and them is not just smoke but a realization? Can they deal with these 2? I think not; so perhaps it is time to involve the ombudsman and not just a few of us... Thursday, June 18, 2009 The proof is in the management. I must admit it is funny to see the head of production at the Cambridge facility scurry around frantically trying to oust union supporters and making us all watch anti-union videos on company time. I also enjoyed the facts-sheet that was created by management, telling us about the big bad union, which I later found out was mostly the plant production manager’s opinion not fact. It's amazing how easily people believe someone based on their position; all you have to do is pop a Rockwell logo on it and it must be true. I am baffled though, at why a group of people would continue to follow someone so blindly, especially after being beaten down by that same person so many times before. Now let's talk hypocrisy. I found it very odd why the plant supervisor would come all the way down to my work area to question me about the union. He opened the conversation with: "What do you think about the union?" to which I then stated, "I am undecided". The next question was the best because, after he said "Really", he then said, "I hear you’re a big union supporter". This coming from a man who says "don’t believe rumors", but starts a question with "I hear". Good leading question, by the way you've just proven to me yet again how dim-witted you think we are out on the floor. It is also funny that you would question me about the union 1 week after I attended a union meeting that you told us all to go to. Now let's talk about the rat. Well I do know where you are getting your information from; even though I didn’t let on that I did know. Everyone at the meeting knew you had sent the little rat in to take notes. We looked at her notepad when she was out having a cigarette - nasty habit. She had written down how many people attended, who asked what, pretty much who was naughty and who was nice (too bad you're not Santa). These are the people you have in mind for management and currently have in management positions, and you wonder why people are handing pamphlets out front? Well little rat, you have definitely ostracized yourself once again from the rest of us. I just can’t wait until it comes back to bite, and someone higher up realizes how unprofessional and uneducated you really are, and that you got to where you are based on trickery over people skills. I can see from reading this webpage I am not the first one to talk about you. H.R. - what can I say about you guys? I thought I got lucky the day the plant manager had questioned me because it just so happened that the U.S. had sent another H.R. guy down to listen to everyone's problems. I thought for sure he would see how it really was now up here. To my dismay, he and our own H.R. manager just listened and nodded at me, after I told them about the scare tactics that had taken place out on the floor. Then they proceeded to tell me about all the good things they plan on implementing - thanks for listening. It's ok though, it just solidifies my outlook on management at Rockwell. When will corporate see that by leaving the splinter in (plant manager) it just spreads the sickness and infects other areas (the rest of management) and creates a poisonous atmosphere? Thursday, June 18, 2009 It is hard to believe that this blog is just starting to deal with the deep seeded and long term cronyism which runs rampant in Rockwell. All you needed to do during FE was look at the marketing group. It was full of moving people out for retribution, moving people aside and posting friends to plush director jobs when they had ZERO experience and no clue as to what marketing was or did. I cannot fathom that this is the first time people are commenting on a common practice. Publicly, HR says that this does not and cannot happen - but behind closed doors, the practice exists and is allowed to continue under the nose and with the help of HR. Maybe it is new to the field but this is a 101 course in Milwaukee. Hide your friends and dump your enemies. Not too many more friends to hide anymore. Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Just like the great substance-addicted singer from "The Doors" sang: "This is the END, my Friend." Get out before they force you out. There is life after Rockwell. Reality will hit you like a rock. Most customers really do like Rockwell, but they have to use it or pay for the services they will never use. Rockwell I believe is looking to sell more off and make their books look good by laying more people off. Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Keep in mind that while "this person" has not only be placed in jobs that have never been posted, or gone through the proper determination of qualifications, she has also been left on the Hourly Pay Scale at Labour Grade 6, which is significantly more then the correct rate the current position she holds should be paid at. That position should be paid under the Career Band A scale. This should further demonstrate how all the management rules from Rockwell, before current management took over, have been thrown out. I would think that the other employees doing the same job for years and with more experience, but at a much the lower rate of pay would be more than a little angry. Perhaps the Rockwell Ombudsman would be interested in hearing from some of her fellow employees. Problem is for various reasons she is one of the "protected" employees. This is a perfect example of how current management has destroyed the concept of fairness within the plant. Hard to believe someone in the U.S. can’t see that it didn’t have to come to this horrible situation. All that needed to be done was simply following established RA guidelines, procedures and polices instead of ignoring them, and instead of promoting and rewarding certain employees to become simply a "secret police" and turning RA Cambridge into a perfect model of an 18th century sweat shop. Little wonder there is Union talk. Wednesday, June 17, 2009 It won’t matter if RA-Cambridge decides to certify a Union or not. U.S. corporate has already decided to move the manufacturing to Mexico. Unfortunately they haven't learned from their experiences in Tecate, JZE and Katowice. This consolidation of manufacturing will prove to be a huge and expensive error. Perhaps having a Union in RA-Cambridge will simply protect the hourly workers while the operation winds down and ensure the employees get all the monies that they deserve. If you don’t believe me ask the RA-Cambridge General Manager what the project code named "Tropicana" means. Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - Response to RE:This Person posted on June 16: I used to work for Intecolor/Rockwell in Duluth, GA. That plant closed down in 2001. We also had a "person" who did the same thing to me personally. Unfortunately management listened to her, she even got a promotion, although she didn't know what she was doing. I was fired, based on the false allegations. Long story short, Rockwell had planned to close down Manufacturing, keep Sales, Marketing,Engineering and Tech Support, if I recall correctly. Even though I was fired, I saw the memo from corporate describing the plan. Once corporate got my story, and investigated. They closed the plant completely. Still to this day I have an outstanding Defamation of Character claim against Rockwell, and had to get the US Dept of Justice involved as I was literally run out of town. Use this real world example of what could happen. Unfortunately by the time management understood they were being "snowed" it was way too late. "Informers" have their own agendas, and it's never the companies. Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - RE: This "person": There is nothing we can do for this person. It's already too far gone now. She has "friends" on the floor who actually believe they can trust her and they tell her things that other employess are saying. First person to catch wind of this information is her Manager friend, who makes sure all the right people hear about it. She is rewarded by being given jobs that are made just for her, even when they've been told that she doesn't even know what she's doing! Huge favoritism. This manager has caused enough trouble of her own around the plant, but still manages to be there. We all wait for the day the she is "escorted" out the door!!! These are the type of people that upper management seem to want around Rockwell Cambridge, and this is part of the reason why company morale and trust is at an all-time low. Management knows that in a place this large there are going to be personalities of all sorts; so when are they going to accept that? They need to worry about whether the work is getting done, and not try to prosecute every employee about every petty little thing they hear about them. If this doesn't stop and the "person" and "manager" friend aren't stopped, it will just snowball. Not that it hasn't already but it's just getting worse. We also have employees on the floor that for some reason feel that they are bosses as well. When is management going to realize that these people who run and tattle about every little thing are only doing it because of lack of doing any work themselves. They take the spotlight off themselves and talk about other employees doing nothing, talking too much, or what ever they can drum up, just because they get a pat on the head like a good little pit bull! These people make it almost impossible for the employees to come to work and even tolerate a couple of hours! Wow, they are really going to get a lot of work done now, aren't they! Put a stop to these pit bulls (or pit bullies) and tell them to get back to doing some work themselves instead of acting like 6 year-olds. We know that Rockwell was considered the "country club" of all Rockwell plants; but now it's being called "Alcatraz". Everyone knows that they can't stand around and relax like the old Rockwell days. But now this is all getting carried away. Put some trust back into your skilled employees and let them get the job done the way they used to, with pride and perfection. Then you may see the changes that you're looking for out there on the floor. Monday, June 15, 2009 Like the Huey Lewis song says: "I'm taking what their giving cause I'm working for a living". And that is about the truest statement ever made regarding working for a wage. You take what they give. There is only one way out of this mess for most of us: training, education, and skill sets. Reinvent yourselves - absolutely. Do something. Sitting around and yacking about it isn't going to put food on your table. Go to the local colleges, take welding, paint tech, computer tech, lab tech, health care, equipment repair, automotive repair, electronics, plc programming, hydraulics, machine controls, etc. The thing that truly amazes me is that many of the workers at Rockwell just don't get how skilled they really are. How small of a jump is it to go from assembling these systems to being able to debug them? Heck most of you already know how they work, how they are wired, and the products in them. How much of a reach is it to be able to wire homes and businesses? Or repair machine controls in factories? One or two courses, coupled with the knowledge you already have, could easily unlock a new future. People who do this, who take responsibility for themselves, and see their worth, will be well rewarded. Do you have any idea how much I'd give for a maintenance tech that could read wiring schematics, and be able to plug a laptop into a plc and debug a machine problem? And I'm only talking 24 volt or 120 volt systems, nothing like the systems you all work at. The other ones who might be well rewarded are the survivors of this economic battle (and it is a war, get used to that thought), who stay at the companies they are with today. Percentages are lower with this tho. And you have no way to help yourself out of the mess. As many leave, the remaining become worth more, but only if the company survives. Otherwise, you'll be the one looking at others that left early, and got the first jobs available. The ones who lose are the ones who won't make the required leap to the next level. You'll be left in the dust, wondering what happened, and getting bitter. As far as your little informer friend; read the Labor Relations Laws. They are published on the government websites for both the US and Canada. Read them well. As far as getting a union, go ahead if you want. Understand this: the very 1st thing the union will likely do is negotiate with the company behind closed doors for automatic withdrawal of the union dues from your pay. That is their highest priority, to get that piece of the pie. My personal experience suggests this is the case, and is my opinion based on that experience. Good luck with your futures! You can make them, or have them made for you. Monday, June 15, 2009 In the South Pacific there seems to be more emphasis on keeping our Orion opportunity tracking package up to date and accurate, when you don't get the information from our distribution channel. At the same time, they expect us to report on what's happening in the region, when we are not allowed to see what our new distributor are selling to OUR customers. It's like them asking you to drive in a race, then they say "here's a blind fold - wear it" and expect you to win and feel confident. The focus is in the wrong place. It's getting too hard. Monday, June 15, 2009 As a former employee, it is poor morale and a lack of trust that our management are good stewards of this company called Rockwell Automation, that's killing the ROK. There also seems to be no accountability for the executive leadership team. When was the last change at the executive level (7 years ago)? For you folks that are talking union: Slap yourself in the face; understand that you are part of the problem with America. We rank 25th academically around the world. That means there are 24 other countries better educated than the USA. We need to reinvent our value in this world. Unions will only fight that change. The quicker our country goes through chapter 11, the better off our kids will be for it. If you shake our country like an old couch looking for loose change, nothing but credit card bills would fall out. You get it! GO RE-INVENT YOURSELF, PEOPLE! Sunday, June 14, 2009 All this talk about a union in Cambridge. As a recent former employee, if only the employees were treated with respect, rather than a clock number, perhaps the situation would be different. If the two at the top understood this, boy, how things would be different. Saturday, June 13, 2009 Yes, true, we all know who this person is, but I am just curious on what it is exactly, we hourly employees can do to help her? We cannot negotiate anything, barter services or demand anything? I do think it was a mistake to do what she has done, as it has completely alienated whatever respect was left. Not that it matters I guess, as we all still go into work the next day, and the day after, collect our paychecks and do the same thing over every week... She will, I will, you will, everyone will. My point: Does it really matter that management knows who was there, what was said? NO.... Saturday, June 13, 2009 When somebody records people's names and the attendance figures at a union meeting, it just shows what she is about. And management better beware, as this lady desperately wants into management. If she will betray us to get ahead, don't you think she would do the same thing to her superiors in management? People like her do not change as they move up the ladder. So be careful if you are ever 'her' boss in the future. You will be next. She could not have made it any more obvious. And as for the 'employee' reps who attended; people actually groaned when they saw them pulling into the parking lot. What does that say about our representatives? Friday, June 12, 2009 Do you think that having a union in Cambridge will help? Do you understand what the term "Globalization" is? If a union ever got in, Rockwell will close Cambridge down in like the blink of a eye. You can then get your minimum-wage job without any benefits after your UI runs out. Friday, June 12, 2009 For those who are laid off, you might want to look at Emerson or Yokogawa. They both have excellant reputations as a good place to work. You will be respected there. Yokogawa is actually in a growth mode and not laying people off. Friday, June 12, 2009 - Regarding the Cambridge plant Union meeting: There is a certain person that attended the union meeting who reported back to management regarding who was there and what questions were asked. This person has already in the past leaked information received from management to "hourly" employees, regarding very sensitive information. There were managers that were being either demoted or fired and this person told people on the floor. Now this person is working on management's side to report back all information from fellow employees. Everyone knows who this person is. It is pretty sad that you put yourself right in front of everyone this time. Everyone knows what you do, so you had to go to the union meeting to dig up what ever you could so you could run back to management and say "look what I found out!" Just remember that if you keep this up it may come back to haunt you some day. We "hourly" employees stick together and feel each others pain and try to help each other when in need. You may find yourself in a situation where you need these people to help you, and remember what you have done because they may not be there for you in your time of need. Friday, June 12, 2009 The security guards are the transition support. They support you when you are transiting from being employed to becoming unemployed. So simple. Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Glad they're getting transition support. Let's hope this won't be another "escorted out by security guards" fiasco. Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - Rockwell to close plants in Iowa, Georgia - Associated Press (extracts): Sumner, Iowa – Rockwell Automation Inc. said it will close its plant in Sumner in northeast Iowa by the end of 2010, affecting 163 workers. The Milwaukee-based company notified workers Tuesday, saying the work will be moved to existing plants in Wisconsin and Mexico. Rockwell Automation also announced it would close its plant in Dublin, Ga., by July 2010, affecting 145 workers. Company spokesman said the closings are necessary to remain competitive. The plant in Sumner opened in 1995. Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - Dublin plant to lay off 145, close next year - From Macon.com (extracts): The Rockwell Automation plant that opened in Dublin 30 years ago will close next year, impacting 145 workers. Employees were notified Tuesday that the operation would face a phased closure beginning in October and ending in July 2010. The Milwaukee-based company, which opened the 190,000-square-foot Dublin facility in 1979, provides industrial automation power, control and information systems and services to other manufacturers. It runs two shifts a day. The company also plans to close its Sumner, Iowa, manufacturing center by December 2010, affecting 163 employees. Work done at the Dublin facility would be sent to existing plants in Ohio and Mexico, according to a news release. The company announced in 2005 that 200 workers would be laid off during a three-year period beginning in 2006, which occurred. Peak employment at the Dublin plant was “about 600 employees a few years ago”. Employees will receive severance packages and transition support. Rockwell Automation Inc. employs about 20,000 people and serves customers in more than 80 countries. Tuesday, June 9, 2009 I understand that Rockwell facilities in both Dublin and Sumner will be shutdown/closed for good as of April 2010. Any news on Twinsburg and Highland Hts closing? Monday, June 8, 2009 - To the blog reporting that Anorad Israel has no profit: You are absolutely right; first time of not meeting AOP (it is pouring on all of us around the globe) no profit after 11 years of covering Anorad US disasters investments. First action is "lets cut the bleeding leg", without thinking what will happened to the entire body... This is the the difference between being right and wise. As mentioned, RA management need to take the Ethics classes again and again. Sunday, June 7, 2009 It’s a crying shame that despite the fact the MV voltage business is apparently doing quite well in these tough economic times, the hourly personnel at the Cambridge plant feel that they even have to talk of a union. We have a great group of people in Cambridge, and even with the loss of Dept 16, we continue to be very busy, as can be seen by the cancellation of the unpaid day. It’s too bad that they feel so helpless, that they feel they have no one to turn to but the one group of people that have quite instrumental in the loss of jobs in the area. Look at other companies in the area. Without naming names, how many jobs have been lost even though (and probably because) they were unionized? We used to have a facility where anyone could walk in and talk to either management or HR when they felt they had an issue to talk about. Obviously that was in the past. I do hope that Milwaukee is looking closely at us and determining when the deterioration started. I hope that they look back and see what has happened to the once wonderful place to work at. When canning employees with up to 35 years of dedication to a company became fashionable. When decimating a whole HR department, and replacing them with robots that obviously care more about what the business unit managers have to say, than what an HR department is supposed to do, which is to look after a company’s employees. This is definitely one time that I hope Milwaukee has a good look at us and helps us to get out of this mess. It’s obvious that we have no one up here to do it. We are supposedly one of Rockwell’s best. If you walk around up here, it’s easy to see why. We have some of the most dedicated employees, both salaried and hourly. We are an example to be followed. Look at when it started to go wrong, and fix it. Meanwhile, I hope that our employees hang in there, until such a time. Sunday, June 7, 2009 I'm an ex-Rockwell employee from way back and would have to agree with the last post. Until management understands that you will not get good output from employees by treating them like animals you'll never be successful. The wonderful degrees, the black belts, that all sounds good, but is it accomplishing anything? Many years ago I used to train new Mechanical Engineers (not at Rockwell). I was a Mechanical Designer (meaning an ME without a degree). The reason I was chosen to train was that all my programs got completed on time and usually under budget. I'd spend two days with a new ME teaching him how to interact with other employees, that was the key to my success. Yes you must have the technical skills, but it's how you treat the people in your organization that determines the success of it, and your own. That's real teamwork, not just an "idea" to shoot for. If this organization ever gets that, it can go far forward. Like the last post said, if you beat your dog, it will bite you; but if you pet it, it will do anything for you. It has nothing to do with pay, but has everything to do with respect. Sunday, June 7, 2009 I too work at RA in Cambridge. Less than 20% of employees want a UNION. It is a stupid idea for numerous reasons. For most people, the biggest one is paying out approx. $1,500 each so other guys can ride around in their Lexus; no thanks. A union cannot stop a business from closing, paying you more, etc. Unfortuneatley, unions are abused by lazy jerks, and people who just use it to their advantage. With that being said, the RA plant is full of favoritism, deception, lies, unethical practices and manipulation. A union would definitely put an end to this, but at a great cost, financially and figureatively. I think it is time for management to wake up, smarten up, listen and be pro-active in creating a positive shift for the employees. The atmosphere you guys created certainly isn't working; try again! If the "bullies" had any sense, they would take the advice given to them and run with it. What is the worst that could happen? People hating you more? Remember, a dog will do more for you out of love, than fear! Saturday, June 6, 2009 I work at Rockwell Automation, in Cambridge. Recently the CAW has been trying to help us get organised. I was'nt a union person, but the way this place is run is like a jail. It is time we had someone help us fight this bully. When the union showed up to hand out flyers he did not go out there himself, he sent 2 woman out to try and get rid of them. He has no problem being a bully to the employees. But he cannot stand up too people outside the plant and tell them to leave. Thursday, June 4, 2009 It's not really big news... Rockwell are just selling over to a company ...its been referred to here before a few times. Thursday, June 4, 2009 July 5th, start of year end quarter. Who does this affect? Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Don't know what the July 5th 2009 post means, but if it's what I think it is, I can't wait. Wednesday, June 3, 2009 The day is here: July 5 2009. Watch the news. Tuesday, June 2, 2009 At RC they announced more changes, looking for volunteers to be laid off for three months ---- number of employees unknown, and if they do not get the desired number (only they know) who knows what the next cut will be. They cannot answer many questions. We are all saying, between June and December 2010 is when the doors will be "locked" at this facility. The new plant manager is the "Grim Reaper"--yup that's what we call him. I do not understand, we have all of these business high-to-do's that have degrees but do not know "beans" of operating a business. The high falutin business types bigshots in them fancy cars blame the economy. I say mostly bad business decisions and to avoid eating crow, they punish the ones that pay their wages. The man on the street knows more since they are the ones that get the dirt on their hands. Tuesday, June 2, 2009 To the May 27th comment about the Anorad closing: I don't want to go into specifics on a public site like this, but I can say with all certainty that the Israel operation was not making profit. To say otherwise is simply not accurate. I have been very close to this situation and I am not just a representative of RA management. I just wanted to clear of any mis-statements on this site. Thank you. Thursday, May 28, 2009 I struggle with the thought that Ops alone created the morass you describe. Are you really saying the GE team so overwhelmed everyone that Sales, Engineering, Supply Chain, HR, and the Executive branch all went along without thought? Cows to the Slaughter? Basically you're suggesting that the Operations branch is stronger than Keith Nosbusch and all the executive teams combined. I do doubt that everyone went thoughtlessly to Abileen for Ice cream, if you know the story. Now if you suggested that the Ops team had experience in building similiar and competitive systems in offshore situations, and they advised accordingly, I'd buy that. After all, the Monterrey site manager is from across the road from GE Monterrey, if it's still the same dude. Its just a bitter pill of reality to comprehend that most of the competitive systems of RAs are made offshore. And while RA's entrance into the offshore race is late, they are following the same-ole same-ole playbook. That book was written by Motorola, GM, GE, etc, etc. What is somewhat disconcerting is now the Voice from Washington, the Great Pooba himself, is saying that he's going to reverse these trends. Well, he just might. All he has to do is make the dollar weaker yet, and lower the minimum wage to $3 an hour, and it'll reverse. With an additional trillion bucks in debt, it might just happen. The only failure that the offshoring will run hard into, will be engineering quality and sales accuracy. And those are the same failures that plagued the other plants. Your note mentioned that the plants are there to "Serve". You suggest disparity in your thought processes of how a team is supposed to work. Designs are supposed to make sense and be able to be built. Customer demands are supposed to be accurate, and when don't make sense, sales is supposed to ask sometimes hard questions. And the timeline is supposed to give procurement time to buy the parts, inside lead time. And manufacturing is supposed to bring it all home. Tough to do when the REAL failure rate on unit build is 90%, not the reported 20%. But hey, its all supposition on our parts anyway. The die is cast, and the mold being filled. But as your note pointed out, the finger pointing has started, the rocks being thrown through glass houses. Failure is immiment, so the camps are segregating into warring factions. Like the proverbial truck load of noncommitals going to Abilene for Ice Cream, when they get there they might just ask why, and won't be able to figure out who really wanted to go anyways. Thursday, May 28, 2009 The culture and conditions witnessed at the plants can all be traced back to the crack Milwaukee Operations Leadership team. Ops leadership believed the manufacturing facilities were staffed with "incompetents" who under-preformed, and went about eliminating everybody they could get their hands on. It's no accident that nearly all the manufacturing facilities have new Plant Managers/leadership who deploy the "Thomas(GE) manufacturing philosophy" to the fullest. This from a bunch of people who also drove Ford into the ground! The sad truth is that the Operations Group has turned the plants into nothing more than crude labor camps with Plant Managers who know nothing about the product/customer, and run the plants purely on the weekly numbers. Before anybody jumps in, and asks what else the plants should be measured to. I would also introduce the almost complete separation of Business and Operations, and the indifference of the Operations group to Business Requests (New Product Introduction, Prototypes, Pilots, etc) and Customer Requests (Specials, Customs, quick delivery, etc). The operations group are forgetting their purpose, and for whom they serve. The Operations group wants to operate like a contract manufacturer to the exclusion of everything else. I have news for them, they are not that good! The decision to close plants such as Eden Prairie, Manchester, Milwaukee, Wigan, etc and move production to low labor cost countries like Mexico and Poland is a pure Ops decision, with little input requested from the Business leaders until after the decision had been made. This is a highly flawed strategy that won't even provide short term cost savings they so desperately claim, and is doomed in the long term. Customer service is already suffering, with major and long term customers already complaining about the shoddiness of the product after it's been transferred. Again, sadly this strategy will only increase as MORE plants and good people are to be sacrificed to a deeply flawed manufacturing philosophy. If I could provide some advice to Keith, it would be to put an end to this empire building group within the company. Please don't let it continue. Rockwell needs a group that can work with the Business, not set itself up in isolation. Thursday, May 28, 2009 - Re: Union The Cambridge facility needs a union as much as they need more picnic tables out in the orchard, so the disgruntled employees can sit out there and complain and bicker about everything that's wrong with the company and how they could do it better. "Why do they do this, why do they do that." Complain, complain, complain, that's all you do. My question is: If the place is so bad, why do you all come in so early to sit on these picnic tables and complain? Is the union going to solve all your problems? Maybe you should sit in on a management meetings and find out what really is going on. You may find out that they are actually trying to run a company. The objective of management is certainly not to see how we can make your lives miserable by "sliding" somewhere you don't want to be. It's to make a profitable business, so we all have jobs. Come on people, in a perfect world you all wouldn't be working in manufacturing, am I right? You chose your future. Now make the best of it and work together to make the Cambridge facility number 1. Enough of the complaining. Do something positive for a change. Otherwise, if you chase Rockwell out of Cambridge, you'll find out what a real paying manufacturing job is all about, without all the perks and benefits that are thrown in. Best of luck to you all if the union gets in. Pick up the paper and read the classifieds under good paying factory jobs. They are not there unless you're an educated, skilled person. One question to the union: With all that money that the employees are going to be dishing out to you off their pay checks, Are you going to make sure they find another job when you chase Rockwell out of Cambridge? Answer: NO. You've already chased every other manufacturing job out of this region and Canada. Thursday, May 28, 2009 Wonder why they need a Warehouse Supervisor in Memphis? I heard they were going to close it down and move it. They only have a one year extension lease that is up in November. Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Rockwell is closing both Anorad Europe and Anorad Israel. But why? Still making profit but it seems that it was not good enough. We all are curios if Mr. Nosbosch has follewed the ethics training, NOT! Friday, May 22, 2009 The recruitment firms in Milwaukee have been having a field day for 2 years. It has become a running joke with them. Friday, May 22, 2009 - Re: Shocked if someone in management did not log the Sunday, May 17 posting: Well, be shocked then. Because it wasn't a management person who wrote that. Just someone with a lot of experience. Sorry guys, it's a horrible world for manufacturing everywhere right now. Even the Chinese are out sourcing to Vietnam. Massive outsourcing, and many jobs. Because its cheaper. Factories are easy to build, and relatively cheap. And the equipment moves easily. If the stickers on the product were truthful, they would say Manufactured in Vietnam/India/Pakistan, Packaged in China, Sold in North America. So, be shocked that the one blog did not come from management. Friday, May 22, 2009 Is Rockwell getting ready to offload some senior management? The mood in Milwaukee would suggest so. As difficult as it is, the CEO can't get to his cutbacks by killing any more troops, or closing any more plants and with a potential mass exodus on the cards from the ranks; he may sacrifice some senior guys to appease the workers. The recruitmant firms are having a field day with the people let go so far. This could be a good chance for the up and coming talent to take the reins. Or will they chicken out at the last minute? Keep close top the news as it will happen fast. Thursday, May 21, 2009: A change in attitude, in addition to an "open" environment, might bring respect back. Thursday, May 21, 2009 I thought the Arena software and the Factory Talk package were both very good tools. Thursday, May 21, 2009 I would be shocked if someone in management did NOT log the last posting (Sunday, May 17, 2009). Sunday, May 17, 2009 Cambridge Union note & Reply to the earlier blog from a teacher: Unionization means different things to different industries. As a teacher, you have one of the best types of jobs to be unionized. Very tough to outsource and very entrenched in the local psyche. You have little to worry about. Your product is hard to package and ship. For a manufacturing site, its a different story. Products that have high value, and can be easily shipped, can be outsourced. And are being outsourced. Just like cars, that have high value, and high labor content, have been outsourced. The large systems made by RC and Cambridge, have very high value, and value density. They can be easily shipped. And are heading to Monterrey, India, Katowice (sp), Brazil, China, and in some case, across the street. I am not union bashing. I am saying that high value products can and will be outsourced when the local climate is not as business friendly as a foreign climate. Your advice, while well intentioned, does not readily apply to industrial solutions. One of the largest issues facing the CAW and UAW is a perception by the average joe on the street. While average joe loves to think about himself being a UAW or CAW autoworker, he senses an arrogance. An Arrogance on the part of those same workforces that he wants to be part of. An arrogance that says I get paid well, I get great benefits, I get lots of time off, I'm protected no matter what (and they have been), so basically the heck with everybody else. That is what average joe wants, and yet average joe can't deal with. That is why average joe wants the American car companies to see and feel serious pain. So when you talk about your great benefits, great pay, great time off, all you're doing is building frustration against yourself, by your audience. One other thing to consider. Here in the USA, many people got very tired of hearing the same thing from teachers. Teachers that abused their union rights, and their benefits, and their tenured positions. Poorly taught students by poorly behaved arrogant teachers. So laws were pushed for options and Voucher schools were started. These alternative schools are excelling at their standardized testing results. The teachers get paid far less than their state mandated counterparts, and the state schools are suffering severe cutbacks. So beware the trap that awaits the arrogant, gloating, inefficient labor pools, no matter where they are from, or what they do. Please study the subject at hand, and understand the situation. The advice you give could cost jobs, and could take food from the tables of families, wives, and children. I didn't create this brutal reality, but am well versed in it. Sunday, May 17, 2009 Why say too much about Rockwell Automation's newest product? It's a new technically advanced Vortex. Feel my pain. RA Employee, has your plant closed yet? Feel my pain. The Blackhole is Rockwell's newest product. It will vacuum up all of the American production and send it to Monterrey, Mexico's newest Rockwell Automation, Monterrey. Feel my pain. By the way Monterry has one large Tec de Monterrey, technician college. Not bad actually; feel my pain. Ah, Monterrey, with it's beautiful Sadle Mountain. Feel my pain. But my dear Monterrey counter-part, I hope you make it to the factory. To much drug violence in the street for me. So, good luck, live well making my products that I used to make. Feel my pain. Sunday, May 17, 2009 Stay clear of Production Center and Arena. Production Center (in its Datasweep incarnation) is a dead end, and Rockwell hasn't done a thing with Arena since it acquired the company. Check out Simio.biz if you are seriously considering Arena. And write your own MES in Visual Basic for 1/10 the cost of Production Center. Saturday, May 16, 2009 Did anyone hear about the Anorad plants (owned by RA) in Israel and the Netherlands being closed? I believe some 80 employees lost their jobs. What is next? I can only hope the severance is good... Saturday, May 16, 2009 Union dues at $150.00 a month. Obviously this entry was probably posted by the company. Union dues are nowhere near that. Try calling the union office if you want the facts! Saturday, May 16, 2009 If people enjoy a 40 hr. work week, safe workplace legislation, sick benefits, workers rights, paid holidays, government health care, etc. etc.; then they should not be bashing unions. And as for the argument that there are now laws in place to protect workers, consider this - the average wage of a labor lawyer is $450.00 an hour. So if the company decides to break the law and screw you through wrongful dismissal or whatever, how many of you working class people can afford to pay a labor lawyer $450.00 an hour to represent you in a battle that the company with lawyers on staff will drag out for years? Saturday, May 16, 2009 The FT Suite is a set of products that depend on FT Services. Some use the FT services more than others. To the best of my knowledge AC uses FT Directory, Data Services(RSLinx Enterprise) and Security. The FT Suite is only slightly more integrated than the BiZware Suite. Actually the FT Suite is for the mose part the BW Suite remaned and infected with FT Services. (Same pig/different lipstick) Arena is a simulation package and is another RA acquisition, I think anout 03-04 timeframe. Saturday, May 16, 2009 As a German insider, I totally agree with the latest blog - stating that R9ockwell technology is too old. We are facing all the major competition here, and I guess RA is three years behind in the core product segments. Market share is very small in the biggest OEM market, and I cannot see clear plans or strategies to align to German or European business behaviour. Secondly, I miss innovation and market leading products and behaviour to come out of the role as a project driven supplier. Change attitude and success will come back. Friday, May 15, 2009 First I will say I don't work at Rockwell - but my brother does at the Cambridge facility. I'm a teacher here in the Cambridge area, and would like to say that peoples first mistake is that when they hear the word Union, they think of Autoworkers, and that is so wrong. This countries most professional jobs are people that are run by Unions - teachers, doctors, nurses, goverment officals, police officers, firefighters. So for people to think a Union is a bad idea, than look at these jobs, not jobs in the auto industry. I enjoy my Union - lot's of time off, great benefits, early retirement and all the jobs I listed have this. So if you want to continue to work with no Union go right ahead. But just remember what is the reason we only work 40 hrs a week, and the reason why we get vacation time: that was all started by the Union. Maybe people could say what they feel. Thursday, May 14, 2009 Hello, Richland Center! Nice to see you join in! There is sooooo much I'd like to say. Unfortunately cannot. You all know that you need good designs to make good product. Just keep letting engineering know that. When they get it, you might get good drawings etc. Don't blame the black belts. They're only as good as they're directed. The hang-over effects from the party of the 1990's are due to too many Harvey-Wallbangers to drink. The bigger the party, the bigger the hangover. And the economy has been on one big party since the 90's. The bubble burst. So take the pay and the hours, and find a clubhouse to order another Harvey-Wallbanger, or have a Lettuce Wedige. Live large or live lean, take it as it comes along. Bad times are coming, and in many ways, its not your own fault. A scott-free existence isn't what its all cracked up to be. And the whole thing sounds like its running like a Gran Turino with a bad exhaust and a smoking oil pan. You've very complex systems to build, like a good Scotch, a lot goes into it. It's not a champagne product for sure. Get as much training as you can, so you can take it with you when you go. Its not as easy as Walmart to be sure. Thursday, May 14, 2009 Does Production Centre include the Factory Talk Suite? Is Arena software still available? Owned by Rockwell? Thursday, May 14, 2009 Midway through FY09 Qtr3... Look out for the next block of lay-offs. Good luck everybody. Monday, May 11, 2009 Rockwell Automation is selling too much "Cost of Ownership" with no new technology in the wings. Uphill selling for my former co-workers. RA is always 18-24 months out and never living in the present day. Mgmt views ROK as a stock that delivers dividends and presents "low risk" to it stock holders. When will RA invest in anything beyond software? This company will be bought by an investment group soon and split up to sell. Hmmm, not a bad idea. Get these Milwaukee Community College Grads out of mgmt. Sunday, May 10, 2009 There are no unionized Rockwell sites aside from Milwaukee and Wigan (UK) and both are being stripped of manufacturing (in Wigan's case, it is being closed). So any work being sent to the US is being send to non-union sites because nothing is moving into Milwaukee. Sunday, May 10, 2009 ProductionCentre is RA's name for Datasweep, a company they bought in 2005. (Look in company news 2005 on the RA website for info.) It has an installed base with some large companys. I don't think Tracker/Cordinater was ever installed anywhere and was made obsolete with the purchase of Datasweep. Friday, May 8, 2009 Voting for a union at the Cambridge plant, is futile.I am just a worker Bee, and would love to see some change for the better towards a lot of good, hardworking, honest people. But all unions are good for, are lazy, trouble making workers who will no doubt abuse the system. As well as paying for these union dues, which I hear cost a lot of cash, about $ 100-150 a month...OUCH! The plant will shut down, with or without the union, at some time, since as the management of this place is horriffic, at best. There are too many "bosses" and not enough of the proper bosses making boss decisions. Rather pathetic, actually. In addition, the ridiculous "morale" talks managers give the "children", is a joke! I thought making up the rules as you went along stopped at 8 when we played snakes and ladders. I guess having no real management experience, qualifications or education mean nothing. Unionizing this plant will definitely make it shut down faster. I myself will not be voting Yes to unionize it. I feel in the long run, it's in my best interest to just sit back, put a decent days work in, smile and just shut up, watching everyone else go crazy, wasting their time valuable own time about this menacing brick-and-mortar building. Friday, May 8, 2009 Anyone have any comments on Rockwell Software's Production Center software? We are thinking of investing in it. Though to me the software seems to be heavily reliant on script and seems to have little or no integration with the rest of the suite. I am familiar with Rockwell's tracker and co-ordinator; is this still available as it seems to have far more synergy with the rest of the suite? Friday, May 8, 2009 While I am a frequent visitor to this site, this is my first entry. I am still on the fence as to whether or not to vote to unionize our Cambridge plant, which will be gone in three years anyway. (In four years, the site will be a strip mall.) I have been pondering this since I learned of it a few weeks ago. (I was actually accused by one manager of promoting it because, he says I was heard talking about it. But everybody is talking about it! Still, it is sad that there are such people in the company.) Anyway, it seems that one day I think it is a bad idea and wouldn't accomplish anything anyway; then the next day I think 'what have we to lose, really?' Still, there are people with mortgages and kids and stuff, and I often think about them. But then I think of how unfair the company has been to those they laid off months ago, yet kept on a string with temporary recall after temporary recall, so that these people have now used up over half of their Employment Insurance eligibility while they are unable to get another job. The reason for that is that a temporary lay-off from Rockwell around here is like the 'kiss of death' for getting hired elsewhere, because another company will figure that you will just go back to Rockwell come the first recall, so why hire you at all? And if these people quit, they are not entitled to any E.I. benefits at all. So I am uncertain as to what to do. However, I do resent the company having meetings and telling concerned employees that if they wish to know more about unions or the CAW they 'need' to talk to Rockwell management. That is totally misleading. If anything, we should be getting as much information as possible from neutral sources - as each side will have an agenda to bash the other. Oh, what to do? I wish they would just lay me off and give me my severance package. In fact, I dream about it 24/7. Then again, perhaps it is time I became pro-active and forgot about the severance package and just started considering other options - so I don't eventually end up with a minimum-wage job at the aforementioned strip mall. Sort of like the old saying - "Pay now, or pay more later.) Friday, May 8, 2009 Automation goods have become cheaper, but technically more difficult to take ownership of. Software licences have become more expensive and support has become more expensive. Technical users and SI's cannot get a return on IP investment because manufacturers reps farm the accounts as soon as they start to mature, and so the techies leave or do other things leaving the manufacturers without the real value-add stream. You can farm a business model for only so long, until you have to give back something to your customer base, or you end up in this mess. Thursday, May 7, 2009 To the person wanting to know if the work out of Cambridge is going to a place that is unionized. I don't know about Ladysmith but I do know that Richland Center is NOT union. I believe that most of the factories that used to be union are now closed because Rockwell wanted to eliminate the union. I personally have never seen the union do any good for anyone. I have a relative that worked for a place that you had your choice of whether you were in the union or not; this person choose not to join the union. They got pay raises quicker and more benefits than the people who were in the union. So don't run and jump into the union until you have checked into it very closely. Thursday, May 7, 2009 Twinsburg management does not get the whole morale issue. They think that by bullying people we will respond with a let's-get-it-done attitude. Maybe the Twinsburg management should read the clips on the rain page about power and the bullying of people and how this does nothing but hurt the company in the long run. Keep up the tactics and the company will continue to decline. Thursday, May 7, 2009 I agree, years ago we had our own tool boxes and did not have an issue finding the right tools to work with. But, oh my the area looks such a mess with all the tool boxes. So along comes another great idea, shadow boards, oh how pretty they look. Now if we can only train the kids to put the tools back in the correct cut out. There will be a class on shapes next week, stay tuned. Hey how about the stress management clips on the rain page? If managers and supervisors would just stay in their offices and leave us alone, there would be a lot less stress. Hey one more thing. How did we go from reduced hrs., to pay cuts, to layoffs to 401k matching funds taken away, to attendance bonuses taken away, back to asking for overtime, then back to mandatory overtime all in a couple of months? Hello, is anybody in charge? Anybody? Thursday, May 7, 2009 Twinsburg really needs to get their act together. Last Thursday supervisor was told we needed to have people do overtime Friday and Saturday. Monday, we come in and weekend people are there also doing overtime. WHY? We didn't have enough work for everyone to do and our main 2 "money lines" have been down all week long! This company doesn't make any sense. Work overtime on weekend to not have work during the week. Pitiful way to run a company. In the past, up until last fall, we worked overtime regularly and even mandatory overtime 7 days a week fairly often. Same thing would happen then too, told to work overtime on weekend, then come Monday morning we didn't have enough work or we would have to make what we did have last all day long. Very poor management and way to run things. Our own plant manager had a meeting with us last week that basically told us that he himself, made the decision to end the quarterly "bonus" for perfect attendance. This was not a Rockwell decision, he stated that other plants are not doing this, that he decided on his own this was the best thing for Twinsburg. WHAT!? How is that the best thing for Twinsburg? Everyone's morale is already so low and then he has to go and take the very last thing some people had left. The measly $150-200 they might still get for the year or $500 if they actually made it all year without taking a personal day. Now, come on. There aren't that many that actually meet that anyway. The amount of money that they "saved" by ending the last 2 quarters has to be pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Yet, they are taping floors, making shadow boards, taking photos of people's desks (to keep in their area to show them what it should look like at the beginning and end of every day-everyone keeps their areas nice and neat anyway is this really necessary???)installing new mezzanines, chained fence area in warehouse, painting, putting new carpet in, new water purifier machines, cameras everywhere and are making all kinds of "improvements" and apparently are going to be doing the remodeling/painting off and on all summer long according to management. The quarterly bonus for attendance was really the last thing some people had left and they took that away too. Wow, I mean, it was already bad enough. Instead of raising morale or trying to they just hurt it even more. Now, people that never take time off or call in sick are doing so and really, what did management expect? There is now no more incentive. Management really needs to take a long hard look at how they are treating the people they have left. Thursday, May 7, 2009 I'm sure some of the people bashing the CAW are really Rockwell senior managers trying to slay a growing monster. Good luck, boys. But remember, you gave birth to it. Things did not have to go this way. Thursday, May 7, 2009 The company can use this website to spread misinformation. (Actually, anybody can.) So if you support unionization, check with the CAW to confirm any rumors. As well, I heard that the jobs being taken out of Rockwell Cambridge are mostly going to a unionized plant in the States? Anybody know if this is fact? Also, I will be voting for the union if the opportunity ever arises. Something I thought that I would never do. I am sick and tired of being afraid of this company. At least with a union, even if the company leaves shortly, then we would get some sort of fare compensation. As it is now, this company could not care less about any of its employees - nor do the shareholders. Sad, but that is where we are now. Lastly, there are three categories of employees in the plant now. Pro-union, anti-union, and undecided. Yet all three groups do have one thing in common: they all no longer believe a single word that either the plant manager or Keith Nosbusch say. In both cases their messages are viewed as nothing more than the company propaganda message of the day. Actually, they're quite funny. We all get a good laugh out of them. Wednesday, May 6, 2009 The CAW are not holding a rally tomorrow. This is a trick by the company to see who shows up so they know who is supporting the union. That is why there is no mention on the CAW website. Call the CAW number listed on the handout - they will confirm it is not a CAW rally Wednesday, May 6, 2009 As a former distributor, integrator and now OEM for Rockwell my view on the problems within Rockwell point to a single factor - loss of what made them successfull in the first place. A-B products became the standard in the marketplace because of quality and the relationship which was developed with the customer base. Rockwell products are over priced commodities with no value added. Stop this nonsense and go back to the basics! Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Rockwell Automation (Allen-Bradley) in Richland Center had a meeting today to discuss some policy changes. Again, to take things away from the employees! We all wonder how much longer we are going to be here! Our new plant manager is all about the numbers. They love to blow smoke, telling us that some possible costomers are happy with our facility, and we could possible be getting work from them. But, when asked "Will the work stay here, or go to Mexico?" Management clams up. Hummm, wonder why? Don't know about other facilities, but we go from overtime, to layoff, to closing the plant on Friday, to overtime. OMG who runs the show? We, like many other plants, are getting tired of tape on the floor, color-coded, tools on shadow-boards also color coded with numbers. And let's not forget we must have a printed list for each cart, with the number with the tool so we know right where to put our tools back at the end of the day. Hey, we are NOT kindergarteners here! Years ago, we had a toolbox which we locked up every night, and the next day we had what WE needed. Now with everything out in the open, for ANYONE to walk by and "borrow" (and never return), how well does this program really work? I understand being neat, but come on! Wow, I'm glad to find a place where I can let my feelings be shown. God knows, management doesn't care about us out there on the floor. Wednesday, May 6, 2009 I would like someone to explain what the benefits of joining the CAW would be. Would they be able to protect our jobs, pensions and benefits like they did with Chrysler and GM? Or, would they just speed up the closing of the Cambridge plant? Tuesday, May 5, 2009 You are right, the CAW isn't going to save any jobs. They may in fact hurry the end along. In this global environment, work is easily transferred to any site, and it can happen quickly. Also consider that management isn't going to save any jobs either, in my opinion. When all of us sell our time for money, and go to work for a company, all we have is time and skills. Everyone: Get skills. Get new training. Pick up anything you can. With all due respect, once trained, anyone in any country can build these systems. The only reason RA needs you, in my opinion, is your knowledge. In my opinion the engineering documents and quality is so poor, your knowledge fixes many engineering mistakes. And you've all mentioned this being an issue on this blog. All the above is my opinion. In my opinion, once engineering quality increases, your knowledge becomes less important. Sorry guys. While you can be proud of the past, it does no good for getting the next paycheck. And even if 16 is now selected as the source for the sheet metal for RC and other sites, keep in mind there are many companies that can punch and form sheet metal. And many of those companies are technologically savvy. And right now, hungry. Tuesday, May 5, 2009 To the individual that would like to use the latest version of software on a now-obsoleted controller: Check with your distributor or Rockwell Automation Sales Rep. Rockwell Automation's standard migration processes offer a significant discount (25% or more) for updating a controller or other hardware to the newer version. The program is called Step Forward. Monday, May 4, 2009 A message to the person who made the decision to sack all the Distributors in Australia: Never have I had to look at or read an AB catalog for part numbers; my rep was a walking catalog and technically very strong. Being forced to go to NHP as of now, my first dealing with them was a disgrace. The first response I got was "What's the part number". Memo to NHP: Learn the part numbers. You wanted it, and somehow you got it; now you mist learn it. Monday, May 4, 2009 - To the person asking about trying to get older products to run all the newest features: Maybe you have not thought it through. Rockwell does update its software so it can incorporate advances in technology but expecting that all/any new technology has to work in your previous generation platform seems a bit much. The newest features will work on the newer platforms, the old platforms can not make use of some of these features. Rockwell if very good at keeping older product alive and supporting it, but not designing new software for it. It is like being upset that your Commadore 64 will not run Internet Explorer. Monday, May 4, 2009 I work at the Cambridge plant and I think that you people holding a rally and trying to get the CAW union in there is just stupid. All the company owes you is a pay check at the end of 2 weeks. But, hey go ahead try for a union, just watch the 6 o'clock news and watch the parts about all these union companys going under or laying off. They are not gonna save your job. If any of this happens, all they are gonna take is a little part of your check every two weeks. Plus do you really wanna lose all the extras that we get now - like hmmm, I don't know, pension, or the RRSP the company puts in. I for one will not be taking part in the dumb rally on May 7th. And I hope that the smart people who know that we have a good thing at Rockwell will stand up and say NO to the Crappy Auto Workers Union. Monday, May 4, 2009 - Information on RA's Mexico operations: Rockwell Automation announces temporary closure of all Mexico-based operations due to H1N1 virus In response to concerns regarding the H1N1 virus (swine flu), the Ministry of Labor in Mexico has mandated the temporary closure of non-essential business operations throughout Mexico. Rockwell Automation is adhering to this mandate, and has closed all operations in Mexico, including our Monterrey and Tecate manufacturing operations and sales offices. At this time, we anticipate the closures will be in place from Monday, May 4 through Tuesday, May 5, but may be extended by the Ministry of Labor. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and respond in accordance with governmental mandates. Employees in Mexico are being notified of these closures by a variety of means to the best of our ability. Please be patient if you are trying to reach Rockwell Automation employees, external partners or customers in Mexico during this time. Monday, May 4, 2009 I am unable to find any information on the CAW website with respect to Rockwell Automation. Is the post with respect to a planned rally correct? Sunday, May 3, 2009 Rockwell Automation clearly is living off of its past reputation. I see on this site, and I hear it from customers who we are trying to convert, that Rockwell supports its products "forever" or close to that. We use a ControlLogix L55 to test our EtherNet/IP IO devices so it was a surprise for us when we tried to upgrade our RSLogix5000 software that the latest version would not run on it. We were told that we had to buy a new processor to get the latest version of RSLogix as the L1-L55 processors would not be able to run the latest software. I don't think L1-L55 processors are that old. Maybe traditional Rockwell customers are used to these kind of constant up-charges but we aren't. Annual software maintenance fees then a forced change to a new processor to get the latest features and also a need to update all the IO with the latest firmware. Very expensive in hard $ and time. Rockwell sure knows how to charge to keep so-called older products running. Saturday, May 2, 2009 There is a planned rally being formed at the Cambridge Rockwell on May 7. It will start at the front of the building and continue all around the facility. It starts at 10:00am and should take an hour. This rally is to push for a union at the facility. Please come join us. We have just over 120 people attending at this time. More info can be found on the caw webpage thanks. Friday, May 1, 2009 I am not sure what is going on with Rockwell. We have a plant meeting in Twinsburg where the plant manager tells us that things are looking good. And his next statement is, "Oh and by the way we are doing away with your perfect attendance bonus." Nothing was even mentioned about Keith's memo that stated there would be more work force reductions coming up in quarters 3 and 4. There is more concern over how to tape the floor and then the audits to make sure your carts and material are inside the taped off sections than anything else. Oh and do not talk directly to the Plant manager; you must talk to your Supervisor and they will relay the message to them. Well more layoffs to come, so sit back and get ready for another round soon to come. The employees that got laid off the last round will be happy to know that there were some replacements hired to fill some of the spots that opened up amazingly after the reductions. Thursday, April 30, 2009 - Latest RA Press Release (extracts):
Organic sales down 18 percent; total sales down 25 percent; Diluted EPS of $0.29. Rockwell Automation today reported fiscal 2009 second quarter revenue of $1,058.1 million, down 25 percent compared to $1,406.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Organic sales declined 18 percent, and currency translation contributed an additional 7 percentage points to the total decline. Fiscal 2009 second quarter net income was $40.6 million or $0.29 per share, compared to $0.96 per share in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Segment operating earnings were $86.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2009, down from $240.3 million in the same period of 2008. Earnings decreased primarily due to the significant revenue decline. Earnings were also lower due to pre-tax restructuring charges of approximately $20 million and unfavorable mix, partially offset by cost reductions. Segment operating margin in the second quarter of fiscal 2009 was 8.1 percent, 9.0 percentage points lower than the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Second quarter of fiscal 2009 free cash flow from continuing operations was $152.1 million versus $31.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Free cash flow in the quarter benefited primarily from working capital reductions, as well as lower capital expenditures and a refund related to a contractual tax matter. Return on invested capital was 18.7 percent. Commenting on the results, Keith D. Nosbusch, chairman and chief executive officer said, “Our second quarter results reflect the severity of the global economic recession. Market conditions quickly deteriorated across most industries and all regions. With a sharper revenue decline in the quarter than we expected, we continued to aggressively adjust our cost structure. We made significant progress on our cost reduction actions in the quarter and expect to deliver savings for fiscal year 2009 above the original $240 million target. We also generated strong free cash flow in the quarter, primarily through our intense focus on working capital management. I am proud of how well our employees have responded in this challenging environment. Despite making personal sacrifices, they have not wavered in their commitment to our business priorities and dedication to our customers.” Commenting on the outlook, Nosbusch added, “While there are signs that economic and market conditions may be stabilizing, it is still too early to call a bottom. We believe that the steepest sequential declines are behind us, but markets remain uncertain and our revenue trends are mixed across the regions. We are managing our business assuming that sales volume in the second half of the fiscal year will be somewhat below the second quarter run rate. We continue to evolve our cost structure and expect to implement additional cost actions in the remainder of the fiscal year. Given this outlook, we now expect revenue to decline between 16 and 18 percent in fiscal 2009, excluding the effects of currency. Accordingly, we are revising our fiscal 2009 earnings guidance downward to a range of $1.40 to $1.70 per share, excluding any restructuring charges related to actions that we may take in the remainder of the fiscal year.” Nosbusch added, “In spite of the difficult business environment, we will balance near-term financial performance with protecting our intellectual capital and core technology investments. Our strong balance sheet and liquidity position provide the financial flexibility needed to manage through this economic cycle without compromising our long-term strategy. We are confident that we will execute through the downturn and emerge even more competitive when markets recover.” Thursday, April 30, 2009 As an ex-Rockwell Automation employee, I feel I have to give some insight into some of the comments re: support, free support and product price. At my present company, we treat support as part of our business cost, not a profit-center. Unfortunately for their customers, Rockwell treats support as a profit-center, even though their products are about the highest priced ones you can find. Their present business model is to maximize income, at any cost. That is why they are also building most products off-shore, or sourcing them and not reducing their price. In today's environment, that is placing many companies in a tough position regarding costs. Rockwell knows that change is difficult, and they are squeezing their customers to benefit themselves. Yes, you can still get products they introduced 15-20 years ago, but at what a cost? Look into their annual price increases on those older products, they are extensive. Rockwell is not the AB that many engineers used to know and love. Those engineers need to realize it and make a decision to accept it, or change. There are other companies out there, like mine, that treat customers they way AB used to, with cost effective, reliable products and free support. Thursday, April 30, 2009 What's happening to RA-UK at the moment? Bloggs ffrom the UK seem to have died. Thursday, April 30, 2009 - Company Ethics: Comparing the blogs between RA, Siemens, Schneider, etc. it seems quite clear that American companies care a lot less about their employees than many of European counterparts. I've worked for several large companies, and I've never come across a HR department as heartless and incompetent as the one run by Rockwell. My recommendation for all Rockwell employees is to update their CV's and get them to recruiters ASAP. It's not difficult to find a better company than Rockwell Automation. Regards: Happy Ex-Employee, looking forward to a bonus and no paycuts. Wednesday, April 29, 2009 From my time in the Cambridge plant, we are constantly asked to go above and beyond the call, overtime long weekends, shot notice, required overtime (thing of the past now), yet NO ONE from upper management, nor the operations manager not once ever said Thanks, yes we get compensated for coming in, however, I am sure a Thankyou would go along way, and make you feel appreciated in giving up your family time. People are more worried about 6s and where coats and lockers are going to be placed; why not focus on quality? We have some very skilled employees, yet their days are deciding where to perform audits, which frankly dont mean a thing to anyone on the shop floor. Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - To the April 27th person who commented on the upcoming obsolesence of the SLC line. I've worked for other major process suppliers in the industry (formerly Emerson) and I can tell you no company I have ever seen has a better track record with product longevity than Rockwell. I dare you to find another major marketshare product that has had the longevity of 25-30 years as the PLC5 and SLC product lines do. Perhaps you're in favor of a company such as Schneider who obsoletes a line after 10-12 years of active sales giving their customers a 1 year notice in advance of the end of support. Rockwell has provided customers with 7 years advance notice that PLC 5 and SLC's lifespan may be coming to a close to allow them to plan migrations.....that seems pretty reasonable to me. Even when discussing ProcessLogix which was stopped short to invest in the bigger picture of Integrated Architecture using ControlLogix is not that bad. Emerson/Fisher have their black marks too with releasing than shortly thereafter obsoleting MicroProvox(after 2-3 years of actively being on the market) and without any cost benefit to customers who invested in their technology. I have seen Rockwell bend over backwards for those who committed to PLX and wanted to migrate to IA by subsidizing the engineering immensely......can't say the same about Emerson. Tuesday, April 28, 2009 You are correct, even Rockwell has to make choices. Even the big AB isn't large enough to be everything to everyone. There are (from my experience) core competencies that need to be maintained. When a customer calls regarding an AB system they have bought, the entire tech support system should support them. I suggest RA has sliced and diced their support incorrectly. If I have one of their controllers, and it has motion control capability, I should be able to askt them about. And get an answer. Customer service along these lines pays for itself, over and over again. We changed an entire factory over to Omron, and then subsequently all the sister facilities....all because of one incident. A rep was too busy to come see us...we were a small fish....and he told us so. So, over the next two years, everything that was purchased was Omron. Every machine upgrade was Omron. And 6 months into the process, all of our 17 sister plants were on board with the program. And to this day, they are still Omron. Because when we called them, they came up, fixed the issue, and showed us their gear. And promised on a handshake they'd never let us down. And they didn't. Time after time, we couldnt get the support we needed from AB. Consider the residuals...all the maint men, techs, and engineers were trained in Omron systems and software. Guess what they took with them when they left to go work elsewhere? All that cash left on the table. The controllers. The software. The sensors (proxes, color, retroreflective, etc, etc). Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Sign your union cards, people. If you want real change the choice is ours to make. If we want to protect what we have before it’s gone, you know what to do. Make them think next time before they make decision that will impact us. Bring back what we once had, standards, quality, and pride. No more favoritism, broken promises, deceit or lies. Stand up for yourselves. Be proud of where you work. Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Wow, this last blogger sounds like Keith... I do agree with the changeing world commnents. We are looking for cheaper and more cost effective ways of building product. We have all moved major segments of production to China. We are now seeing the results. A global economic meltdown. People are out of work, the same people that bought cars, boats, Harleys etc. The high paid people. There products were produced in factories (where the high paid people worked) that used the products that the AB, Siemens, ABB, etc bought. Think about it and support our President in his efforts to bring jobs to the United States. Tuesday, April 28, 2009 These blogs actually are not that negative; they are just reflective of how the world is changing. Products are getting simpler and cheaper, and so why wouldn't you expect to pay for advice if you havent got yourself trained? Why would you have free sales and support if you only buy a low cost system? Yes everyone has a choice, including Rockwell. They can continue to reduce the real price of controls by reducing overhead; they can focus resources on Global OEMs and Users who need to have consistent and available support outside the USA. They can continue to invest in limited distribution that ensures local and well trained resources to support the customer everyday. And yes, they can walk away from under-performing agents and distributors that cannot invest in resources. We all have choices. Try the service of Rockwell's competitors, and I think you will find Rockwell still has a diffrentiated edge and passion to do what is right for the customer, as well has hitting the correct market level pricing. Monday, April 27, 2009 Customer service on the Allen Bradley machine controls isn't what it used to be. With the planned obsolesence, and withdrawn software and tech support on the SLC lines (older), they have thrown themselves into a new, not so positive era. No more AB controls for me, for a long time. And the product race isn't going to be nice to Rockwell AB. Mitsubishi, Omron, Siemens, etc, etc. It's all nearly the same anymore. Monday, April 27, 2009 I am on old time engineer (never a Rockwell Automation or Allen Bradley employee) who has specified millions upon millions of dollars of Allen Bradley and Rockwell Automation equipment over the last 45 years. I did this because Allen Bradley was second to none in quality and customer service. I have never found any other company, in any field, that could offer what Allen Bradley could. But I see this changing. Recently,the Allen Bradley motion support group refused to answer a simple motion related question when my bought and paid for PLC software support contract did not include an option for motion support. It took longer to argue about this issue then it would have taken to answer the question. Recently, I was told that I could not access the Rockwell knowledge base during the interval while a PO for a new support license was being processed. So, Rockwell Automation, you are now going to have to fight for my business instead of being able to simply take it for granted. Saturday, April 25, 2009 I am an employee at Rockwell in Cambridge. Just so you know, the employees were willing to sacrifice and even accept job-sharing to help the company. There was even very little griping when the annual merit bonuses were cancelled because Keith Nosbusch said "We all have to sacrifice". People really understood. However, Mr. Nosbusch then gave himself a huge, multi-million dollar bonus within days of cancelling everybody elses' merit bonus, and the morale of the entire rockwell blue-collar workforce in Cambridge has been plummetting in a tailspin ever since. How do these people running these corporations get away with this kind of irresponsible behaviour? Are the shareholders blind? Are the customers checking out the quality of the product comming to them now? Then again, with so many CEO's in place who never actually built the companies they run, why would they care about anything but getting more money for themselves. (Oh, how I miss being owned by the Bradley family. Now there were some savvy business people - who cared about other people as well.) Saturday, April 25, 2009 Rockwell Automation AB Cambridge, Ontario - what can I say ... wow... yet again! The signs of poor management and lack of leadership skills are still very apparent as the local managers lick the boots of their American superiors. They are assured the flock is still oblivious and under control. The corporate hot-shots believesthe local pit-bulls are saving dollars, but are unaware of the numerous sitting at home, getting paid. The average wage plus benefits are over $30 per hour. Add that up over 8 weeks and you get $9600 per person, and all because someone forgot to read up on Canadian law. How do we compensate for these losses ... Let's call overtime and squander more money, but only on management's terms. You can work these hours this week but not next, no wait ... strike that ... we want you to work on the weekend only... Keith Nosbusch preaches "fairness" and "openness" between all, and sympathizes with us commoners like a proud king, readying us for the next wave of cost savings. Corporate uses the recession as a crutch and regardless of how much you give up, it is never enough. You are nothing more than an expendable asset. Believing that a corporate conglomerate cares about anything else besides money makes you just another foolish slave. Piece by piece they will dismantle and disfigure A-B and distribute it among third world countries, distorting the product and turning the company into nothing more than a cheap useless imitation of its former self. Department 16 is the first to go. Some from this area are spared, crammed into unfamiliar territory, some others are dismissed, and the old ones well some have just had enough and decide to pack it in. "Bumping" or "sliding, whatever you wish to call it, has turned co-workers and friends against each other. Required certifications for wiring jobs are overlooked and quality once again tossed out the window because management decided it would be convenient for now. That's the thanks you get for spending 32 none paid hours in a college classroom doing what the company asked of you. God forbid you light one of these bad boys up in the field because we also have unqualified people powering up and testing our products. Who's to say what will happen next, but if you think seniority will save you or has anything to do with it then you're blinded by the lies. From a cost savings point of view, the best thing to do would be to get rid of the senior people that are "grandfathered" and getting a higher rate of pay. Next would be to scrub the 6% company contribution to you R.R.S.P. and further reduce the benefit package. Then one final pay cut before they ship the place away to Mexico, Poland and China. Do you seriously think your time served means anything to these people? The only way to save what little dignity we have left is to unite, because the corporate cost savings and cut backs are far from over. Wouldn't it be nice to finally have some say in what happens at your place of employment ... there may still be a way? Regardless of what you believe, change is needed. How nice it would be to see the smiling faces of my Rockwell family once again. To see morale and leadership return to the workplace and bringing back the quality and pride we once had. Remember these words in the up and coming weeks because the choice will be yours and change is possible. Friday, April 24, 2009 - CORRECTION REQUIRED: Jim, in your recent newsletter you stated the Ontario (Cambridge) facility is closing, that is not an accurate statement. The LV MCC production is moving to the Richland Center plant. The Cambridge plant will continue to be the global center of excellence for the successful medium voltage products (drives, starters, etc.). In addition, the Cambridge plant will now be the sole source for ALL sheet metal used in LV MCC production at the Richland Center plant so that department will actually grow. In addition, the configured drives, drive systems and engineered systems groups will move into the Cambridge plant. There is both good news and bads news in this annoucement and give the people effected by this change it would be appreciated if you reported this correctly.
Friday, April 24, 2009 - Message to Jim Pinto: In response to your appeal then contributors have an equal opportunity to post positive as we as negative comments. However, doesn't it say a great deal about a company when this amount of poor feedback is posted by it's own people? At the moment there is an increasing crescendo of resentment, frustration, anger and rage by ordinary RA folk over the type of organisation RA has become; and your blog is the only channel to openly voice their opinion and to try and make a difference. The condemnation being expressed towards RA’s management is as a result of their stumblings on and re-organising to the extent that they are seemingly destroying what was a stable business. Sorry, Jim. (A concerned RA worker bee.) Friday, April 24, 2009 Over the last few years, there were many discussions regarding Toyota or Honda buying GM. The question raised was "Why would they?". And the same question needs to be asked regarding someone purchasing Rockwell. Is the Allen Bradley name that strong of a brand in this era? Is the software suite strong enough? Are the manufacturing sites needed for capacity? We are in obviously uncharted waters in a still downturning economy. No one knows the real impact a potential bankruptcy in the auto sector will have. Will the economy continue to deflate? At what pace? This would have to weigh heavy by any suitor who comes knocking with cash. And this suitor would have to ask themselves, what is this really worth? What are the long term liabilities? And the big question would be... who would buy the segments they did not want? Thursday, April 23, 2009 Read the latest issue of JimPinto.com eNews, 24 April 2009 - for Jim Pinto's latest analysis of Rockwell's status: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - To the sales focused blogger who didn't like the bulleted comments: You are right that Rockwell has to decide what it is going to do. Manufacture and sale of products, or be a brand stamp on somebody elses product? Once you rely on contract manufacturing, and you outsource all the work except sales, you become obsolete. All of your proprietary Information goes to the highest bidder. Your competitive edge horizon goes from 18 months to a matter of weeks. All you become is a brand. I'm always amazed when companies track cost saves, and start using outsourcing to save cost. Outsourcing, in many cases, is the beginning of the end. It implies that you've given up. And you can't find creative technological or business solutions to keep the competitive edge. I'd much rather see Rockwell expand its holdings to include non-cyclical, or less cyclical non-industrial products. Or develop a focus on controls that are related to non-cyclical industries. Expand the product line, or use its excess production capacity to build, not only its own products, but become a contract manufacturer or brand manufacturer for others. When I saw that they were buying products made at competitors locations, then branding them, it became clear that we were losing an edge, or the desire to maintain the edge. As far as the getting rid of the Continuous Improvement Black belts, that is also a sign of giving up. Who is going to drive change or improvements? The same guys that got RA into the situation it finds itself? Wednesday, April 22, 2009 RA offered a handful of people in the Vancouver office, relocation to Milwaukee of all places. For those of you that are geographically challenged, that’s like moving from Palm Springs to Detroit! And having to work for the same bad management, only now they will be in your face all the time. It’s no wonder it took them about 5 seconds to come up with their answer. A resounding NO. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 A comment to the "numeric bulleter" blogger, and to the many others from the manufacturing blogs regarding global manufacturing, software written in china, engineering centers, etc. These are irrelevant in reality. RA needs to decide what its "core" is. Is it a manufacturer? Or a marketing and sales machine? Its strength is (was) its sales machine, but they are killing it. People buy from people, and if the people ain't happy, they ain't gonna sell. Manufacturing: RA don't do a good job themselves, and many of the products are becoming commodities, so outsource it all. Get rid of the 6-sigma dudes. Focus on marketing and selling leading-edge technology that you own the IP for, but someone else builds it for you. I agree with "ex-RA beleiver" - ABB needs to buy this company, or it needs to be broken up into more manageable pieces by a Venture Capitalist. Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Past bloggers mention "real talent" at Rockwell as though it has real leadership that is undercover. Who are they? Name names, so at least those at us still here can focus on getting them to have their voice heard. The current board won't oust Keith, current leadership won't challenge him. So lets get the real leaders, if they exist, mobilized and motivated. This can be a great company but we need to act. Tuesday, April 21, 2009 A couple of things to comment on: Based on other's comments in the recent blog notes....
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 To Ex-RA believer: You hit the nail right on the head. The person who thinks that the 61 people now out on the street in Vancouver were worthless, obviously does not live in the real world. Give your head a shake. Good luck developing software in China, Rockwell. Tuesday, April 21, 2009 Regarding the Post made on the 20th April. I totally agree with you. This blog is a barometer of the motivation, feeling and stability of the company. Have a look at the other blogs. Rockwell is sick compared with them. I only wish the board would read these. Then maybe they would replace Keith for his limp wristed management of his senior leadership team that are all driving indepenent agendas. Then get a change agent in to make the organisational changes needed to make the company 1) Global, 2) Customer Centric, 3) Market leading. They have none of these right now! Their arrogance leads them to thinking that they do - but they do NOT. Management's time is up, they have failed! They have great leaders they don't listen too, and are out of touch with what is going on in the field! Leadership is still thinking IA is market leading. Wake up, all the ankle biters are eating your pie! I am sure that the company being so risk averse to change, will be happy to become the shape it was 29 years ago - just a shame its customers have moved on since them. Remember - this blog is healthy. It's Emotion comes from personal impact. Personal impact comes from RA management. Not all decisions are bad, but the balance between good and bad ones in RA is evident in this blog, and RA's numbers continue to decline. Stop blaming the economy - most of the issues are of your own creation. I see a Venture Capitalist making a move soon and breaking the titanic up into small pieces before it sinks! Ex-RA beleiver Monday, April 20, 2009 An incredible amount of talent is being lost as a result of Vancouver (and other's) being let go. People with 20+ years of experience being lost. As for the comments about too much emotion... employees pour all that they have into these products, and the fact that we care despite all the reasons to not care, shows the character that we have. It's impossible for most of us to not have any kind of attachment when we sacrifice so much. It makes it even more painful to watch all of this happening, as we worry about the talent loss.... Monday, April 20, 2009 Vancouver did not do any useful software and all the software engineers were worthless and created no cash flow. I finally think Rockwell is cleaning house and getting rid of dead weight. I really think the next step to really getting Rockwell to move ahead is to close down the entire Cleveland operation because they have proved to be completely worthless. Make Milwaukee the one and only headquarters with no political battles internally. Rockwell will flourish if Nosbusch can make these steps now. Monday, April 20, 2009 As a Rockwell employee at the Vancouver office who is being let go on May 19, all I have to say is this: The IDIOTS are in control, and nobody knows why. Rockwell is a sinking ship and I guess in some warped way, I should be glad. Good luck to all in Vancouver, Ontario and everywhere else who has been affected by these incredibly stupid moves. Monday, April 20, 2009 In response to the Monday April 20th post with respect to “keeping emotion” on the blog to a minimum – the author fails to realize that all successful corporations become that way due to the employee’s emotional involvement. The emotion shown on the blog is simply a barometer of how the employees feel and if management can’t determine the reason and change it, Rockwell will never be successful. Where there is smoke, there is fire. If the company was well managed the posts on the blog would be very different. Most employees don’t want Rockwell to fail. They simply want it to be better. The problem is nobody in management is willing to listen to them or work with them to make it that way. This is a great blog and an excellent way for RA employees all over the world to communicate. A special thank you should be given for making this forum possible. In every company there is always room for improvement, the problem is current Rockwell management aren’t capable of making the real changes that are necessary. They just keep practicing the outdated concept of slash and burn management. Lurching from one crisis to another and being too focused on our stock price. No vision and no true leadership. Monday, April 20, 2009 I wonder whether the decision to establish the Super Site – Manufacturing Facility in Monterrey, Mexico was such a good idea. The winds of change are blowing in Washington, D.C. and companies that have large manufacturing presences outside of the U.S. are now being seen as less and less politically correct. With the current economic conditions a company seen as not even attempting to retain U.S. jobs in the U.S. is going to hurt their image more than help it. It may even been considered as downright unpatriotic. Insiders know that RA efforts to establish foreign manufacturing sites in other low cost countries like China and Poland have been difficult and expensive at best. None of them living up to anyone’s expectations and all continue to be a costly drain on the ever dwindling RA resources. Monterrey was once one of the safest regions in Mexico, but anyone with any foresight could have seen that it would only be a matter of time before the Mexican drug cartel’s poisonous effects would change that. Now RA has millions invested in a country that may become a “failed state”. How can you attract highly educated Engineers and Managers to a city with ever increasing levels of violence? Just look at all the narcobanners displayed in the city. It is a chilling reminder of how openly and brazenly the drug cartels operate. RA will also need to contend with the increased border restrictions coming between the U.S. and Mexico. Good luck explaining to our shareholders why our product isn’t been manufactured or delivered on time, all because corporate management wanted to save a few dollars. Until RA Leadership changes the company will never be successful. Monday, April 20, 2009 As an employee on the front lines of the Cambridge manufacturing facility I would like to draw attention to a concern I think Management hasn’t considered. Many employees currently working on the Shop Floor know that they are going to permanently lose their jobs within the next few months. Shouldn’t there be a concern about not only the quality of the product being made, but also the very real possibility of a disgruntled worker sabotaging the product? Much of the product built at the Cambridge, Ontario Plant is very complex and it wouldn’t take much to ensure the product is compromised in some way. Test employees aren’t likely to catch everything and often product is tested only for a short period of time. The problem is employees feel that they have invested a great deal of their lives working at RA and have sacrificed countless hours away from their families to do voluntary, or as often was the case mandatory overtime. They have endured the countless re-organizations of management, floor plans and processes only to have it all changed on them again and again, never waiting for any of the changes to actually stay in place long enough to see if there are any benefits to them. They have seen Management treat them without respect or common decency. When asked for improvement ideas, they have given numerous common-sense ones that are simply ignored. They have seen only employees that are loyal to Senior Management promoted, regardless of actual competency or skill. They have seen Management falsify metrics and cost-savings numbers just to make the U.S. happy. They have seen bad management cost a fortune in lost time, overtime and payment for expediting parts due only to the gross mismanagement of the Materials Department. Many of my fellow employees are hard-working and would like to be dedicated to keeping the Quality in Rockwell, but know that they are not supported in their efforts. Rather, they are treated as numbers, not true partners in the business. They see the Board and U.S Senior Management making millions at the expense of building a truly great company with a great deal of potential. Most at Cambridge know that the U.S. really only wants to manufacture in what are seen as less expensive countries like Mexico, China and Poland – not in Canada. Taking this fact alone in consideration why would anyone still working here care about their jobs or what they make? They know there is no future in Canada. All that the employees wanted was to work together with Management to make a good product at a fair price resulting in the possibility of long term employment. That was why for the longest time there never was any worry about a Union taking hold. Then there was a significant change in Management in Cambridge and those ideas were tossed aside. It didn’t take long for everyone to realize Management’s unspoken part of this bargain was no longer going to be upheld. I think it will be very interesting to track the Field Service Reports and Warranty Statistics starting in the next few months. I know if I were a customer and knew of the toxic environment they are manufactured in I wouldn’t buy one. It is too bad, with different leadership in the U.S. and Cambridge it could have been a great place to work for everyone involved. Monday, April 20, 2009 Well Richland Center is back at it again, with another layoff anounced on the 16th. 54 people this time. This is the 3rd layoff this year, and it now total somewhere over 200. There is a rumor of another one already in a couple more weeks. Even with less work in the building, which they are blaming on the economy and we all know that the work has went to Mexico, they continue to keep on the testers. The testers are exempt from a layoff even though most of them have very little seniority then the ones who are currently getting layed off. What is the point of keeping testers when there is no work? We all know that the work won't be coming back. They are keeping Mexico nice and busy. The work that is suppose to be coming out of Cambridge to us we all know that it is a stopping point for now because that haven't figure out how to get the work across 2 borders without it costing them alot of money. Monday, April 20, 2009 Interesting posts. All you people slamming RA are misguided if you believe you are sticking up for the worker bees. All you are doing is creating a negative perception of the company and it's products. It's easy to say things like "Rockwell sucks" with no facts or figures to back up claims. This is a large company with large company problems. No company is perfect, but the rhetoric on much of this blog serves no one. I am a worker bee at RA. I take pride in my job. I don't "hate" management. Have they made questionable moves? Sure. They all do. By talking down the company, you are not hurting the management at all. You are only hurting those who grind it out day after day. This could be a great blog if people kept emotion to a minimum. Wednesday, April 15, 2009 I have to tell you, as a former Rockwell employee, despite all the changes that have taken place recently, I believed, and still believe that they are on track to keep and maintain their #1 position in the process control system market. The whole concept of 'Integrated Architecture' is a very powerful message and now that I'm at an end-user, I intend to use it as my single control system for the plant as soon as I can rip this Delta V system out..... expected to happen in 2 months. Tuesday, April 14, 2009 So they closed the Vancouver office. Further confirmation that upper management has lost their minds. So many talented software development people. It is such a shame. Good luck to all. As for Rockwell - you can't bring the company out of a recession with nobody to do the work! All that will be left is a bunch of highly paid frat boys manging no one. Good bye Rockwell and good riddance. Saturday, April 11, 2009 The goal of many company CEO's today is to suck as much money from the company as possible and pack it into their own pockets before they either get fired or bury the company. As an example, Keith Nosbusch canceled everybody else's merit bonus this year, (stating that we all have to sacrifice in these tough economic times), then turned arounthen selling off his own personal Rockwell shares. Some leadership. The guy doesn't even believe in the company he runs! And as for how everything is done all backwards at Rockwell - who cares? After all, they can just work it into the product cost so that the customer pays for our illustrious managements' mistakes. Ha! The suckers have been over paying for years! Rockwell management is just lucky that the shareholders don't realize just how much money they have 'NOT' made due to how disorganized and backward the place is run. Then Mr. Nosbusch could hire outsiders to come in and escort himself to the door! Thursday, April 9, 2009 This blog seems to be centred around Rockwell's manufacturing. I do feel for all these employees. However, from a competitor's standpoint, it's reassuring to see the great AB monster starting to fall apart... Fear not customers, we will pick up the pieces! Thursday, April 9, 2009 I'm glad management is around still, to let the little ducklings that are still left behind know what these blogs mean. Wednesday, April 8, 2009 If you read the internal memos concerning Keith's 20% reduction, it does not specifically state that his salary will actually get reduced by 20%. It says that he is asking the board of directors to reduce his salary by 20%. Do you think that the board of dirctors will actually do it? And if they do (as a token gesture to the employees) will they offer him some other form of compensation to maintain his total compensation package value of over $7.5M/year? His base salary is just a small part of his total compensation package, and the potential loss of 20% (~$300K) will affect him and his family much less than most of the employees who are losing 4.6% of their salaries. But to be thankful, his reduction amounts to 4-6 workers keeping their jobs, while alternatively if he offered to work for $1 total compensation for 2009, they could have saved 100 or more jobs. Now if you consider what would be saved if Keith's first reports would also consider working for $1 this year, Rockwell would actually be hiring people. But to be fair, Rockwell management is no different than the management of most other companies... which explains why the world is in this economic mess to begin with. Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Well, I have been reading these blogs for a while now. Management says this due to people being let go; they are a little bitter and all they are doing is company bashing. I beg to differ! There are specific incidents that are absolutely true and hard to deny. The company is laying off approximaetly 100 people. The unfair thing from the Cambridge plant is we don't have a Union. The company has layed off about 20 people more than plan so they can give the ass-kissers a repreive and get rid of the people they find undesireable. The kicker to all this is: The company wants all the employees to do their ethics refresher training by the end of April. Should the company not lead by example? Tuesday, April 7, 2009 The comments from Rockwell people are interesting, but mainly full of whines from folks that could have defined a better path for themselves and the company, but chose to be wall flowers. However, as a long time Rockwell watcher, I think there are some interesting dynamics. What I see is a critical lack of confidence in its senior manager to invest in what it theoretically believes it is good at. This is probably because Rockwell has no track record of ground-breaking success in product design, aquisition or even initiative. I would think that until Keith Nosbusch changes himself, or his leadership team, this will not change. You see this characteristic everywhere: lack of real funding in emerging markets. How many people do they really have in Eastern Europe, for instance? This pain is inflicted on the masses because Senior Management know it is time to act on their own ranks, and won't; aquisitions so small that it doesnt matter if they don't work. Old timers worry about their jobs but the saddest statistic is that new talent, introduced over the past few years, leaves very quickly. There is some talent, but they are now easy-pickings for competitors to whisk away and complete the Rockwell demise. I also get the impression that the Boards main KPI is the dividend, and so they aren't that interested in Operations. Does anyone know any other bright spots in the corporation? Tuesday, April 7, 2009 Howwwww many more, I ask, howwwww many more greedy Keith Knuckleheads do we need. Gee, Kieth is taking a 20 percent cut in pay, haha haha, the joke is on you. Don't forget he makes more than a million a year, never mind the ffffffive million dollar bonus. How will he ever get by? He might need to cut back on his spending and drive a Hyundai; or make the family cut back on the steaks and shrimp. If Trump could fire him, he would be gone. We need less Keith, and more power to the employees. Tuesday, April 7, 2009 The problems that are being seen by Rockwell aren't the result of the bad economy. Sure the economic situation helps to worsen RA's lot, but the real reason is BAD MANAGMENT! Look at Rockwell Software as an example. Bad acquisition after bad acquisition, no direction, and a completely clueless management team that doesn't even know what products Rockwell Software have produced. People within the RA team that have years of experience are discounted because they aren't in the "in crowd". It’s like being at high school all over again. We have an MES product that is a layer of script over a DB with one of the most extremely poorly written interfaces to RA processors I have ever seen. A Historian that could truly be world class, but has been given to a development team that has a clueless leader and is more interested on releasing on time, rather than producing a product that works. It embarrassingly sends c.logix processors outside of RA to be programmed for testing, because it has no engineers capable of programming one. Customer requirements are depreciated or ignored due to arrogance. We have a business manager that just discounts the value or functionality of any previous products that came before his, who actively discourages the use and sale of other Rockwell Software products, because he can create that functionality in script. When he is confronted about functionality, he basically discounts the need for that feature. Monday, April 6, 2009 Too bad Keith Nosbusch didn't turn down his $5 million bonus; then maybe we would not have to take 6 days off without pay. Monday, April 6, 2009 I too was recently let go from Rockwell after 15+ yrs. They have no mercy in letting someone go, people who have endured through countless changes in Management. Since these people from Ford came in, it's been all DOWNHILL. Although I regret losing my job, I am GLAD to be out from the very stressful situation they created at the Twinsburg plant. If management would open their eyes for one minute and look around, they just MIGHT see they are driving this plant into the ground!! They do not care about QUALITY anymore; it's QUANTITY. Rockwell thinks they are a good company - but NOT anymore! Keith, you need realize that it's spreading fast. Rockwell does not care about their Distributor's or customers. Soon, Rockwell will go down! Monday, April 6, 2009 Does the paycut across the board also apply to the Board of Directors? Monday, April 6, 2009 How come we have not seen any of our Senior Leadership let go? If they were doing such a fantastic job at the top, why are we in this position? Also, does Rockwell really need 2 corporate jets, and what about board retreats? I think there is a lot of pork that could be cut out of the budget. Sunday, April 5, 2009 For those of you that maybe looking for new employment, I saw a website that maybe helpful. Linkedin.com It's way to network and tell each other if there are jobs available. Sunday, April 5, 2009 I've just been reading Nosbusch's interview in ISA Intech. The interview correctly raises the issue of the loss of knowledge that occurs when baby boomers leave or when people are made redundant due to the downturn. What he forgot to question was the loss of knowledge (applications, customer intimacy, process, and products) when you lose your distributors. In Australia there are about 100 people who hold that knowledge that are now lost from the so-called Rockwell family. We hear that India is next to be "re-structured"! It will take NHP years to gain what would be around 1000 - 1500 years of experience in those distirbutor staff. The Australian solution was for the new and continuing distributors to aggressively poach staff from ex-distributors - accelerating their demise. When that only yielded a dozen or so, they started poaching a few from Rockwell. Nosbusch's answer to the brain drain is, quote, "There are a couple of ways we pick that up. Sometimes we will tap into the knowledge of our customers, and maybe they can become our employees." ..... So, the new knowledge-building strategy is to demoralize your staff, sack your business partners to cut costs and then later on recruit your customers' staff. Here's a new slogan suggestion "Rockwell Automation... they took Quality out of Allen-Bradley." Sunday, April 5, 2009 It's not just the 20% paycut volunteered by the CEO that's crucial. (After all, most CEO's have more than one directorship.) It's the USD cost of the whole of the whole board that counts; probably around a quarter of the 250 million USD the company is attempting to save? What does the Shareholders Report say, I wonder? Saturday, April 4, 2009 Does anyone believe that Nosbush is really taking a 20% pay cut. He likes lining his pockets to much to give up any pay. Of course, if I just got a $5 million bonus, 20% less on pay is nothing. Saturday, April 4, 2009 As far as that woman, or another employees being treated that way, it's not the norm for most companies. Recently, I experienced a warehouse closing by another large publicly-owned company. In that case the employer gave 90 days notice to all the employees, brought in the state unemployment office to communicate possible options, etc. They did bring in 24/7 security guards, however these people were not "tough guy" types. They did not interfere at all. When the majority of employees left, they said their goodbye's, keep in touch, etc. All in all, it was positive experience. It appears to me that Rockwell may need to rethink their HR people, because treating human beings like dirt is a reflection on HR. This other employer I'm speaking about would not have any problem re-hiring anyone they let go. I don't think that Rockwell would be able to say the same thing. Makes you wonder just what it is they're trying to accomplish. Saturday, April 4, 2009 I too work at Rockwell in Cambridge. I agree that it is disgraceful the way long time employees are being treated when they are fired. Especially office people. They are being degraded like they are criminals. Also, why are outsiders being brought in to do the companies dirty work? I understand that hard times may call for hard measures. But to parade people out through the plant surrounded by security like they are criminals? Shareholders should be ashamed! We are people too, you know. Anyway, I am salary. So I am probably safe until the end of the next quarter. Saturday, April 4, 2009 I too had a long career with this company, that was ended with the first round of reductions. I am glad to be out of this organization that has been on an almost continuous regorganization over the last couple of years, trying to find themselves. I think that part of the decline that RA has seen recently, goes beyond the weak economy. During the days of AB Quality, customers purchased our products, and were willing to pay a premium price for the AB name, and the service that came along with it. I think customers are realizing why should one purchase AB, when there are a lot of alternatives out there. Saturday, April 4, 2009 Here's a question from the Cambridge plant. When is somebody going to change the sign out front from AB Quality to the more appropriate AB Quantity? I started here back in the 80's and I remember when the word 'Quality' was drilled into our heads on a daily basis. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I've heard that word spoken inside our Dundas plant. Also, why was a lady being let go after 36 years of loyal service walked out in front of her co-workers like a criminal by 'hired guns' from outside the company? You know, if what goes around truly does come around, then more than a few Rockwell senior mis-managers should be keeping a wary eye on their own future. And should the 'hired guns' being brought in to degrade and humiliate these good people? What a disgrace! All shareholders should be ashamed of themselves. Friday, April 3, 2009 Management from Rockwell in RC said we will be getting about $2 million dollars in orders from Cambridge, because of their shutdown. We haven't had any layoffs since Feburary and they let go about 1/3 of the plant workers. Which is equivalent to 200 employees. Thursday, April 2, 2009 Extracts from "Business Journal of Milwaukee", Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Rockwell Automation will temporarily reduce the salaries of its entire international work force by 4.6 percent while the manufacturer's top executive will get a 20 percent pay cut. An e-mail from Rockwell chief executive Keith Nosbusch sent March 31 to the company's employees said the salary reductions would be imposed until Sept. 30, 2009, which is the end of Rockwell's fiscal year. Employees will be directed to take three unpaid days off for each of the final two quarters of its fiscal year to meet the salary reduction. Rockwell will also suspend payments into 401(k) retirement plans and employees will not receive a bonus. The e-mail from Nosbusch also stated that his salary would be cut by 20 percent. Nosbusch said that the actions are necessary for Rockwell to come out of the recession stronger than its competitors. The recent cost cutting measures are a result of the company's continuing efforts to cut costs by $240 million this fiscal year. Rockwell sees its business being down between 19 percent and 24 percent for this time period. Last week the company announced it would cut jobs in the Milwaukee area and worldwide. Thursday, April 2, 2009 I'm the guy who told the story (below) about welding the side sheets by the print. - which, of course, is not how things are ever done at Rockwell. Then throwing them all out because Rockwell doesn't know how to change an erroneous blueprint. I just want to add a couple of things. When I started with Rockwell in the nineties, I used to brag to my friends about how well Rockwell treated its people. Now I am trying to get debt-free fast, so I can try and find a good company to jump too, even if it means a drastic pay cut and scaling back my lifestyle. I'm tired of being treated like a piece of junk. Wish me luck! I want to let all those people who are losing their jobs know that I hope all works out well for them and their families. Something I doubt the Rockwell brass would ever even think of, let alone care about. Thursday, April 2, 2009 I worked at Rockwell Automation in Cambridge for several years. Here is a true story that is typical of the place. When I started welding there a few years ago, I welded ten side sheets for cabinets and placed all the parts exactly where the print showed. The following day I came to work to find the entire pile set aside with a note attached stating that the side sheets were no good and had to all be thrown out. My boss then informed me that some of the parts welded on were located wrong, others were no longer needed on the side sheets, and still other parts should be on them. Here is our conversations:
Boss: "The print has been wrong for eight years." Me: "So why not change the print?" Boss: "Believe me, we have tried - but you can only bang your head against a wall for so long before you get tired of the headaches." Me: "So how is a new person to know the print is wrong?" Boss: "The way we see it is we let you build it wrong the first time, then tell you so you will know from now on." Me: But what about the next person who has to build it. That's a lot of man hours to make all those parts and weld the side sheets together." Boss: "They go through the same thing. That's the Rockwell way." If the shareholders had any idea of how much money they are losing due to stupidity, and managers that are better at talking than actually managing, Mr. Keith Nosbusch would be out. No wonder we're all in deep shit! PS. I hope our Nosbusch enjoys the big performance bonus he got last year while everyone else was denied theirs. Thursday, April 2, 2009 - Extracts from Journal Sentinel, Mar. 31, 2009: Rockwell outlines cost-cutting measures Rockwell Automation Inc. (which recently began its second round of job reductions in the current fiscal year) on Tuesday outlined measures to impose temporary salary reductions and cancel bonuses to "protect as many jobs as possible." "No employee in the organization is exempt from sacrifice," Rockwell Chief Executive Keith Nosbusch said in an e-mail addressed to the company's entire international work force. "I want you to know my salary will be cut by 20%." The company's most recent proxy statement listed Nosbusch's base salary at $1,040,000. The Milwaukee-based supplier of factory automation systems declined to provide further details about the scope of its job reductions. Nosbusch repeated in his e-mail that the company is trying to cut operating costs by $240 million in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. In November, Nosbusch predicted a 6% to 10% decline in fiscal 2009 sales but issued a more dire outlook in February that foresees a drop of 19% to 24%. In addition to job reductions, Rockwell will:
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Questions:
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 I was let go in 2002, and even before then Rockwell had been trimming their workforce and re-organizing every 6 months, proving they cannot be the great marketing group that they believe they are. Not manufacturing their own products is catching up with them as customers are becoming smarter and realize Rockwell is merely a commodity supplier. This is a direct quote from a top 10 company in the US who use Rockwell products and even today is having doubts. This customer believes they have gone too deep to pull out, and recently I have shown them that there is a way out. Rockwell does not value their people - only the bottom line. These latest cuts and plant closures or production relocations are just the beginning. You probably have not even heard of the other products that moved to China and Mexico, or the small plants closure, sales offices, etc. that have happened over the last few years. Freezing wages or not handing out merit increases is not something new to Rcokwell; they have found formulas to make that something of a norm in years past. There IS life after Rockwell. I have seen many of my friends find work with Baldor-Reliance, ABB, Siemens and others like small distributors and system integrators. I hate to see the Rockwell decline, as it may effect my pension and medical benefits eventually, as they try and find more ways to cut their expenses. In reviewing some of the other blogs, you can see the list starts with the older employees and there is a direct correlation between age and bottom line. They have no regard for the value of their employees and the morale will continue to decline. Those who keep a low profile and say yes to everything and not question or challenge the management may survive until the end is near. But until new TOP management and a completed re-structure happens this process of layoffs and plant closures will continue. When AB and Reliance combined, AB was comparing age and years of service between the two companies. Look for the Reliance employees today, most are long gone. Baldor bought the Reiance motor group and now they are paying back their debt for this aquistion at 10 times expected; guess Baldor knows more about marketing than Rockwell. Do not look for any body to buy Rockwell either, sources out there say nobody is interested! Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Strange that nothing has been mentioned yet, but the word out now is that Rockwell EMEA employees are being told to take six days away from work over the next six months as unpaid holiday. I can't believe that this is anywhere near a sufficient cost cutting measure; so is this action to ensure that those executives in middle management upwards can "hang in there" just a wee bit longer before the axe finally falls? Don't count on it. Tuesday, March 31, 2009 After almost 10 years with RA, I left the company a year ago -- on MY terms. It was tough to leave good co-workers and a good salary, but to survive (mentally and physically) and to THRIVE, I had no choice. My advice to all who are still there: GET OUT NOW! You're a LOT more valuable than RA will ever give you credit for. Don't stay because you've got so many years invested. I didn't, and I'm better off for it, and I'll fly higher outside of RA than I could ever inside. Other companies need you and will treat you well. Don't think that all companies are the same -- they're NOT! Escape, and you'll realize that within months. Tuesday, March 31, 2009 This move is a knee-jerk reaction for the benefit of the shareholders and nothing more. When the crisis is over we will be left in the dust of our competitors. Keep cutting Keith, and provide our customers with nothing in the next few years. By the way, how about getting that Edmonton Business Manager to move to the states so we don't have to pay his airfare, hotel, car rental, meals, week after week after week. Thats just STUPID. Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - From EMEA: To all those that have been laid off, my heart goes out to everyone one of you. From EMEA I can tell you that the impact was kept silent on our side of the water, much to the amazement of my American counter parts, until 5pm today when the email came from Keith Nosbusch. Unfortunately I was all too aware of what was happening as I lost good friends and co-workers across the globe. I know my own situation is dangerous at the moment and by 5:30pm my (already updated) CV had been sent to the top agencies. We live in fear every day of wondering if tomorrow we have a job, so why would I be motivated to work on projects spanning 3-4 months if I might not be here next week? And they wonder why morale is at an all time low? I loved my job once, now I struggle to go to work in the mornings - the reason I go is simple, I have a mortage to pay. I am one of the fortunate in so far as being in a country where the laws protect the workers for their salaries, pensions and contracts however in saying that what happens when I refuse a pay cut - I am sure they will find a way to make my position disposable. To all of you, know that the people in EMEA are thinking of you and know we understand that Rockwell has once again lost some of its best people. Reach out to your collegues over seas, we are more than willing to write recommendations, give support and help any way we can. Tuesday, March 31, 2009 In response to the salesman. I was one of the people just let go. And three days into it, it is doing me good to hate the company. Of course, I know I will get past this and be much better off. But for now...let me hate. For years I have tried to change my fellow employees' bad attitudes towards the company. It has put a roof over my head and fed me all of my life. It is clean, easy work. Just get in on time and do your work and everything will be fine. Shows how much I know. I got an "exceeds" on my review...was a go-to person for others...but I also spoke my mind and didn't suck-up to my supervisor. So did I get put on the list because of my wonderful, talented self? Keep your mouth closed and praise your supervisor as much as you can and you'll go far on the manufacturing floor of Rockwell Automation. Tuesday, March 31, 2009 I am a RA employee from China. After having read the words here, maybe I have seen the picture beforehand that will happen in China soon... Tuesday, March 31, 2009 I too was walked out last October and I completely agree with the previous poster; for those of you just going through the experience, you will go through weeks of disorientation and confusion as to why you were chosen. I was a high performer and a manager and had no idea it was coming as it was poorly executed and extremely secretive with the decisions made at the top. Losing a job for the first time after a successful twenty five year career filled with great opportunities and great achievements took me much more than a few weeks to overcome the shock of the experience. The first instinct is to take it personally but that isn't the case. It's business and although we may not agree with the way the business is being conducted, it is what it is. Take the time and grieve and then get back out there and don't judge your self worth on your job or lack thereof. I am happy to be away from the daily stress and being surrounded by people who have such low morale. It is toxic. I took to opportunity to go back to school and am looking forward to starting a new career once the economy stabilizes. Take the time to regroup and start over, all of the time you spend reliving the past is time wasted that could be spent reinventing yourself. Monday, March 30, 2009 As someone who was escorted out 6 months ago in the first wave of 600 back on October 1st, this is a note to the ones who are getting let go now. Life goes on. It is TOO easy to measure your self worth in this world by your job. You have a number of weeks of being disoriented to look forward to, but after that, you sails will fill again and you will be off in a different direction. As hard as it may be, give it some time and then make contact again with your old co-workers and let them know you are OK. Hit them up for lunch. Those friendships are still there, they just won't know how to deal with it initially. Management will always be management. Screw them. They will look out for their own, and such is the way of the world. Accept it and move on. Remember, they still have to live that life of half-truths when they speak. You no longer do. You are free from that. As for myself, I have been meaning for years to start my own engineering consulting business and this shove towards that has been a good thing. If this didn't happen, then I may have never done it. Between the Rockwell severance and unemployment (thank you Mr. Obama for the extra weeks and COBRA kicker), I am taking this opportunity to build something long term for myself and my family that has nothing to do with the cozy interior of a big company. I have not felt this alive in many years. I would be lying if I said it was easy, because it is not. But that is where the juice comes from. Taking a chance, believing in yourself. I have a firm belief that the job security that our parents knew is gone. We have to re-invent ourselves numerous times in our careers. That is the only job security anymore. Re-invent yourself and go forward. There is something better on the other side of the next door. I promise. Monday, March 30, 2009 The problems at RA are a result of the acquisition of AB by Rockwell - the move from a privately held company to a public one. Everything you see in this blog is only a result of that. As a distributor specialist for 20 yrs. the constant re-orgs (the AGSM only lasted 6 months in our region, most reorgs last 2 years) new managers, new salesmen, new programs, etc. only serve to confuse the US channel. The old guard piss off the customers, so they send in a new bunch. We've grown sales every year in spite of RA, but they keep telling us we're doing it all wrong, that we don't understand our market. RA management thinks we have $3M in untapped potential, and so with every new management change we go thru the same thing (OK you guys knock yourselves out, find what we are missing). But they end up screwing up our existing business and don't ever find the missing $3M. Our philosophy is to serve the customer, plain and simple. Do that and the sales will come. With outsourced products, they have no control over the supply or quality, although they don't seem to have control over the products made in-house either. Do what you do best, make the best PLC for the US market and quit trying to be everything to everybody. Their services division has been referred to as a herd of squirrels even by the RA sales guys. They come in and get one project, mess it up, and make us and RA look so bad the customer wouldn't even consider RA again. The software fiasco is the same story different division. The best thing for RA would be to find investors to take the company private again. Having said all that, I think the future holds a 10-count-and-out for Rockwell Automation. Monday, March 30, 2009 - To the salesman below: I agree with the person from Twinsburg. Here in Cambridge, Ontaripo, I saw the same thing. People with several years of service were let go in place of an employee who had very few years of service. Letting go senior staff with a wide knowledge base and keeping an employee with a limited knowledge base -- how does that help the company? Yes, we are in difficult times, there is no doubt about that and unfortunately certain things must be done. There must be other alternatives other than layoffs. At least the US had a survey -- we were never given the option at all in Canada. Monday, March 30, 2009 - To the salesman, regarding your statement "management puts a lot of thought into who stays and who goes.": I have been with Rockwell for over 29 years and your statement is not totally correct. In Twinsburg I saw some people who were let go that should have been at the bottom of the list to go; and there were others who suck up to supervisors and management and keep their jobs. Monday, March 30, 2009 For all that lost your job recently, I am sorry. I realize that using this site to vent is probably a good outlet. However, I have to also disagree with so many that portray Rockwell as a completely ruthless poorly run company. I have been with RA for a little over 20 years and I am still optimistic about where the company is heading long term. I admit that I am not in manufacturing, but rather in sales, so I know many of you are going to say "What does a spoiled Salesman know?" Look, times are terrible everywhere. What RA is doing is not that different than what many companies are doing. Whether or not Keith made a dollar or 5 Million is not the point. It's all about keeping enough of the workforce around so that we can survive this downturn. People had to go. It's as simple as that. You may think it was mostly random, but I can tell you that management puts a lot of thought into who stays and who goes. It's simple human nature. If two people are doing the exact same job at the exact same level, something has to differentiate them. Right? Again, you have every right to be angry if you have been recently let go. However, don't be a victim. If it is RA that messed up in your opinion, go to a competitor and rub it in our face, or try a completely new and different industry. It doesn't do anyone any good to simply go on and on about how evil "management" is treating everyone. Sunday, March 29, 2009 Since being let go from Rockwell Automation, I have enjoyed life to its fullest. Yes the economy is not the best; There is never right time but when is it ever. If you believe Rockwell is still a good company, take a look at it this way. How can a company hire many new sales personnel only to let them go 12 -18 months later, only to abandon the AGSM (Aggressive sales model)? Apparently they were not reading or watching the same news everyone in the world was living and breathing. Then after the first round of layoffs the CEO gets a $5 million dollar bonus in November/December 2008. Sounds a lot like AIG? Did anyone see Keith Nosbusch give his money back? Well how about this one. Rockwell sends an email out to their personnel - asks them to take a poll. That pertained to something like what would they rather have: Layoffs / pay reduction / no contribution to 401K - only to have a layoff anyway. Why even ask? Do they really care about their employees thoughts? Read the writing on the wall: Get out and move on, they are hoping since you cut your teeth on Rockwell products you will continue to use and purchase the Rockwell products after you have landed in a new position. Its time to learn something new everyone. There is life after Rockwell. Yes the truth hurts but move on, they do not care. Upper management is just concerned to make their EBITs so that they can make their year end bonuses. Am I bitter, no not really just stating the facts. They have had their head handed to them outside the USA only to have to sink to levels they are not use to seeing in the USA. They have all but given up on Europe and Australia. They continue to see growth in South America by dropping their prices on product and projects. They also continue to compete against their system integrators on many projects, which is starting to upset the integrators a lot. There has neve been a more heavily weighted management than Rockwell (Perhaps Enron or AIG.) that less care about their personel than Rockwell. Take it for what its worth, move out and move on, and don't look back. Because they won't be looking for you to come back. Sunday, March 29, 2009 All those let go in Ontario - you don't have to sign anything. You have rights as an employee under employment law and common law. Don't sign anything without someone else taking a look. Many are not aware that the relationship between an employer and employee is a type of contract. The dismissal of non-unionized employees (unionized employees are subject to "labor law" and their collective agreements), contrary to the rules that exist in Ontario and Canadian employment law, may be a breach of a condition of the employment contract. Employers must have a legitimate reason to dismiss their employees for "just cause." If not, this type of breach may be known as a "wrongful dismissal". Employers must comply with Canadian employment law requirements concerning how they deal with their employees during and after dismissal. Employers may be sued and the former employees may be awarded monies for the failure of the employer to provide reasonable notice and not having just cause for dismissal. Canadian employment law requires a fairly high standard to dismiss an employee for just cause. An employer or employee may be wise to contact specialized legal counsel to determine if there is enough "cause" for the court to consider there to be just cause for dismissal without notice, or whether the employee will be able to sue for wrongfully dismissal. Sunday, March 29, 2009 I'm sorry to hear about all the layoffs. As a former AB executive back in the 90s, I have reinvented myself and I have never had more fun or more satisfaction in my career. Life is not about a job, but about finding your passion, turning it into an opportunity so you can pay the bills. Figure out where your passions are, hobbies, non-profits, core skills that can be applied in different businesses, or different industries. Look at it as an opportunity once you get over the depression of not being "wanted" anymore. Remember, your real friends and family will always be there for you. Sunday, March 29, 2009 I'm just glad a got out when I did - almost 2 years ago. Rockwell management are behind the times and need to learn how to treat the people that have made them the money they have. I hope they all suffer miserable business for the way they've treated people throughout all their facilities, it's disgraceful!! Saturday, March 28, 2009 Why do people sign documents when they exit? Because of the threat they give you that if you do not sign the paper, they will not give you your severance package. Saturday, March 28, 2009 - Rockwell closes plant, lays off 115 - extract from TheRecord.com: Rockwell Automation is laying off 115 employees and closing one of its plants in Cambridge. The layoffs are "due to declining work volumes amid the global economic recession" the director of external communications at Rockwell's head office in Milwaukee, said yesterday. Seventeen salaried employees are being laid off on March 30, and another 90 hourly workers on May 30, he said. The remainder are being let go at smaller Rockwell sales offices in the area. The company is also closing a small facility it was leasing on Raglin Place and consolidating operations at its main plant on Dundas Street. Following the layoffs, the Dundas Street plant will employ about 870. Rockwell first set up shop in Cambridge in 1952. The company is shrinking its workforce on a global basis as well. On Feb. 2, it told shareholders it planned to implement $240 million in cost savings during this fiscal year. Friday, March 27, 2009 First of all, I would like to say to the employees that were let go at the Twinsburg location that you will be missed. For all of us that remain let us not forget the way management handled this layoff process. It made me sick to see how each of these employees were walked through the factory in front of all of us. We were then left wondering who would be walked out next. Talk about Stress Management; talks about being respectful and considerate of the employees being let go. How about management being respectful and considerate of its employees? The next time a manager gets walked out, we all need to go to the doors and give them a standing ovation all the way out of the parking lot. Management needs to understand that when they do not treat a customer right, the word spreads throughout the industry as to what we are doing wrong. If we start to treat our customers right, like Allen-Bradley did, the rest will fall into place. Allen-Bradley did not only make a quality product, but they knew that the customers came first. They knew that if they treated the customers well, word would spread and business would grow. Next they treated the employees like people, not just a number or an added expense. When times get tough, that's when you find out what the management team is made of. I have found out that Rockwell's management is arrogant, greedy, and apathetic. They will do whatever it takes in the name of Rockwell to make sure that at the end of the quarter their dollar figures are met. It's time to thin the herd at the top, Keith. Do we really need all you guys? NOT!!!! Friday, March 27, 2009 If you survived this quarterly hit -- you only have 3 more months before the next quarterly hit. Congratulations -- I think. It has been a devastating few days in Cambridge -- we lost an entire product line and several excellent people from the office. For those who were lucky enough to be in manufacturing -- they typically follow the seniority policy which is a good thing. But if you work in the office, the last week of the end of the quarter is one of pins & needles. Everyone wants to hide as they never know if they are on the list or not. You check on other co-workers throughout the building in order to find out if they made it through the day or not. They take it minute by minute as they never know if they'll get the tap on the shoulder. Friday, March 27, 2009 Rockwell has lost sight of the most important thing to remember -- it's your customers who pay the bills not the shareholders. If we could stop being about the bottom line and what the shareholders demand, and focus on what the customer wants, perhaps things would improve. I know it would take time and you won't get the immediate satisfaction for the shareholders but you would grow your markets, increase your market share and with all that you would actually be able to better satisfy your shareholders because it's based in reality not a fantasy world. Somewhere along the road Rockwell forgot that golden rule -- it's about the CUSTOMER Friday, March 27, 2009 Yes it was a sad day...after day... week at Rockwell. Many people lost their jobs after many years of service, as did many who had not so many. There was no rhyme or reason to their choices. Some people had medical reasons for much time away; others had disciplinary issues; and others had attendance. There were some that had people scratching their heads though. AB is officially dead. I was saddened to see so many go, and yet so grateful to still be employed. It's just one chapter in the saga of "Rockwell Survivor". We will see who makes the next cut. My only question is, "If I am the last survivor and manage to sit back and watch all my friends get walked, do I get a million dollars?" How about it Nosbush...throw me just one of your million?! Sorry,its either laugh or cry. Friday, March 27, 2009 - Rockwell makes global job cuts - extracts from Business Journal of Milwaukee: Rockwell Automation began making job cuts at its Milwaukee-area operations and worldwide this week as part of an overall effort to reduce costs in the midst of the ongoing economic downturn. The job cuts, which involve office and factory jobs, are due to “declining economic conditions,” Rockwell spokesman Keith Lester said. “This is a global situation and due to the ongoing nature, we can’t disclose work force reduction numbers at this time,” Lester said. Rockwell has about 21,000 employees worldwide. The company listed 3,300 Milwaukee-area employees in The Business Journal’s Dec. 12, 2008, list of the largest private-sector employers. Rockwell management announced in February that it was reducing its outlook by about 50 percent for fiscal 2009 after fiscal first-quarter profits fell 24 percent. The Milwaukee-based manufacturer of industrial automation systems posted net income for the quarter ended Dec. 31 of $118.4 million, or 83 cents per share, compared with $156.6 million, or $1.04 per share, for the same period the year before. Net sales for the quarter declined 11 percent to $1.19 billion from $1.33 billion. Company management said at that time that the global recession had grown deeper and wider than originally expected. The work force reduction is the latest cost-savings initiative implemented by Rockwell in fiscal 2009. Other measures have included a consolidation of business units, the closing of facilities, a hiring freeze, limits on travel and a major reduction in discretionary spending. Friday, March 27, 2009 - Rockwell Automation cuts jobs in Northeast Ohio, and worldwide - extracts from Cleveland Plain Dealer: Rockwell Automation, the Milwaukee industrial manufacturer, said it began laying off employees at two Northeast Ohio facilities and at plants worldwide "in response to declining economic conditions." The company, with offices in Mayfield Heights and production plant in Twinsburg, actually added employees during 2008, when international manufacturers were still purchasing its machines and software. The new hires during last year brought the total number of Rockwell Automation employees in Northeast Ohio to about 2,000. In the latter part of the year, though, Rockwell, like other industrial companies, suffered a substantial drop in revenue and profitability. Over the past 12 months, the company's share value has declined from around $60 to the mid- to low-$20s and even high teens in recent weeks. Keith Lester, a communications officer at the company's Wisconsin headquarters, declined to say how many jobs the Cleveland-area plants would lose. He added, "Job elimination's were communicated this week. We are not closing any facilities. We can't disclose the workforce reduction number at this time. I can only say that it's ongoing, and it's global." Rockwell sales in 2008 totaled $5.7 billion, but the worldwide downturn that deepened in the second half of last year cut severely into Rockwell's profitability as manufacturers began limiting purchases of automation equipment and software. In recent years, the Twinsburg plant had about 350 workers producing and testing Rockwell controls. Friday, March 27, 2009 115 hourly employees laid off and 18 salaried employees let go as of today. Two Cambridge facilities closing, Raglin and Sheldon and Dept 16 2100 LV MCC line is gone by July 1st. The production is being moved back to Richland Centre. As of December 2008 close to 400 hourly and salaried positions have been lost to the lean operating philosophy (read into that what ever you want). Bonuses are still being paid out at the top corporate levels and execs are still getting a pat on the back for a job well done. The slash and burn mentality is alive and well at Rockwell so that those bonuses and stock options pay some dividens to panicked corporate execs. Dynamic and Pragmatic leaders are a thing of the past at Rockwell. Instead the company is lead by greedy, shortsighted, dull minded people who look for the easiest way to bump up the bottom line, namely to reduce head count anyway and anywhere they can. I guess it takes less effort. A company is only as good as its employees and a company that does not recognize the importants of its Human capital as a valuable asset is on a slippery slope. Rockwell has a lot to learn in that area. Friday, March 27, 2009 Okey, freedom at last. It all comes down to this, Rockwell Automation is all about BUSINESS, nothing else... Not the employees. I find there is a lack of balance. This is the only company where a job of more then 25 years means absolutely NOTHING, only disadvantage against you keeping your job. Be happy if you got walked out, consider yourself free out of a jail where you have to watch you back 24/7. Best part is watching all of the team managers work their asses off and get walked out after 17 years of service. Rockwell is a joke. I think everyone agrees the company completely changed O'Soli has come to shut the doors. Seen this coming from a MILE away. Friday, March 27, 2009 Why would you even sign such a document? I would have proudly signed with my wrong hand, someone elses name, and bid them adie, smiling! Or completey refused. What are they going to do fire you? Not. Hold back severance? Nope, that would be illegal! Friday, March 27, 2009 I was one of the employees who made "THE LIST" of now former employees. I worked there for 24 years and they would not even answer my one question as to how I made it on "THE LIST". After parading me through the entire plant with a supervisor I've never even worked for, they put me in a room with a woman who I have never met, or even seen (I found out later they brought her in from Landerhaven because Rhonda couldn't handle everyone by herself, because there were so many of us) to read my little blue severance folder to me word-for-word, as if I couldn't read it myself. I was then told to sign a paper saying I would not talk about the company in a derogatory way or disclose my little blue severance package folder to anyone employed at Rockwell. 24 years of service....half of my life...and that's how they said goodbye. Friday, March 27, 2009 There were approx 15 people from Cambridge office workers... The Raglin plant will be shut down by JULY... DP 16 moving to Richland by JUNE.. All people who were called back temp. were permanently laid off! Approx. 100 people, which bring the total of permanent job losses to over about 300 production employees now. A lot more to come still.. All Production emplyees were given 8 weeks notice, and a kick in the teeth. But we must have compassion for all of our workers, so they walk them out the doors treating them like criminals and useless animals ready to be put down... Friday, March 27, 2009 It was a sad day in Twinsburg Thursday and it will be a sad day today. We will lose about 130 production jobs. It was an awful way to let someone go; they walked them down the main aisles one at a time so everyone could see. Many people cried, it was just very emotional. I'm so sorry for all those that have lost their jobs Thursday and today. I hope God blesses them all. Thursday, March 26, 2009 I don’t know what the body count was in Cambridge the last couple of days, but I do know that it also extended to the Canadian sales offices. I personally know of 6 people that were escorted out. I was an employee for 15 years and can tell you the company I left was not the one I started with. Morale is in the toilet. Thursday, March 26, 2009 What has happened at Twinsburg (sad day for Twinsburg)? Have their been more cuts in MKE? RC? Cambridge? Thursday, March 26, 2009 Sad day in Twinsburg, Ohio. Thursday, March 26, 2009 Well here we go, it was "mutual decision made by Milwakee executives and Canadian management" to shut down Dept 16... Come on, which Canadian manager thinks this is a good idea? I'm sure that there are a few people who would love to see you out in the parking lot, but make sure it's not in the laneway... if you stop there, you could get fired. Sorry, I am so mad today, I can't even think straight. Wednesday, March 25, 2009 More Layoff in progress... Lets Blame the economy.... get real! Yes the economy is terrible right now, and in markets where you have high market share you expect a big hit. But what about markets where share is poor? This is the time to go on the offensive and take share, instead the company is going down due to bad morale, weakening products, bad strategy and most importantly really bad Leadership. For a turnaround, Rockwell Senior execs must stop being so arrogant.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Cambridge Plant wiating for announcement on Dept 16 closing to move to Mexico. Stay tuned... Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Well,it sure looks like it's going to be an interesting week for the US sales folks.... The AGSM sales model looks like it's being abandoned, at least in some offices. More layoffs, sales managers becoming sales reps, and other casualties. We're all just "dashboards" and "burden". I hope the last man/women standing has their Orion updated before they turn off the lights. We used to be great; we now just struggle to maintain some level of sanity. Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Departure of 02 leading stalwarts & oldtimers of Rockwell in Asia... Where is the remaining herd headed? Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The layoffs have started again today. Friday, March 20, 2009 Hey, who's you buddy... Let's just say I'm the "whistleblower". I'm glad it's fixed. Friday, March 20, 2009 HOORAY! After 18 months, the tarp in Cambridge is finally fixed. Must have been money left over from all the Kaizen's. Or, maybe this weblog woke up someone? Sunday, March 15, 2009 Is the Rockwell-Cambridge faciluty leased? The answer would be yes. The real question is who is the leasing company and what is stated on the lease agreement? Let's just say the two work within each other. Saturday, March 14, 2009 - To the person on the Twinsburg post : You forgot to mention the specialty trash cans that are used to catch the leaks because they don't have enough tarps to catch them. But hey, we have plenty of money to spend on:
Saturday, March 14, 2009 On this note, I may as well jump on the wagon...
Saturday, March 14, 2009 Anyone know if Rockwell owns the Twinsburg and Cambridge facilities? The reason I ask is that if the facilities are leased, the owners of the facilities would repair the leaks and cracks in the wall. I was just curious as I juat closed a leased warehouse and it was the norm for the owner to perform those kind of repairs. Internal facility maintenance was performed by the company leasing the building, but the external, structural integrity was the responsibility of the owner. Saturday, March 14, 2009 - To the person from Cambridge who wrote about the tarp/funnel/trash can water trap: You should see Twinsburg - there are several there that have been in place for years. Not to mention the places inside the facility where you can stand and see daylight through the cracks in the walls. But hey, you don't expect the big boys to give up their multi-million dollar bonuses just to fix a leaky roof do you? Friday, March 13, 2009 I never wrote blogs here before, but find the need to discuss an issue with the Cambridge facility that is being ignored. A recent employee got stopped a few weeks back by a customer that was touring the facility. The customer asked an employee what the large tarp hanging over an employees work area was. The employee replied that the roof has a leak there. So for the past 1 year and a half, there is a tarp with a funnel coming from it into a bucket. The customer notified the employee that the person giving the tour said it was a recent thing and is being fixed within the next few weeks. The employee stated that he didn't want to lie and said no, it has been there 1 year and a half. The customer (not being named) was not happy and said to the employee that he couldn't believe a company like like Rockwell Automation/ Allen Bradley, who pride themselves on quality, would allow that to remain for so long, hanging over the top of products. So management thinks this is not a big deal and wants names (to punish the employee). We at Cambridge take our job very seriously, and the employees feel that things like this can't be overlooked because the result is no oders from that customer, who then tells other customers, and so on. Friday, March 13, 2009 After about 20 years in Rockwell I felt I had to leave the company, because the consolidated trend to hire new people from other companies while neglecting any career to the existing medium level employees, was simply UNACCEPTABLE. When I resigned, the Country Manager stammered out some words about a project with the intent to map the talents inside the company and make them grow. Now, after one year outside Rockwell Automation, I'm wondering if there's anybody able to tell me if this happened or is going to ? Thursday, March 12, 2009 The problem with Rockwell’s profits isn’t just the economy; sure it’s a major factor but this has been a long time coming. I have been with Rockwell for 15 years and here are my observations:
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - latest Canadian Rockywell news: Pay cuts are not far off. Nosbush has sent out a form asking for the top two to be chosen out of wage freezes, pay cuts, ESP cut for 1 year, etc.... What about the choice of you not getting over $5million in bonus? I have no problems with a wage freeze at all, if the economy is that bad and ROCKY - well...sure! But, please do not just cut employee wages down to line your own pockets or to just keep them topped up. Wednesday, March 11, 2009 I really feel for our Rockwell brothers in Canada and the UK. I now ask you to imagine if all the distributor network in your respective countries, are sacked virtually overnight, with no conpensation or reason. That is exacty what happened to your colleagues in Australia. These have been loyal Rockwell representatives, in some cases well over twenty years. Is this part of an experiment? Distributors worldwide beware! You will be next, regardless of how successful you have been. It will count for nothing, and most of all, your businesses will be rendered worthless overnight. Imagine your business without Rockwell. How would this affect you? Tuesday, March 10, 2009 With reference to the posts made Monday, March 9 and the observations/experiences made in Canada, I couldn’t agree more with their contents. The way Rockwell is described in prosecuting its "strategy" parallels very well with that currently being experienced in the UK. Tuesday, March 10, 2009 When there are times of plenty, let us remember how our masters treat us in times of famine . The whippings will continue until morale improves. Monday, March 9, 2009 Unfortunately the last post is the correct one. Kind of like the ones that can't compete, so they cheat, and wonder why they lose all the marbles. Corruption breeds corruption. Jim has a post on how it happens. It's kind of like you tell a lie for so long you begin to believe it. Then if someone disagrees with you, you "eliminate" them. I not sure, but I think that's pretty much how the Mafia operates. It is a shame because at one time this company was respected. What baffles me though is how they refuse to see that they are the source of their own trouble. Monday, March 9, 2009 - Posted Feb 27 "Managers are left to do as they see fit. Giving blanket verbal warnings to entire groups. Written warnings are a regular occurrence based on the managers hearsay." This is happening for a reason; your severance pay is not only based on your years service, but on your performace while with the company. The impact of pensions also comes into play, so releasing people before they can draw full pensions in in the best interest of the company financials (the payout is logarithmic, most of the gains are made in the last 5-10 years). Not to mention the savings to the company with not having to pay benefits. Look at the number of senior people released in the Cambridge facility in the last round of "corrections". A lot of good people, and not trouble makers, but solid employee's who were dedicated to Rockwell. Many of them had the bad fortune of 20+ years and not quite at the magic pension number. Hmm, nope, don't smell any foul play here! Canadian law is also weak in this area - you can't get more than 2 years severance, the precedent has been set, and no judge will challenge it; easier just to brush it under the carpet. The company is fully aware of this, and use it to their advantage. The HR in Cambridge is shameless in the way they treat people, makes me wonder how they can sleep at night. I suppose they can justify it by telling themselves it's the company directive, but at the end of the day it is wrong, and you can't hide from that. Wait until their children have to work under this opressive regime mentality, then they may sing a different tune. Oh, the injustice! Just remember, you had a chance to make a difference, but you chose the easy route and protected yourself at the cost of others. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Cowards. Sunday, March 8, 2009 When a company produces the best products and services, ego is known as pride. When quality of product and service slips, ego is known as arrogance. Friday, March 6, 2009 It is easy to say to those who are there that "if you dont like it get out." Let us not forget that most people have mortgages to pay and families to feed. Only the very brave would quit in these uncertain times. Sadly though, the writing is on the wall. Rockwell were struggling to grow enough organically before the current crisis. Clearly the competition is in the same boat. But you cannot use this excuse to satisfy the shareholders. Over time, the quality of the products and services will drop below acceptable levels and the bigger guys like ABB and Siemens will get half a chance to switch-sell - that's all they need. Until the man at the top goes, nothing is gonna change. Friday, March 6, 2009 How about senior managment implementing job-sharing for director level, up to the top. Each senior manager would share a job and get half the salary. We have so many directors and VP's that there wouldn't be a shortage. Friday, March 6, 2009 In Australia, market share shrinkage is inevitable. Rockwell's change of distribution model has left a very jaded customer base to look at alternatives. We are seeing long standing traditional Rockwell sites being converted to traditionally unsuccessfully competitive brands.(Siemens,Schnider,Omron,ABB). Worst of all, we are being told that the alternatives they are looking at are actually better products in both quality and value for money. Together with this, the news on the street is that the new distributor (NHP) is not anywhere near ready to take over the distributorship wholely and solely, with the handover date being postponed for another few months. Also customers are confused as they are getting reps from the same company (NHP) trying to sell them both Rockwell and Sprecher & Schur switchgear,along with a myriad of other conflincting products. What a mess and what a shame. Thursday, March 5, 2009 Yes, I agree. A period of acquisitions, then spin-off's. Never made sense to me. Thursday, March 5, 2009 Hasn't shrinkage been Rockwell's strategy all along? Supposedly there are huge tax breaks to be had for spinoffs, but the benefits can only be claimed for two years. Have you noticed that Rockwell's spinoffs have occurred almost exactly every two years, going all the way back to Boeing many years ago? Now that they've become good at that but there's nothing left to spin, the only remaining option is to implode, and call it "lean". Sure, there's been a smattering of tiny acquisitions, but not one of them has been successful enough to call it a working growth plan. And yes, it's true that working at Rockwell/AB used to be tremendously fun, and it's true that there are some very high caliber people still working there (with golden handcuffs), but in recent years that's changed. When 90% of your time is spent rehashing previous discussions about how to be even more lean, it's time to go. I don't miss it. Thursday, March 5, 2009 Exactly. When your focus is on share price, it's kind of like a dog that focuses on it's tail and wonders why it keeps going backwards. Share price is a by-product of real world performance. You can't grow your company by continuously shrinking it so that it "appears" to be doing better than it is. That's a card trick, not wise management. Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Look around your senior management today. They are mostly from Allen-Bradley not Rockwell. Current management is all about maximizing their share price to line their own pockets. Watch the next month or so; if sales doesn't improve, then start saying goodbye to your friends, as you may be next person out the door. Wednesday, March 4, 2009 - from Brian D. Sorcic [bsorcic@wi.rr.com]: I worked for Allen Bradley for 35 years. The last 5 years under "Rockwell Automation" were the worse years of my life. Rockwell SUCKS big time and all these blogs are so very true. Nothing is good about working for Rockwell. Allen Bradley was a wonderful place to work. They were a honest hard working group way back then. These days it's a terrible place to be spending your days working. Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Dominic Molloy didn't go anywhere! Some fool added the "Dominic Molloy" comment to the general announcement. Editor's note: Molloy sentence deleted from Tuesday, March 3 announcement. Wednesday, March 04, 2009 So what did Dominic Mollloy do wrong? Many of us thought that he was the best for a long time. Hard act to follow in my opinion Wednesday, March 4, 2009 This reorg (further one) seems to me as a sensitive one, finally. I hope it will be an enduring one. I left RA about 1 year ago, but I'm still an RA "fan" because of the friends I've left there, people which is working, and they are not managers, they're medium sized in the org-charts, but high professionals Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Regardless of this uncertain economic climate, there are several areas that we must continue to focus on – our strategy and our customers. Our strategy remains unchanged and it’s critical that we continue to execute the strategy. To help us serve our customers more effectively, we must simplify our organization structure in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which began last year with the realignment of the four regions into three. To this end, the Leadership Team and I have worked closely over the past month to develop an organization structure that will give us the best possible advantage for success. We will streamline our three regions into two regions – North and South. Additionally, we will organize around one segment – OEM combined with verticals. The Southern Region will consist of Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Africa and the Middle East and will be led by Urs Marti, regional sales director. Urs will be responsible for focusing on organic growth while building and expanding our presence in Africa and The Middle East’s emerging markets. The Northern Region will consist of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe. This region will be led by Thomas Donato, regional sales director. Thomas’ business experience in both the Product & Solutions business will be a great asset to this region. Terry Gebert, vice president and general manager, Systems and Solutions Business, is in the process of identifying a successor to Thomas’ role. The combined OEM and vertical market segment will be led by Boe Boesen, director, OEM and Verticals. Aligning the OEM organization with our vertical end user customer base is a key component for our future growth. Boe’s background in verticals and OEM will help us deliver strong results while optimizing gaps and existing overlaps. Please join me in wishing all of the above success in their new assignments. Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - To the previous blogger who wrote: "I'll just deal with it". You obviously have not been a victim by decisions made by Rockwell which affected hundreds of jobs. You haven't been a victim of Rockwell's greedy ambitions, of not being satisfied with a 50-55% market share. You haven't yourself had to retrench hardworking, efficient, loyal people for no fault of their own. You are obviously not in the position of business owners (Distributors) where they are at risk of losing everything they own, and having to pay retrenchmant packages out of their hard earned savings. You "just deal with it" and I hope you can sleep well at night while hundreds of LOYAL Rockwell employees are now looking for jobs elsewhere. Monday, March 2, 2009 The "I will just deal with it" blogger must either be very safe & confident in his role, or just foolhardy. (Not sure which.) Carry on dealing with it, but do remember to stop and think occasionally - or perhaps by then it might be just too late. Monday, March 2, 2009 - Re: previous weblog - "Me, I'll just deal with it." Boy do I agree with you! Sunday, March 1, 2009 I do not see it mentioned anywhere in these weblogs, that the entire global economy has dropped 20% to 30%. I am sure we may see 40% before 2009 is out. If no one is buying products, there is no need to automate a plant that has no end-users. Rockwell is trying to stay afloat in uncharted waters. I do not care much if we make products in Canada, or we make them in China. At 45, I do not want to look for a new job in a depressed market with climbing unemployment. If all of you are so angry at Milwaukee, stop cashing the paychecks and just go! Me, I will just deal with it! Friday, February 27, 2009 - Ref: "What nonsense is being allowed on this weblog! Are people just trying to tarnish Rockwell?": I do not work for a distributor, either an existing one, nor NHP. But I will tell you the word within the automation industry here. Firstly, we are hearing that Rockwell is furious with NHP over the large drop in sales since November; we have all heard about the emergency meetings between the two companies. I heard it from my NHP rep (who is not at all interested in Rockwell products, he is focusing on the other brands they sell currently). So to the "what-nonsense" poster: Please don't make out that only the old distributors are posting on here. Rockwell is doing massive amounts of damage to their name within Australia. Personally, I find the products to be excellent, but this excellence is being offset by supply and product support. I find this blog most interesting. Rockwell seem to be having issues around the world. Hopefully this is not the case, because before long it will creep into the products themselves. As a consumer, I am concerned. Friday, February 27, 2009 - Re: The Cambridge, Ontario weblog: That was a terriffic post... I simply could not have conveyed that in a better manner myself. How true it is that the management from top to bottom in this establishment are .... All I can say about Rockwell Cambridge is: How in the hell, does a multi-billion dollar corporation who are leaders in "automation" contiunue to work in a 1970's enviromnent, with penny-ante, home made workarounds? Every day I see people wrestling with the same problems over and over, when there are plenty of in-expensve fixes in the market that are truly viable, cost-effective and efficient. How does this happen? What about the blackbelts? Friday, February 27, 2009 Rockwell Automation AB Cambridge, Ontario - what can I say ... wow. The way this plant is run is just atrocious. The ring leader of the facility has single handedly destroyed the morale and created such contempt and bitter hatred towards management that its just a matter of time before someone goes ballistic. Managers are left to do as they see fit. Giving blanket verbal warnings to entire groups. Written warnings are a regular occurrence based on the managers hearsay. Favoritism, workplace violence and abuse of power run rampant, and straight faced lying will get you a promotion. The increase of yes men and rats fuels the manager's smugness as he tries to turn us into slaves. Here's an idea: let's cut the workforce by about 250 people (this is in the database as a cost savings by the way), cut overtime and anticipate the same or more output. Hmmm yes, that should work. Even better, lets all work for free... Oh wait, I guess some of us are. "Cutting cost" and "Root cause analysis" is the name of the game, and lets throw in a couple "critical" things, just to make it sound more important than it really is. Don't fret though; the Black Belts are here to save us, making it all look good on paper. Pretending that you had some input on the matter, all the while implementing management's agendas, but making you feel like you're part of some miracle cure. One by one management minions move into A.B. infecting it like some kind of plague. Jostling and stabbing each other in the back, trying to get closer to the master. While the corporate heads cut benefits, cut wages, and cut jobs, all in the name of "saving the company". H.R. is in bed with management, demanding we respect the ones that would try to hurt us, and favoring management by leaving all decisions to the manager's discretion. Don't open your mouth to stand up for yourself, or you may find yourself in the black book. Consistency has been replaced with chaos, and deception is a tool needed to progress. The workforce up front and on the floor must look like a bunch of mindless sheep being beaten down, broken, and picked off from time to time. Bullying and fear tactics are used, because being respectful is unacceptable when dealing with the simple-minded floor worker. The smell of corporate arrogance looms. I hope you're happy at what you have accomplished. I'm sure Mr. Corporate USA who's paid $ 5 million a year is watching. Maybe in a year or so he will have a spot for you in Mexico. Thursday, February 26, 2009 What nonsense is being allowed on this weblog! The previous blog says "unconfirmed reports " - they may as well be talking about flying saucers. Are people just trying to tarnish Rockwell? The Australia comments have all been aired here on the blog, mostly from disgruntled distributors. The new model is working as declared by some customers. Sales are up more than any previous year before or after the crisis. So maybe its time to rejoice that at least one geography in the world is responding, voting and executing! Thursday, February 26, 2009 Unconfirmed reports that since Rockwell has changed the distribution model in Australia and New Zealand, sales have dropped by 50%. This is even before the global financial crisis has hit out shores. No wonder that people are getting retrenched in Rockwell plants. Thursday, February 26, 2009 Who should run UK for Rockwell? They have tried enough - is no one good enough? And how is the new guy in Europe doing? Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Can someone please explain to me why Rockwell is laying hundreds off, when we are actually BUSY at the plants! Wednesday, February 25, 2009 I saw some presentations about PlantPax as the Rockwell DCS offering. Are they able to configure and Programm PLCs in a distributed way like DCS? Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Carter is starting to leave his mark on the software side, sending many of Roach's lieutenants away. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Dominic Molloy's message is quite simple really. Get with the sales discipline programme or find another job. It's no longer about quality visits, but quantity. We really are expected to behave like door to door salesman. Hang on a second, isn't that exactly what we hate about Routeco, who usually make quick sales and miss out on bigger opportunities. Perhaps Dominic should go work for Routeco, seeing as he's in their pocket anyway. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 I didn't think Dominic's "rallying cry" was too bad; in fact at least he took the initiative to try and rally the troops in difficult times. The worrying thing for me however is the paragraph, "Disciplined Sales Process! High quality customer visits , an aggressive call rate regime , opportunity funnel growth , forecast accuracy , these are the basic building blocks of a professional customer focussed organisation." I thought customer focused organisations ensured that their whole ethos, cluture and resultant processes were built and subsequently revolved around their customers? "Agressive call rate regimes" and "Disciplined sales processes" are the sort of activities pursued by door to door double glazing sales teams. RA sales teams were once the envy of the industry but with PLCs, Drives etc becoming commodities they are struggling and resorting to "double glazing salesmen" approach. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 I agree entirely, Troy, and Zaid down here seem very similar. We will just have to accept it, cannot see it getting any better. Perhaps we should all move to France and get French contracts - you know what I mean, harder to get rid of! Monday, February 23, 2009 I know one way you guys could save some money. Quit trying to threaten and intimidat the whistleblower, that's got to be expensive, and not too bright either. Your looking more like The Simpsons every day, and it doesn't help your "image". However it may explain why you have the reputation you do. Sorry I can't post anything good, I guess it's all about "defending" your self, right? Good Luck. Monday, February 23, 2009 Mr Molloy. Ah bless him. He's doing as he's told. All of his messages are second hand from the US via Brussels. After all, he needs to keep his bosses happy in order to keep his job, and if that means sending out propaganda e-mails about how great company performance is then so be it. Everyone knows that he doesn't actually have any authority, and the only chance he gets to flex his muscles is when he has to help make decisions on who to make redundant. Yet another highly paid puppet just doing his job. In fact if you look closely you can see the strings. Come on Rockwell, let's have a UK boss who will stand up for us rather than just carry out orders. Monday, February 23, 2009 Mr. Molloy, former PLS Manager, how can you think to "mix up" people's idea just with such goodwilling messages? Most of the recent claims in this blog have to do with a total lack of mapping talents plan/s.......go ahead like this, keep losing talents..... I think and hope that results will be there to be checked, crystal clear, when the market will re-start (we all here are crossing fingers hoping that this will happen very shortly.) Friday, February 20, 2009 "Plantpax".... Hmmmm. looks like a pig, smells like a pig. Nice shade of lipstick. Who is buying the existing MES and surrounding products? Time to cut the losses on software as senior leadership will never do what it takes to make it flourish. They had a chance when the market demand for efficiency was there. They missed the window by 3-5 years. Friday, February 20, 2009 "PlantPax" = same stuff, different name. Lots of money spent on marketing and branding, not a lot on product and component integration, since FactoryTalk is more a vision than a reality. This is what happens when companies acquire and try to bolt together a bunch of disparate stuff. Friday, February 20, 2009 We have just come through what was a very tough Q1 in that the organisation went through a lot of change. We had to unfortunately let some of our workforce go as a result of the economic slowdown ,we had to move to a new segmented sales model , and we implemented a major change to our CRM package. On top of this we have had to cope with what is certainly one of the most toughest economic environments any of us has experienced. All of these factors contribute to a loss of focus as people adapt to the change and work through the implications of our changing environment. Despite all of this our performance though not on plan was reasonable. Our CPS business has continued to be strong and is 2.1% up on AOP and an impressive 25% up on prior Q1. This has been driven by strong performance in DSY , ESB and CSM . ASW has not fared so well and we are down on plan a few points and down a similar level on our prior year. Our task for Q2 and the balance of the year is to continue the good work in CPS and start to recover our ASW loss and get back to plan. Q2 and the remainder of the year is now all about EXECUTION. Everyone now should be crystal clear on what is expected of them. In a tough economy whilst we can not control the market growth we can control how we perform and through a vigorous implementation of our Disciplined Sales Process we should be able to protect , and grow where possible , our existing Z2 customers and we should be aggressively acquiring customers off of the competition in the Z3 space. The message remains the same as in previous months. In our current work environment we are all under a lot of pressure to perform and to deliver against our commitments. It’s interesting to note though that when you put people under pressure, they usually respond by turning to their strengths! Not surprising really as its human nature, when in difficult situations you do what you do best and what comes naturally, stick with well developed habits and practices that allow you to really shine. We must keep executing against our Disciplined Sales Process! High quality customer visits , an aggressive call rate regime , opportunity funnel growth , forecast accuracy , these are the basic building blocks of a professional customer focussed organisation , and are activities we need to be world class at. We need to be willing to bend, to adjust and to adapt, because a rapidly changing world will demand that we all acquire new competencies. We all have a part to play in keeping our culture alive and vibrant. We need to personalise the battle don't let our competitors take our orders or our customers....let's ensure we take theirs!!! And in essence what this all comes down to is ATTITUDE. If we have the right attitude we will always be successful, we will accept and embrace change, we will continue to innovate and implement and we will continue to deliver and exceed the results and achievements that we know we are capable of. Whilst the journey we face is challenging I am fully confident that with the people we have in our organisation we will be successful and will be a much stronger organisation as a result of the obstacles we will have to overcome. Together we will develop an organisation that consistently delivers world class solutions to our customers, helping them to be more successful and achieve their business goals. In doing so we will create an organisation that is recognised as the UK’s premier in the markets we serve and one which will be the envy of our peers.
Regards: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 What do you think about the "new" Plantpax? Is it another marketing game just taking older stuff and changing to new names? Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Rockwell is lucky to have me, him, her, them, and a lot of other people. For the stuff we put up with - un-safe work practices, favoritism, and plain dis-regard for their own company policies - I said it once, I will say it again: There are lots of Rockwell's in the world and only 1 Me! Rockwell should stop degrading people like they have no value! Wednesday, February 18, 2009 How many people were let go during the last rounds of cuts in Feb.? They are doing this very quietly and with very little press. Tuesday, February 17, 2009 For the person asking about Rockwell. I can speak only for the manufacturing sector, but here goes. Rockwell is a great place to work, the money is good but the hours are long. There are good intentions for process improvements and the like, but the expectations are high and the budgets are low. I suppose this sounds a bit negative, but I would imagine that this similarity is shared across a great many companies worldwide. Morale could definitely be improved by implementing some top-down cuts in pay, bonuses and other perks, rather than just at the lower levels. Additionally, you continue to see various folks that get promoted to VP, and I doubt that these promotions come without significant pay increases. On the flip side, the people in the facility where I work give their heart and soul to the company (as a whole), but are likely just a couple of transfers away from being out-sourced. C'est la Vie, what can you do but keep pushing, scratching and hoping for the best, after all Rockwell does not determine my place in this world, that is up to me. Bottom line - it's bad everywhere. Be thankful for what you have - while you have it. Monday, February 16, 2009 Very active blogs are Invensys, Honeywell and Rockwell. Reason? The comments are often identical or can be applied for other companies. The Invensys blog from Wednesday, February 11, 2009 "... If someone reports what's really going on, he's called a moaner and is put on the deathlist." is also valid for Rockwell. That's why we lost too many excellent people and lots of valuable expertise in the last 4 to 5 years. Senior managers in EMEA are champions in self-profiling, "Excel-sheeting" and over-administration. They don't really care about customers (except that they are keen on getting their money), nor do they care about employees as individuals (how could they do so with "zero social competence"). The poor numbers that we see actually are excused as a result of economic downturn and glossed over by exchange rates, but they are more likely a result of wasting money in the past for creating unproductive overhead, pathologic travelling, countless meetings, recruiting of replacements for "outplaced" people and not investing in strengthening our market position. ..." Monday, February 16, 2009 To the person who wrote a few days ago asking if he should consider working for RA at some point in the future, my response would be a definite NO whilst the current management is in place. I worked as an Account Manager for RA in the UK for a couple of years, and left nearly 3 years ago. During my tenure, I very quickly learned that RA Management is very 'hire-and-fire' even when times are good- heaven only knows what it must be like there now. A great many capable people came and went whilst I was working there; most of them including myself left for better things. I can honestly say that my two years there were the worst in my entire 25 year sales career; a classic example of poor mangement being continually propped up by a top flight sales force. Monday, February 16, 2009 - Re: "R-A Canada to move production to Mexico". Not sure where this info. is coming from. I just spoke with someone with a senior position at this facility and they are indicating that is not true. Can you say where you got this info? Sunday, February 15, 2009 What will happen with the A-C production after October 2009? What about the LV product lines in the US? Sunday, February 15, 2009 - NEWSFLASH! R-A Canada has just announced they will be moving all LV products to Mexico along with MV to The Mexican plant by the end of July, 2009. Canada will still be in production with the new A-C units, until Oct 2009. Sunday, February 15, 2009 Just an observation. I am in the automation business, engineering and solution sales. I was steered to this web blog to obtain a feel on the "big boys", so have looked at all the company blogs. It seems to me that there is an awful lot of negativity on the Rockwell blog, certainly more here than any of the others by far. So, what message does this give? Is Rockwell really that bad a place to work? Should I stay away from this company as a career choice? Saturday, February 14, 2009 - Refering to the blog entry below about the posters getting the information correct as to the situation in Australia: Most of the comments posted in this weblog are common knowledge within the electrical community in Australia. Anyone that deals with NHP has been told of the happenings by the NHP sales reps; my NHP sales rep actively promotes competing brands over the Rockwell ones they sell. As a customer, the entire situation confuses the hell out of me. If the intention of Rockwell was to confuse customers, it has been an outstanding success. For me, I am just beginning to appreciated Schniders products. Friday, February 13, 2009 If only the contributors about the Australian situation would get their facts correct, it would add to a better debate. Publicly available data (in Australia) would validate that NHP have had a long standing relationship with Rockwell and have been selling a key Rockwell brand for many years, of which they are market leader. Secondly, both of Rockwells new partners are well respected brands in their own right and have performed impressively over many years. The old Distributors' growth rates have never matched. What a combination INACO/NHP and Rockwell. They will be a major moving force in driving up service levels and expanding the market to the benefit of manufacturers in their territory. No distributor who can perform needs to worry about being part of the Rockwell family. Their distribution strategy globally remains a key differentiation from their competitors. Friday, February 13, 2009 New head of the Rockwell Software div, Ralph Carter, sent this out...
"While we were able to meet our Q1 ESS performance metrics, this is not reflective of the current economic challenges faced across Rockwell Automation. As Keith Nosbusch discussed in his quarterly message to employees, the economy continues to decline and the global economic recession continues to put pressure on our business. We anticipate 2009 will continue to be challenging for our entire organization. During uncertain economic times such as these, it's important to have common objectives across the business to support Rockwell Automation. "To support that goal, changes have been made to how the FY2009 ESS plan will be administered for the balance of FY09. Consistent with all other Rockwell Automation bonus plans, the FY2009 ESS plan now has a minimum performance threshold for the corporation, as determined by Keith Nosbusch." Friday, February 13, 2009 And how does it happen that a company which competed against Rockwell for the last twenty years (NHP), is allowed to steal the good hard work of the founding distributors, with not one cent exchanging hands, and then going on to represent Rockwell while being the major distributor for competing brands? The founding member distributors were not allowed to sell any conflicting products to the point where contracts stating such were imposed. I am sure that justice will be served eventually, but unfortunately hundreds of lives have been affected; and worse still, I don't think the Rockwell brand will recover from this in our part of the world (Australia). Are we just a test case for the rest of the world? Rockwell distributors beware. Thursday, February 12, 2009 So it seems that Rockwell can find the (paper) money to buy a System Integrator, but can't find enough real money to pay staff to manufacture (or purchase) goods to clear our backorders within a reasonable period of time. The writing must surely be on the (Rock)wall for Rockwell's continuance as a quality supplier to industry. Thursday, February 12, 2009 I see Rockwell has purchased Canada's Rutter Hinz, a 200+ engineering and systems integration firm with offices in USA and Canada. It will be renamed Hinz (a division of Rockwell Automation). This should really screw up Rockwell's relationship with other integrators. For years Rockwell have claimed they were not going to compete with integrators; now it least they are out in the open and the gloves can come off. Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Another day another batch of news. Latest to surface from the Rockwell files is NHP has been given 18 months to shed their existing range of competing brands. Seems NHP will end up being a Rockwell puppet (if they aren't already). How industry reacts to this, who knows. I would guess industry will simply start buying these brands from distributors that take up the dropped baton. As a previous blogger reported, Rockwell have created a situation where suppliers are chaffing at the bit to align themselves with the outgoing AB distributors, knowing there is a ready-made channel to market via agressive, well structured businesses. You would be foolish to think Rockwell will come out of this unscathed, given that the Rockwell Asia-Pacific President has apparently given his blessing for the old distributors to start selling alternative brands. It is clear to me that the outgoing AB distributors built the installed-base basically from scratch. They can do it again. But this time we will see non-Rockwell brands emerging as industry leaders. Wednesday, February 11, 2009 To naive worker Bee. Most of the posts here are factual and usually after the company posts unbelieveable factoids like paying the chairman $5M in bonus and obscene stock grants after reporting plunging profit and revenue for the recent past and forseeable future. All this while giving the investment community no plan for a way out of this except for the tried and true...continued cost cutting is the forseeable plan. Keep your head in the sand and don't read the transcripts from the investor calls and don't look at the 10k telling how much all of the 'upper echelon' is making for driving the mother ship into the bank like the Exxon Valdez. This must be why you are still around. You don't know what is really going on and cannot give your opinion. Two sure fire ways for you to keep your job. Tuesday, February 10, 2009 I'm thinking that this blog is for "naysayers only"? This weblog is an interesting read, but negative 99% of the time. I'm very sorry to read that our business has affected so many people and will continue to do so. Welcome to the world of employment (and unemployment) right now. In the meantime, however, before we slam the upper echelon any further, let's do more homework. Anytime I hear "this and that" about upper managment, and any benefits they're receiving, I dig into it as much as I can find on the Internet anyway, to usually find that the rumor mill isn't accurate. NOTE: I am not a manager, just a worker bee. I realize that I'm not in the field per se and may not see what those worker bees do. For those that are, please continue to provide data to substantiate the remarks about what's happening within the business that is causing our distributors to turn against RA, etc. Facts help, speculation causes more issues. Tuesday, February 10, 2009 A friend of mine pointed me to this blog a couple of weeks back. Sorry to hear of Twinsburg, Cambridge, and Richland Center cutbacks. My company has permanently closed 8 facilities in the last few months. The rest are on short hours. Good luck! Hang tough! Monday, February 9, 2009 Well, today we walked into work at Twinsburg with lights mostly out in the first building. My area and many more working only 2 days this week. Hope the rumors going around today aren't true. First one is a layoff now for the people on the floor (MA's) for those that have been here 5 years or less (no clue how many people they are thinking). Second one is the plant will be closed for up to 2 months. Now, obviously, this is just rumor. However, rumors in our plant seem to usually be pretty on the mark. These rumors came from people up in the office area, so, who knows what to think. Knowing that other companies have shut down their factories already for a month or more makes that seem very possible. Don't know how they would shut down completely though, since we have special orders. Maybe that's why they are making sure our supervisors know how to do our jobs. Most of us think we will go to one shift and layoffs would probably be minimal then. More restructuring will most likely happen no matter what. Monday, February 9, 2009 - from the author of "The Rockwell Blues": The poem may not be great, and was written in my own unpaid time - like so much of my work that has to be done due to lack of resourses and company incompetence. It was a way of letting off steam, which everyone needs to do sometimes. The truth obviously hit home. I really hope that when those at the bottom (us) have been 'cost cutted', the higher management realise the mistakes they've made and then review the higher levels where the dead wood is a much higher cost. What round that will be we will never know. Our submarine commander needs to go, and put the person who should have took the position at the helm. Then and only then will there be a sense of confidence that there is a future. The HR head needs to loose the formal attitude and understand he is dealing with real people and not dead resources (a la furniture). Monday, February 9, 2009 "Our employees are doing an outstanding job"!? Well thats a whole lot more than Keith Nosbusch is doing! Why is he receiving a $5million bonus for reporting results like those whilst the "employees" are being shown the door? The protectionist greed being demonstrated by those at the top is outstanding in its audacity! Sunday, February 8, 2009 - Rockwell Automation Reports First Quarter 2009 Results: MILWAUKEE - Feb. 2, 2009 (Press release - only extracts here) Organic sales down 5%; total sales including currency down 11%. Diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.81. Revised fiscal 2009 guidance reflects deteriorating market conditions Commenting on the results, Keith D. Nosbusch, chairman and chief executive officer said, "After a very solid October, we experienced a severe decline in customer demand during the second half of the quarter. Deteriorating economic, financial and credit market conditions affected all regions and most industries, aggravated by an unusual number of customer plant shutdowns. As a result, our performance in the first quarter was below our previous expectations." Commenting on the outlook, Nosbusch added, "We expect the market environment in 2009 to be extremely difficult. The global recession has grown deeper and wider than we originally anticipated. Key economic indicators and projections continue to weaken and we are seeing a significant deceleration in customer demand. Given the abrupt fall off in sales volume and increasing uncertainty, we are preparing for a revenue decline between 12 and 17 % in fiscal 2009. Based on this outlook and the savings related to cost reduction actions, we are revising our fiscal 2009 earnings guidance downward. "We are executing the previously announced restructuring actions and are realizing the planned benefits. Given the current environment, we will continue to reduce costs, balancing short-term financial performance with prospects for long-term growth. "Our employees are doing an outstanding job navigating through these global market challenges and are committed to improving our customers’ experience and increasing our share. We are confident that we will emerge from this downturn more competitive than before." Sunday, February 8, 2009 Here in Cambridge, ONT. we laid off 160 just over a week ago, but they decided to keep about 40 of the 160 on board on a temp basis? No, not by seniorty but by well - you know. I also can't believe we still have co-ops working in some areas. Guys at home laid off, with families, while a young kid doing the same job gets to stay. Is this whats it's all about? What do you mean Morale? Look at what's happening. Sunday, February 8, 2009 I've been wstching this weblog for about a week since things have been a little grim at RA. It's too bad. I remember when I started 11 yrs. ago I loved to go to work/ It was a great place. In the last few years burnout from unforgiving overtime, a new sense of just being bodies and not people. It wasn't like that a few years ago. Now my fellow workers are on edge and somewhat angry. I can't work 2 or 3 days a week, I'll owe RA money! Too bad that it's not just RA that got greedy. All companies upper management have had the good life for too long now we all pay the price. Saturday, February 7, 2009 Unfortunately for Australia, things will go along the lines of the UK. Rockwell has turned an inpenetrable fortress (it's former distributors) into their fiercest opposition. The likes of ABB, Schnider, Omron and Siemens cannot believe that a ready made distributor network has been handed over ready to damage Rockwell's install base. Rockwell's greedy plans of doubling it's sales over 5 years will cost them bigtime. Good luck NHP in trying to double the existing Rockwell install base, when you have the people that created this install base working against you. Saturday, February 7, 2009 - RE: "The Rockwell Blues" poem (6 Feb. 2009) and the subsequent negative weblog response: I agree this poem is no Edgar Allan Poe. However, as a vehicle to express anger, cynicism, humour and a degree of despondency, it delivers. So, full marks. For those to whom the poem may refer, then the truth may hurt. However, not as much I imagine it would if they themselves were hit by layoffs. Maybe they should take comfort while they can? Saturday, February 7, 2009 Rockwell UK sales have seriously suffered in recent months. Over the last FY a careful programme of sales DISCIPLINE was put in place which increased sales figures. The current sales director has not enforced these and look what is happening. My personal opinion is that if you aren't visiting enough customers per week then you can't be generating enough sales and therefore should be fired. It's quite simple really. Saturday, February 7, 2009 So I guess the question of the day is 'what are we walking into Tuesday since C shift only worked one day?' I find it odd that when we left Wednesday the thought was that all shifts for EA were working two days. Weekend shift was told dont come back till next weekend after only one day there. What kind of surprise awaits the rest of us when we go in on Tuesday? What else will change by then? Saturday, February 7, 2009 Great poem. Not. How long did that take to write? No wonder you're next on the pile when you spend your day writing poems instead of working. And take it from me, when you do find yourself out of a job please don't decide to become a poet. Friday, February 6, 2009 Unfortunately the time has come to do as suggested: Full time employees should take the places of all temporary workers regardless of where they are working in the Twinsburg facility. Then C-shift (weekend day shift ) needs to be shut down and the employees split up between A and B shifts. The only problem is there would be too many people on these 2 shifts and there would have to be a lay off in the production areas of the plant. This has to be done to save jobs and to give employees more hrs. We cannot continue on this current path. Just hope and pray that you are lucky enough to keep your job. Friday, February 6, 2009 - "The Rockwell Blues":
Before being kicked out. Working here is very poor, Knowing any time you could be shown the door.
Rockwell used to be nice and fun,
The 'Tempest' head does not care,
The workforce who still remain,
HR have all but a heart,
My mates have gone and already out there,
All who have gone seem to be very relieved,
I'd like to know what our customers think,
With all here doom and gloom,
The future is not very clear, Friday, February 6, 2009 I am going to throw out there a bit of sarcasm for those in Twinsburg. Lets look at the bright side of things for a moment. We still have temps back in the remanufacturing area, while the rest of the full time staff takes cut hours and days. We are also still pouring lots of money into having smocks to have the appearance that things are OK, and we always have the beloved blackbelts to support us. What more could we ask for? Our jobs to stay in tact! Although I support the efforts of our upper management in Twinsburg on their efforts to keep us working, I think they need to open their eyes a bit more. Its time to condense shifts; if I recall correctly, second shift still gets a shift premium and the weekend shift is using resources that could be conserved through the weekend. If shutting the plant down in the evenings for three nights a week saved $20k a month for utilities then what would shutting it down for four whole days a week save? Keep everyone else at three days a week, both shifts without premiums and save our jobs! Thursday, February 5, 2009 I think Rockwell is already tumbling. We are now on 2-day work weeks from 3-days at the Twinsburg production plant. I think they are trying to break the employee's down, so we have no other choice but to take a voluntary layoff. Since we did not have enough taking the voluntary layoff, they moved to 2 days a week to break them down even more. Don't do us any favors -just do what you're going to do and get it over with already. People cannot make it on 2 days a week - unless you're in upper management. There seems to be a bottomless pit of money at the top. Hey Keith Nosbusch, what are you and your cronies willing to give up to save the company? Do we really need all these Presidents and V.P.'s and Supervisors and Blackbelts and... the list goes on. How about a response, Keith? Thursday, February 5, 2009 With Keith just cutting his salary and bonus of his henchmen, it would help the bottom line, and layoffs would be non-existant or long delayed. What makes David Madoff, and Keith different, or any other bank bail out CEO making millions? Either way they have both taken millions of $$ in exchange of many former employees and some very good people and their jobs. There has never been more of a multi-layered silo CULT (Organization) with managers that have titles longer than their shirt sleeve, that do NOTHING! RA market share has fallen off the dramatically for the last 5+ years and now they are wondering what to do; down economy/ big bonuses paid out/ layoffs/ market share loss/ customer dis-satisfaction/ higher price increases/ stock lowest anyone alive can remember/ SAP (Stop all process) issues/ Lack of regional and local leadership/ Commissions plan changed again, since the other plan did not work/ Can not make a dent into the European market or Austrialian market - just to mention a few issues. This company should just be sold off. It's a company that is badly runned from the top to the bottom, that has good products (At least the ones they do not brand label from other manufacturers)and many good people. If your still employed in RA, run away if you can. The house of cards will tumble. Take off the rose color glasses, things are not pretty as they want you to think. Look around and see who is left. Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - Re: the CEO's 20+mil $ renumeration: Let's not forget the total package involved for the remaining board members during the same period - it's a massive amount - and all very disproportionate considering the President of the USA receives a modest $400K per annum. Go, Barack - you rock! Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Keith D. Nosbusch, CEO, Rockwell Automation
5-Year Compensation Total, $20.17 mil Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Rockwell to sell/spin off Rockwell Software? Heard news that the non-HMI assets might be sold off or moved to a separate company, as it is a drag on earnings. Might be true since Pavillion and InCuity are already being run as separate units, pretty much. Anybody have any more info? Tuesday, February 3, 2009 Black Belts..hmmmmmm.... Well, I do know a fw of them and I must admit they are all intelligent in their own rights, have great suggestions and tools to implement change. Unfortunately, they do not have the power to make the changes or the financial strings to do so. It is a little mind boggling that people off the street can come in and completey change a process and not even know anything about it. As for keeping them on, I have to agree with the latter. They are HIGHLY expensive at $80-100K a year each, which equates to an avg. of 3-4 hourly production people. You are right about savings on paper. I know a group of people that saved "X" amount of dollars on paper but in reality was a complete washover. But customers love the idea that LSS is involved and we all know we want our customers to be the happy ones, not the people making the money for the shareholders. (And $5,000,000 bonus's) Monday, February 2, 2009 Not to worry the black belts are on the job and they will save us all. Too bad that corporate Rockwell is so blind to this group of do nothings. They save money on paper but we just spend more keeping them on. Ever wonder whay a Black Belt never works at one place for more tha a year or so? Monday, February 2, 2009 Sydney drive systems absorbed by MPS. I don't think this is the end of Drive systems at all. They are combining the resources as far as I know. I also think they should combine CSM too. So there's one BIG pool of engineers and saves the in fighting and inter-co crap thats associated with using one depts resource to assist another. This can reduce management headcount and therefore costs. Monday, February 2, 2009
I just can't wait to go What I just need is severence pay How much I do not know
I've never known a company
They train you well in ethics Sunday, February 1, 2009 The Drive Systems group in Sydney is being absorbed by MPS and effectively killed off. There won’t be many RA employees left in OZ. NHP will keep all the stock and product specialists, leaving only a few RA employees to consolidate the profits. Sunday, February 1, 2009 Total amount in Cambridge, ONT now 195. Also approximately 100 temp employees have already been let go before Christmas. Everyone is wondering when the next round will take place. Saturday, January 31, 2009 160 layed off at the Cambridge, ON Plant. By seniority! Everyone in a particular dept. are staying on, most with less than a years seniority while a huge group with 2-3 x the seniorty are being laid off for an indefinite amount of time. They are building their hopes on a new drive for the Marine environment, but have yet to even deveop it fully, as it keeps failing, while it is due to hit the market in a few months. Good luck with that! Friday, January 30, 2009 Not sure about layoffs,but I can tell you that the hours have been cut at the Twinsburg facility. Also people are being asked to take voluntary layoffs. Not to worry the black belts are on the job and they will save us all. Too bad that corporate Rockwell is so blind to this group of do nothings! Talk about waste, lets show them the door, now that would be a savings. Looks like things are only going to get worse and there will be more to come at the end of the quarter. Nothing like looking over your shoulder and wondering if your boss is going to tap you on it and say, " Do you have a minute " Good luck all, hope things get better. Friday, January 30, 2009 Tuesday this week, there was an emergency state of the plant meeting at Twinsburg announcing we were going to a 3 day work week effective immediately. Every Wednesday we are supposed to be updated as to how many days we will be working the following week. As of Wednesday, which was the next meeting, we were told we are only working 3 days next week also. Of course, that could always change to more or less days depending on the area we are working in. They are also asking for volunteers to furlough anywhere from 3weeks to 2 months. Not sure how much longer most of us can handle this. Also, temps are gone for the time being. There might be very few that were able to stay on, but not sure. They said they did this in lieu of laying more people off. Trying to spread the "hurt" so it affects all of us instead of just a select few. Not sure that was the wise thing. Also, depending on how many volunteers they get for the furlough will determine how many days we work a week. If enough volunteer, we will go back to our normal operating days/times. Really don't know how many can afford to take the furlough. Starts with one week unpaid time and the next 2 weeks unemployment. After that, Family leave kicks in, at least that is what it sounded like. Correct me if I am wrong for those of you who know. There are a select few who would love to be laid off permanently. Some older employees who have been there 20+ years keep waiting for them to do so, but nothing as of yet. Some say they should just retire, but they wouldn't get severance if they did that, so they are hanging in. We'll see how long this lasts, they keep saying projected forecast for March looks better. We'll see. This could go on all year! January's sales they projected 33% more than what they actually did, so Feb projections they dropped to -45% to try to cover it. For now, we are having to use unpaid time for the days not worked or vacation time. They are allowing us to combine the two to try to stretch our vacation time a little further. However, plenty of employees only have 2 wks vacation to begin with, so that will go fast. Sick leave should be allowed to be used also since this is an emergency circumstance, but they aren't budging on that. Shows how little they really care about their employees. Way to go Rockwell.... Thursday, January 29, 2009 Where are the layoffs starting? US (Milwaukee/Mequon) or UK? As we know, there will be none in Australia. Thursday, January 29, 2009 Is it true that Rockwell Australia has retrenched or changed the Drive Systems group in Sydney? Wednesday, January 28, 2009 Well the layoffs have started again. Lead the HR dept on a chase, run as long as you can. For all those that remain, use this as a time to reflect on what you want to do, form an exit plan now! Wednesday, January 28, 2009 If Rockwell Sales in Australia are up this will be the result of the work of the existing distributors. NHP haven't been active in the market long enough for anyone to guage the affects of their performance yet. Sales in this industry are a result of effort over a longer period than this. You also need to remember that RA will be including the stock orders that NHP have placed when reporting sales. I understand these are quite high. RA have a habit of reporting orders not actual sales so you need to clear on what you are hearing. With the RA distribution model you will see the real picture when NHP start reordering stock. Tuesday, January 27, 2009 Read Jim Pinto's 2 items in the latest issue of JimPinto.com eNews, 27 January 2009: Monday, January 26, 2009 I read with interest the post about Rockwell Ausralia's revenues being on the up. It is common knowledge within the industry that the relationship between NHP and Rockwell is already becoming strained. I deal with both an Ex-rockwell distributor, and NHP, and it is becoming obvious to me that the level of technical knowledge between these is amazing; and this is going to seriously hurt RA sales even more than it is now. Monday, January 26, 2009 I agree that the Austrailian Distributor below should go sell ABB or Emerson if they do not like the situation. Ohhhh, or give up that %$$ that you get for doing nothing.... Monday, January 26, 2009 I left RA just over four years ago, yet always read this blog and keep in touch with ex-colleagues. Why you may ask? The four years I spent there were simply the best! The Company seemed to encourage you to take responsibility and win, and wins were celebrated. The team spirit and morale were outstanding and I made many lifelong friends there. So why leave? Simple. RA was losing that culture, the guys who inspired me had either left or were showing signs of being worn down by the system, and the management was turning into a bunch of "nodders" and "yes men". Reading these blogs reinforces the fact that RA has passionate employees who truly care, but a senior management team that are way out of their depth, and what's worse - out of touch. Monday, January 26, 2009 I hear that Australian revenues are well up, and Rockwell is at last growing there with new leaders and new distributors. It's called 1-on-1 change for the better. Maybe the distributors who keeps contributing to this blog should concentrate on ensuring they gets their share of ABB revenue. Now they have to be good to win. There are many distributors like them around. And yes, everyone can win - even the distributors that can forge new paths with new principals. Sunday, January 25, 2009 Morale is very low, as rumors fly about layoffs on the day we announce earnings. News of bonuses for management doesn't help things either. They are already disappointed with no raises this year, probably none next year, and just hoping that you're not on the list to be escorted out. Sunday, January 25, 2009 I saw a weblog here back in Oct., saying RA would cut 3% of its workforce. Anyone know how that has unraveled? How has that impacted sales staff? It's been kinda quiet in the press. Sunday, January 25, 2009 It's a fair sentiment the previous blog has made. But, there are considerably more than a handful of dedicated individuals who have pulled out "all the stops" in the previous crises' (In my opinion, fabricated crises). Some resulting in burn out, loss of family, or worse. Easy to say "more fool them"; but when you're over-worked, with everyone breathing down your neck - it happens. Of-course it will all come to an end. Do you think we are that stupid? But I didn't expect my contribution to result in redundancies and a $5m bonus pay out to Nosbusch. Saturday, January 24, 2009 Wow, so much anger. Perhaps you guys should concentrate on your work rather than complain all the time. Friday, January 23, 2009 (from Australia): All I can say to Rockwell is "GOOD RIDDANCE". You have turned your best distributors into your fiercest competitors.
Warning to all Distributors and System Integrators world wide. You may be next. Be prepared. Friday, January 23, 2009 Time to move on and find a new JOB, Rockwell will not be around forever as it continues to LIPO Suck out as much as possible, before it is sold. Friday, January 23, 2009 - Re: the movie: Methinks the poignancy made by the original contributor has passed this executive by. Just how pretentious can they be? Friday, January 23, 2009 I quite like that movie :-) (Note: Several blogs report liking the movie). One blogger asks, "Please tell me the cynicism of the post didn't fly over your head...please!" Thursday, January 22, 2009 - RE: "We all worried now, we've just been told that 25% of our engineers go out here in Bletchley, UK." I guess we'll know who are the 3 in the frame in the next 24hrs. Don't be suprised if they play the "glengarry glen ross" scene again to anyone of the team who might remain. Click to watch this video: Scene from Glengarry Glen Ross Movie Thursday, January 22, 2009 - Regarding the comment "They had a 60 base and 40% comission plan before and now have a 80/20% split". Don't know where you are getting that from. The majority of the sales group is still on a 60/40 split with half of the 40 paid monthly and the other half quarterly. The breakdown for the 40 is 10 will be a gaurantee, 10 will be linked to the sales office you reside at, 10 will be a focus of that same sales office and the final 10 is completely subjective and as it is tied to goals you establish with your manager and who reviews whether you've met them on a quarterly basis. It's very confusing and again is taking mind share away from the sales group as they attempt to figure out how much they can expect to bring in on a monthly basis since that's how most people pay their bills. Tuesday, January 20, 2009 In the light of Obama's inauration speech containing criticism toward the GREED of USA executives with their obscene bonuses and presumably supported by payouts to shareholders, isn't it time to put these FAT CATS in therir place. How about getting rid of Nosbush and hiring some one with purely a good salary expectation? Monday, January 19, 2009 I don't know what it's like in other countries, but here in the UK we have a no-brained idiot in charge of the sales team, who thinks showing war movie clips will motivate us into selling more! Monday, January 19, 2009 Well Rockwell has gone and done it again and changed their compensation package to the sales force once again. They had a 60 base and 40% comission plan before and now have a 80/20% split which is better. Reason being they have no back office to handle the Point of Sales reports like any other company. The real question is how long will they stay at a 80/20% compensation for the sale personnel. This will change again, it will be a horrible like it was last fiscal year. Time to find a job where the compensation package doesn't change as much the sales model does. Along with that personnel are being told the annual salary increase will be 0 - 2%, while the CEO got $5 million in bonus in December 2008. I understand its a down economy but this crazy everyone from the mailroom to the CEO should have a reduction not just indians that are surrounded by alot of chiefs. Its time to sell off Rockwell. The end is near for the management, time for change, and change is good. Sunday, January 18, 2009 Amazing...more layoffs! Its funny how Rockwell so tries to rip off everything from Toyota, like the "RPS", "KAIZEN", etc. Why will they not follow this company, who have reported to say, "We look out for all of our team members and are cutting production days, not jobs!" Yet Rockwell has decided to send a message to all employees to keep up the good spirits and take pride in your job and get back to the old when it used to be good... Not only do they admit the morale is terrible and they have ruined it, but yet once again leave the employees to the daunting task of picking up the peices, making them millions and yet not even get a pat on the back, but yet a comment, "you should be all thankfull you still have jobs, and work for such a good company. There are lots of jobs out there, so take one of those." Sunday, January 18, 2009 Rockwell is just doing the right thing by entering into the Process domain. Saturday, January 17, 2009 Layoffs in Mexico? Don't worry, things will pick up when Cambridge moves there. Saturday, January 17, 2009 How about laying off Nosbusch thats at least a $5 million + savings a year. Now thats a novel idea! Friday, January 16, 2009 Layoffs in Tecate for the last few weeks and layoffs of 20 people in Richland Center today and more slated for later this month. Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Well here we go again. We all worried now, we've just been told that 25% of our engineers to go out here at RA in Bletchley, UK. Quality cut, Project Management cut, Sales Cut, now engineering being cut - great timing, just after Christmas, but then there are those who would say no time is a good time. 10-12% Huh? UK taking the brunt again! We will not have the capacity to cope if work picks up, but I suppose we can always bring the expensive contractors back! Maybe they not planning to build business us up again, happier to keep it small and not take on the big projects - too risky? What is their idea, build us up and then chop us down again? In someways I hope I'm one of those to go; it'll give me the push to move on to better things. Can't be much worse that working here. PS: I think someone has got mixed up stating Keith Nosbush is a renowned hate figure, surely they mean Troy Stewart, the hatchet man in charge of the UK now? Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Get ready for another round of layoffs and reorgs for another tax write off. Why do they call it a one-time write off, when they do it all the time? If you can't increase the numerator, you need to take some more "one time write offs". Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Rockwell can't "spin off" Weidmuller. It's a complicated relationship that doesn't allow for this to happen. Sprecher and Schu on the other hand is completely at Rockwells mercy! Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Do not be surprised to see an Invensys/Rockwell merger in 2009. Whether it will be at a premium to current share prices is questionable, but it is an attractive deal for both parties. You heard it here first. Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Well Keith Nosbusch may be a renowned hate figure in the organization, not just here but in ICS too. But you cannot blame him, it's the way he is. The people who appoint him and keep him in these positions are to blame. When will they learn? Monday, January 12, 2009 How many re-orgs has Rockwell undergone in the last 5 years? There is always one constant: the same tired, poor, greedy and self serving management. It's amazing to me how the people who are responsible for creating change are never held responsible when their decisions fail over and over again. What does the senior management team actually bring to the table? It’s embarrassing to watch these buffoons stumble and inform the work horses of the company that they will not be getting a merit increase because of the hard times ahead, while they reward themselves for a job well done! How about showing the rest of us of how they are personally sacrificing in order to improve the bottom line? Monday, January 12, 2009 Where are the 10% reduction to the workforce rumors coming from? Monday, January 12, 2009 As a former employee during the most recent Reduction in Sales Force. It's very interesting that a company cuts 600+ personnel and the CEO gets $5 million in Stock options less than three months later. Nice to see a company and a CEO looking out for the employees. I hope he sleeps well knowing every night that if he defered the $5 million dollars in stock perhaps he could have saved some employees from the unemployment line. Apparently the economy is not so bad in the Rockwell CEO household. This is why I believe some economy issues are so self-induced, the rich get much much richer and again the workers need to find another job. Does anyone remember TYCO and their former CEO? Heck who am I kidding, why save few, only to cost you your your stock option bonus? Point to be made: When was the last time some saw a corporate executive say: Hey things are really bad right now and I am going to cut my pay to save many employees from the unemployment line. Just looking for someone to do the right thing nowadays since no one else is. Do not be fooled RA will be sold off. The question is what is there to be purchased? Most of the products are brand labeled, or brand labeled by a Rockwell company to put the AB name on it, except for their NEMA products / PLC's / Drives. Otherwise everything else is not from them. Outside the USA / Canada nobody knows the company or products. They continue to have problems growing outside the North American Hemisphere, with their American business way of doing business. Good Luck Allen Bradley. Every manufacturer continues to nip away at AB market share, especially on the old technology of Automation that is currently being promoted and the way customers, integrators, and distributors are treated. Keep in mind you can put lipstick on a pig and its still a pig. Same with Allen-Bradley you can put your name on a relay but its still not your relay, because some else more than likely built it. How can a company have a marketing group so large, and survive in a climate like now, for products that are brand labeled and manufactured by someone else? My final outlook is that there will be another lay-off within the next six months, and Allen-Bradley will be sold off for its Automation, drives and NEMA products in 12 to 18 months as business declines. Weidmueller and Sprecher and Schu will be spun off to some other company without a controls line. So keep your resumes up to date and start looking for other employment before your forced to. Heed the warnings, a storm is brewing. Everyone keep in mind there is life after Rockwell Automation, and its good ! Sunday, January 11, 2009 Better yet, can someone explain why NOSBUSH recieved a huge bonus this year (so I am told), in the range of $5,000,000 in bonus? All employees who were to recieve the merit for exceptional performance were denied this merit due to financial constraint of the up and coming year... all the while the appraisal was for 2008 which was a HUGE profitable year for RA? I am confused... Guess I had better rent some Hooked on Phohics Spanish to English ASAP! Sunday, January 11, 2009 Can anyone explain to me why Nosbush took an award of options of 14,000 shares of ROK stock on Dec 3rd after one of the biggest drops of our stock in over five years? Wheres our reward? Friday, January 9, 2009 If Rockwell is a target for acquisition now, who are potential suitors? ABB? Invensys? Emerson? Thursday, January 8, 2009 It's pretty much the same in Oz. Most sales representatives have enough distain for NHP, and Rockwell now, that they dont want to be involved. And as for the ones that have made the switch, well, most smart people can smell the blood monies. Thursday, January 8, 2009 - regarding NZ distributor sales reps: I believe only 1 rep total so far is going to NHP from any of the RA NZ Distributors . A few have been made redundant, others have already found jobs elsewhere, many staying put to sell other products. Wednesday, January 7, 2009 Regarding the question about McDermott being let go. Not true, he sent out an update message earlier this week. Tuesday, January 6, 2009 I'm wondering what's happening to the sales reps for the 7 NZ distributors? Any news at all? Are they moving to NHP or being made redundant? Wednesday, December 31, 2008 How many times have I seen a RA system integrator or solution provider program which starts off great and then RA salespeople try to grab the resultant new accounts and divert the work to RA services? When there are no sales let the SI's do the groundwork and absorb the cost and when the sales develop - RA will knock on the same doors because thats the lowest fruit for the under pressure sales person. I think that most SI's don't need the RA badge as much anyway and more and more end-users are wiseing up to where the best value resource is. Monday, December 29, 2008 If that is true, I will throw a kegger! McDermott has been like a cancer inside the organization, promoting his buddies, while good people with new innovative ideas are forced out because they are not part of the "good ole boys" ... can anyone with any inside information comment? True or False? Monday, December 29, 2008 Wow! I wish I knew of this web blog before joining ROK. I stayed for 23 months. All the below is my opinion..... A Six Sigma Black Belt/Lean specialist when hired, I was shocked at the state of quality and CI activities. Equally shocking was the resistance to change, even at the plant manager levels. While the messaging from the CI organization to the functional silo organizations was negative, most of the implementing BB's were more than capable. However, they were being pushed to create savings in all the wrong manners, and ways. And in areas where the savings were marginalized by systemic issues. Without the benefit of several years of experience in an area under study, the BB's were going to make some mistakes. What shocked me was the malicious "obedience" of the functional staffs, to let things fail, without stepping up and making strong suggestions and offering other ways to the well. Kaizen is a team effort after all. Another issue was the Central CI group politicalization of assignments, and project selections. One very sad commentary that was spoken was that substance didn't matter, but presentation did. A colleague put together a presentation of presentations, replete with smiley faces, but no real substance. He did this knowingly, tongue in cheek, and was handsomely congratulated and rewarded. I was dismayed to say the least, and the team member was laughing about it for weeks afterwards. Everyone loved it, except those who saw it for what it was, and for what it meant. Other sad commentaries regarding the consultants of choice, pigheadedness of a few individuals, and personal agendas, could be written ad nauseam. When learned of the Monterry Super Site, and the plans associated with it, I found employment else where. Much like more than a handful of BB's and BB managers. It became distasteful to most of us that poor quality systems and product design technical issues would be pushed to 3rd world manufacturing markets, where the same issues would potentially create even more havoc. Potential for professional advancement in the US sites would be significantly erroded when many sites were closed over the next few years. Having significant Automotive and Offshore experience, I was tired of shipping jobs to Mexico/Poland/China/Southeast Asia to save a few $'s, only to have those savings quickly absorbed by quality and logistical issues. Moving most all of North American production to Monterrey without supporting quality control efforts and technical expertise is as close to insane as you can get, without being diagnosed, IMHO Quality of engineering documents for Engineered to Build, and Build to Order systems was poor at best IMHO. Now let's throw a language and a cross border culture gap into the mix. GDS, LVMCC, MVMCC, ESB and other product lines will only suffer, if proper measures are not taken. With recent tech center activities around the globe, ROK is moving to a realtime 24/7 engineering solution, but this can only be successful if technical expertise is improved, and communication/data systems signficantly improved. This will leverage other global sites to drive MKE engineering centers to either change, or become significantly downsized, in my opinion. MKE design engineering staffs will now be compared against global price structures, technical abilities, and willingness to work extended hours for no incentives. (I know a bit about the Polish and Indian engineering mentality for long hours, you can blow them off, but they will own you over time.) The Global SAP transformation is probably getting better and gaining speed. Implementation of such a magnitude, cross functional, cross border, cross product, and cross societal borders, is huge. This system, along with the Technical engineering software improvements, will make for a global system that local entities will find hard to compete with. While it did, and may still be, causing havoc, this transformation has the seeds that will grow to a global engine. Recent global economic conditions will slow transformations, and slow the effect of the Monterrey Supersite, giving ROK time to absorb and make needed changes, to protect the customer base, if they see the need and fix it. Or, it may speed the process, but reduced volumes may buy time for the teams. I know many on this blog have complaints against HR. Realize this....HR is the legal entity in place to protect a corporation. It is no different in most places. There are many games played on many levels, and a pawn is a pawn is a pawn. We are all pawns. Supply Chain and Procurement activities at ROK were 1970-ish at best, (much like the 70 ish MRP ABMS system) IMHO. Slow changes were being made in structural areas, with hard working CI teams trying to implement 2000 era solutions. It's like trying to feed a starving person creme brulee...it just doesn't stay down. The Central CI team out of MKE needs to change in my opinion. CI needs to be a strong grass roots activity, with a very strong top down drive. The namby-pamby lets-all-get-along consensus model is a muddy cold coffee, and I don't mean good iced coffee either. Watering down Six Sigma with White and Yellow belt activities is okay, but without a strong Green Belt and BB team, it will fail. Without Best in Class Metrics tied to dashboards and incentives for leaders, the process will fail. Further, it needs to be tied to a very strong lean focus. But Lean is more than headcount reductions, most cannot comprehend that lean means more than headcount cuts. The original Rockwell Power Lean concept was good, but very poorly implemented, in my opinion. ROK will do well, and if absorbed into another corporation, will probably be their link to a strong global presence. In a non credit crunch environment, a David might buy Goliath. Until the economic conditions and credit conditions improve, ROK will unlikely be a take over target. Unless a super-weak US dollar makes the purchase tasteful to a cash rich brethern. Any good control system companies based in the MidEast? Agaun, all the above is my Opinion. Monday, December 29, 2008 Surprised not to see Keiran Coulton as EMEA president. I thought that is what he was lined up for. Anything behind this? Will he exit? Sunday, December 28, 2008 It seems that RA are copying the UK business model with their changes in Australia and New Zealand. ie. having a single distributor covering a whole region. I believe this model has been in place in the UK for several years and would be interested to hear how effective this is? I have heard rumours that suggest the UK region has failed to meet their sales goals over recent times. Friday, December 26, 2008 Perhaps he was kept on for a 'good' reason - as a hatchet man, when the job is done a big thank you received and good bye? But....... will there be anybody of any reasonable calibre left? Some key people have already been axed, the better ones that are still here will go at the first suitable opportunity; those that remain will hang on in hope and despair. Maybe they think it’s ‘International Rescue’ and all will be saved? Customers must be wondering where the level of service for any new and existing UK automation solutions will come from, is RA scaling its UK business down? Monday, December 22, 2008 Some crazy decisions have been made in Rockwell UK organisation. The guy referred to in the previous message is a renowned hate figure in the organisation, yet he got kept on at the expense of other very good candidates. The UK sales director has lost all credibility and respect and will be next on the pile in April. We need a leader not a puppet. Sunday, December 21, 2008 News afoot that Mcdermott has been let go. Can anyone confirm?. Happened Friday. Could be a good thing depending on who replaces him. Also whats the scoop on the new guy in EMEA? Seems, others in waiting may queue for the door. Merry Xmas Rockwell Sunday, December 21, 2008 I have been observing the production floor for 20+ years now. Rockwell was an excellent place to work back then. Now they could care less about the people on the floor. As said earlier, quality does not have anything to do with production anymore. It's imaginary efficientcy numbers and how come you are not making their set numbers. The black belts are a complete joke to those of us on the floor. They are more worried about who's radio got left out on the floor than the Atmel chips someone bought and had to replace 70,000 of them because they didnt work correctly with our artwork. As far as support goes, we are so on our own past 5pm; it's a wonder anything gets done. But guess what. We do just fine figuring it out for ourselfs. But it would be nice if on that rare occasion that we cant get it figured out there was someone to help. Ask your supervisor, you say. No electronic experience, no engineering experiece, very little manufacturing experience. It's like asking Paris Hilton to explain how a car works. She doesnt know she just sticks the key in and starts it up. "I dont know if the artwork on these labels are correct. What is the SAP tcode for past due to want." You get a blank stare and told to ask the honorary pseudo engineering support and he doesnt know anything either. All he does know is who to send out emails to so they can tell him the next day. I got my engineering degree a couple of years ago but if the production floor is this sophmoric I dont know if I want to see the other side of the coin. Friday, December 19, 2008 Typical American business practice. Get the little blokes {distributors} to build your business and promote your product and then screw them. I can't think of better way to get opposition products into the market place. The top brass at Rockwell can't be too clever if they think all the Aussie distributors are just going to shut their doors and not look for opposition products. It's amazing what products I've now been exposed to and finally I never have to pay for their stinking software support again. Talk to your distributors guys, there's a lot suppliers out there who have the a lot more to offer than Rockwell.
Friday, December 19, 2008 Maybe its time to remove the head they brought back into the systems business in the UK; no one likes him, not the obvious choice, upset everyone last time and to save costs the head of the other AC could have taken charge instead of moving into another position? If the situation was better moving out of RA would be a good ting to do. Lets hope that if more go, that its the dead wood this time. Thursday, December 18, 2008 My local distributor has always told me that they aren't allowed to sell conflicting products. How the hell can Rockwell hand over their entire product range to NHP when they have 2 catalogs full of conflicting products? To all the distributors who got shafted: there should be some big companies out there looking for new distributors to sell that products that NHP can't sell now! I must admit since moving to a new product range it makes a pleasent change when my orders are filled in one transaction, and not half the order on back order due to Rockwell's pathetic stock holding. Thursday, December 18, 2008 More on the changes in Australia and New Zealand. It is quite true that the existing distributors were practically prohibited from selling "conficting" products. Is NHP going to be subjected to the same restrictions? If not, then Rockwell could find that its biggest competitor will be its sole distributor... How ironic. Imagine it: a NHP sales rep could offer a Rockwell item, when knocked back due to price, can just whisk out another brand and close the deal. No one has mentioned the human toll of this move. Many distributors have had to completly change their companies and even let staff go. All this after Rockwell wanting iron-clad "commimtments" from its distributors for accelerated growth. Thursday, December 18, 2008 The software business was mostly untouched due to the change in command, but the honeymoon is over and they will have to make cuts now as well. Thursday, December 18, 2008 All the data I find on Rockwell is pretty positive versus its Peer group. Holding it's own in Americas and gaining strongly in Asia versus Siemens and Schneider. What's the reason for those areas doing well? Stock is doing ok versus others in same industry. Seems to me that people who post here just want to enact a self-fulfilling prophecy. So whats negative about their market position or management in Americas and Asia. Facts only please. Wednesday, December 17, 2008 Regarding the previous entry commenting on Australian redundancies and the citation of the PACE magazine article:
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 This is no surprise, it was widely believed by the workers here that the October round was not the end. Why do Rockwell put their employees through this and at this time of year? Surely it would be better to get it over in one go rather than stress the workforce out again. But thats probably the legalities, too much in one go causes the management additional work. Glad I thought ahead and did not spend too much for Xmas just in case. Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - Re: "Rockwell to announce 10-12% workforce reduction at end of Q2." Was this in an article somewhere or is this inside news? Tuesday, December 16, 2008 The staff reductions that the blog below list will not be coming from within their Australian network. They have already publicly stated (in PACE magazine) that there will be no redundancies within Australia. PACE magazine also reported that RA have had an overwhelming response to their new distribution network. Tuesday, December 16, 2008 What are the sources of this new info of 10-12% reduction in workforce? How credable is this comment? Monday, December 15, 2008 Rockwell to announce 10-12% workforce reduction at end of Q2. Saturday, December 13, 2008 The good news for the Rockwell customers is that amongst all the confusion about supply of goods, Rockwell Australia's dwindling stock levels, and general confusion in the industry; they are all going to be rewarded with a nice price rise at the start of 2009.. Listen. Think. Solve... fail... Saturday, December 13, 2008 The payout of the incentive bonus is, as I understand it, a legal requirement. As it is contractual, so credit cannot be taken for this act, RA could do nothing about it. RA seems to be on the slippery slope both here in the UK and elsewhere. Perhaps the buyout by ABB is imminent. Friday, December 12, 2008 Jordi Andreu (Presidenbt of the EMEA operation) resigned yesterday - announced his "retirement" today effective the end of the year. I suspect Jordi was really shown the door over the more than expected poor performance from that region in the most recent filings. Friday, December 12, 2008 I think some of you bloggers just don't get it. Let me explain a few things. Every employee was due the employee incentive bonus (Regardless of the economy) especially after mandatory overtime all through the summer at the Twinsburg facility. (That had to haved sucked for you guys.) Now on the merit side of the issue, the money for the merit increases was already in the budget from the previous year, therefore the employees busting their butts should have had their merit increases this year and been told that for fiscal year 2009 that there would not be any merit increases. That I am sure would have been understood by all employees. Not - thanks for for a great year but we aren't going to give out merit increases, but look at the bright side, we gave you the, Employee Incentive Bonus and you still have a job. Look I feel bad for the people that have been let go, and I am glad I still have a job, but Rockwell is not done yet. If you think that no merit increases is going to save jobs, or benefits at Rockwell you are wrong. Corporate Rockwell are followers not leaders. They are watching to see what other companies are doing and will follow along in the name of the economy even if they don't have too. (Great excuse though!!) What ever it takes to fill their pockets they will do. We employees are just a number with no name. "Oh by the way keep up the good work." Friday, December 12, 2008 Please understand that you are not the only person who has worked for a Fortune 100 company. Understanding that, Rockwell is not a Fortune 100 company and would be nowhere near the top or the middle of any workplace satisfaction surveys. They get no style points for telling people they do not get a merit raise. "Shut up and suck it up" is not motivational. I imagine you are a management drone who is fed a consistent diet of 'we are still the greatest and most poweful automation company in the world and that alone will get us through'. You obviously come form the Keith Nosbush school of motivational speaking. Thursday, December 11, 2008 On the issue of Australia & NZ distributorship change, basically the distributors are paying for price of wrong strategy on Rockwell's behalf. Now Rockwell pass the distributorship to one company - NHP, because it has distribution network across whole Aus. & NZ, but the reason that Rockwell's outgoing distributors couldn't grow bigger is just because they could only sell in their authorized regions and they couldn't sell anything that are in conflict with Rockwell's products. Rockwell, a typical irresponsible organization simply get others to pay for its own mistakes. Thursday, December 11, 2008 Regarding the "it should be better elsewhere" mentality, rest assured, it isn't. If you have a job, stay where you are and ride it out if you can tolerate it! Thursday, December 11, 2008 I think the decision to suspend merit was far better than the alternatives (more headcount reductions). Add to this the fact that the company did payout Employee Incentive bonuses and got everyone thier cash before the holidays and you have a clear picture that the leadership team is doing everything they can, under the circumstances, to care for the employees during tough times. Other Fortune 100 companies I have worked for would have not even bothered to announce and explain the no-merit decision, they would have just done it, not paid the employee bonus, and still cut more heads. RA is a great company that is doing all it can for its people under very tough economic times. Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Well, we only talking here about no merit increases which might be seen as why bother in future. No cost of living increases will be another story. Cost of living is going up rapidly, higher than the officials admit. If salaries do not keep in pace the people at the bottom of the ladder that do all the work will get disheartened very quickly and look elsewhere, right or wrong. With so much bad feeling at the moment the sense 'it should be better elsewhere' will prevail. Also with all those long servers just been kicked out, where is the loyalty. Anybody with any sense now will be monitoring the job vacancies ready to make the move themselves or for the next round of exports - it is not any pleasure here any more. Wednesday, December 10, 2008 The writer who urges the previous blogger to 'get over themselves' is missing the point entirely or is a senior manager at Rockwell who got theirs. Of course people are happy to have a job. It is year after year of providing results so that the senior leadership get 20% of allot and huge options while the people who made it all happen are not sharing in the riches. Enough said? Tuesday, December 9, 2008 Regarding no merit increases - think of the alternative? Would you prefer to be without a job? Would you rather have a 5-7% workforce reduction? In times like these, shared sacrifice is necessary. Get over yourself. Monday, December 8, 2008 Anouncement just came out: no merit increases this year. Well, just another example of Corporate American greed, and the downright robbery of the working people of the company. It's rolled out as a cost cutting measure; well yes indeed it is! I'll be curious to see what the big boys at the top are willing to give up to help with this cost cutting. Hey, I've got a suggestion, why not give up your bonuses and stock options?? Why not lead by example? Monday, December 8, 2008 With regard to the question "What is happening to the distributors in Australia?" I can say that of the distributors in New Zealand, some of whom were set up mainly to promote Rockwell products. The owners of these businesses are now fighting for their survival, and the staff who helped run those businesses are scrambling for new employment close to Christmas. Some have already left, some are still looking for employment in 2009. It's a DAMN FINE CHRISTMAS PRESENT Rockwell has given everyone who works or worked in those businesses. And to cap it off, Rockwell expects the distributors and staff to "support them to the hilt" while all this goes on. To all the other distributors worldwide, WATCH YOUR BACKS! Monday, December 8, 2008 20% increase on UK PLC List prices?? Can anybody explain this? Monday, December 8, 2008 Regarding Rockwell's "convergence" vision, nothing could be further from the truth. It is a "pieces and parts" approach that will add to customer complexity, not reduce it. This is what happens when companies grow through acquisition and poorly considered partnerships (e.g. IBM). Many of the pieces aren't even Rockwell products. Sunday, December 7, 2008 The key person who is driving this monumental disaster in Australia/NZ is a South African who has not been with RA long (he hasn't even been to NZ) and whose previous employer was.... yep you guessed it... NHP. Why this person with such a blatant conflict of interest has been allowed anywhere near this deal is beyond comprehension. But for some inexplicable reason the Asia Pacific VP is backing him. Everyone else in RA Aus/NZ is gutted by the decision, and the customer base is abandoning the company in droves. As a million dollar plus customer my emails to senior people are being ignored. At some point soon it will occur to someone senior in NHP what a poisoned chalice they have been handed, and when RA's orders drop to nothing in the early new year the penny will drop to someone senior in the USA what a total clusterf... this is. By then it will be far too late to recover. (The local Scheider people have already called on me in a state of glee, they simply cannot believe their luck.) RA in this part of the world is categorically finished. I state this in sorrow. I've been associated with this Rockwell for much of my adult life, and until a month ago could take some pride in that. Now all I feel is embarrassment. Saturday, December 6, 2008 Does anyone know what is happening to the current distributor in Australia? Should we expect these companies to vanish very soon? If so, it looks like Rockwell is quiet happy to sign death warrants for their distributors all around the world. Thursday, December 4, 2008 I'm in my 50s, in Australia as a distributor of a large company, not Rockwell or PLC related, and work 12 to 14 hrs a day supporting my customers, my supplier and my business. I know that this action by Rockwell, justified or unjust - no comment, has caused some questioning of what can happen in any distributor arrangement within Australia. We all work with some very powerfull overseas companies in Australia but keep in mind that this can happen to any localised distributor once a larger company sees your business area as theirs. No agreement will protect you however from the parent company thinking and you still have your customer good will, use it! Wednesday, December 3, 2008 Given how Rockwell has treated it's distributors in Australia and New Zealand, I think there might be a big party at almost all the distributors if Rockwell closed their offices in both countries tomorrow. I just hope the liquor wholesalers still have a licence to sell beer, and have enough stock on hand for the sudden drain if it happened. Rockwell - Listing. Sink. Dissolve. Wednesday, December 3, 2008 As I understand it NHP are already moving into the Rockwell premises in Auckland NZ. Tuesday, December 2, 2008 I am just curious if anyone has a time frame regarding when Rockwell will be closing down their offices in Australia. With NHP apparently holding large amounts of stock, and Rockwell themselves running theirs down, it is clear that it will not be necessary for both parties to operate at the same time. Thursday, November 27, 2008 "Rockwell" in the Australia automation industry's dictionary now is another word for of betrayal, dishonesty, unreliable. "Mate, you're like a Rockwell!" Thursday, November 20, 2008 Mr. Nosbusch painted a fairly compelling picture this week in Nashville. But presentations are easy - let's see what they do with it now in terms of delivering on the promises! We're a big Rockwell shop and hoping they can make it real. Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Rockwell Automation's move to kill their Australasian distributor model is part of a multi-pronged long-term business plan to get more control over the entire sales channel (why - perhaps just to make up for the fact that hardware margins continue to shrink and the people making money like HP and IBM do it through their knowledge arms not through their hardware arms). The first part is to move to a tighter model - with perhaps lower prices (ha, ha). Has anyone compared what an L61 cost in Australia compared with the USA. When you account for reasonable freight charges and exchange you see still many dollars that go somewhere - and the distributors say that they are not making massive profits. Back to the point though, Rockwell want tighter control over their distributors. Now they have one+one. Secondly, Rockwell have been secretly lining up a few integrators to provide more engineering services through Rockwell itself (as well, perhaps, but this is conjecture, they have been aiming their corporate integration arm into the larger end users to bypass integrators all together - Fonterra in New Zealand springs to mind as a good target for Rockwell to get rid of the integrators all together). So Rockwell will end up with the following (a) a less technical but perhaps cheaper and better stocked single point of sale (except for one little bit of Australia) for all Rockwell products (pity poor New Zealand who will end up seeing "ex.works Melbourne" etc. on everything and probably not see any cost savings). Also (b) more central engineering support perhaps through a few integrators but more likely in the long term through Rockwell itself. I doubt that this is just an Australasian move. Europe, the Far East (yes, they did just purchase a large Chinese integrator) and of course North America are to follow. Being a VAR or SI just about anywhere is difficult enough right now. Rockwell are going to make it much more fun. Monday, November 17, 2008 With regard to the HR issues in the UK. I think you will find that RA are operating a form of forced ranking with their appraisal system. This means that a % of employees MUST be given a below standard rating each year. These people are then to be replaced in the belief this will improve the quality of their staff overall. This pactice is illegal in other countries but not so in the US. Monday, November 17, 2008 The recent postings about illegal, not to mention unethical, practices in the UK are a matter of doing business by senior management and HR at Rockwell. The last marketing 'Genuis' who left for St. Louis made it a regular practice to RIF people in the name of excellence, to post his people (his buddies) into existing and new jobs which were never posted. Go figure. This is the mild stuff going on at RA. HR is not a facilitator. They are a road block. They go along with what ever leadership says. The HR 'person' who handles marketing is the most inept, incapable, terse (on her best days) HR rep I have ever met. Apparently this is the true vision of an employee centric best in class organization. Monday, November 17, 2008 Rockwell Automation's decision to overhaul its Australian distributor network has me rather puzzled. Over the last few years they have genuinely astounded me by finding more way to milk money out the system integrator community (tech support charges, exorbitant software renewals). They have now removed the one genuine advantage they had over their competitors, in the form of semi-knowledgeable distributors. The new nation wide distributor (NHP) do some things very well, but selling and supporting Automation is not one of them. My experience of them is essentially as an electrical super market, and getting competent technical advice from them is sometimes problematic. I am sure there is some good corporate reason for this change but I very much doubt if it will make the life of the Australian system integrator any easier or provide Rockwell with anything but declining automation sales in the next few years. Friday, November 14, 2008 For what it's worth, I'm an ex-employee from RA here in the US. The comment about Rockwell's HR are also true here. I personally involved the US Department of Justice in my experience. I can assure you they are being investigated. I literally have been treated like I blew the whistle on the Mafia. These goons have been trying to make my life miserable for no less than 11 years. Every time I get another job,two mysterious "visitors" show up. There is usually some type of "problem" later. The feds then have to come in to clean it up, and they did. How a major public corporation can get away with these "mafia" tactics is beyond my comprehension. I'm glad they're being investigated in the UK as well. Rockwell needs to learn that when they're wrong, they're wrong. They don't have the right to "terrorize" people who have the moxy to point that out. Friday, November 14, 2008 Referring to previous "fact" based blog, NHP has a long term, established relationship with RA & have distributed RA product for many years i.e. S&S. They have grown this product range far more aggressively & successfully then the existing under-performing bunch, ask anyone in the Industry. Competitors are nervous and rightly so! Great move. Friday, November 14, 2008 - RE: HR practise in the UK: It was not so long ago that Rockwell HR implemented this rule-bending when they themselves "moved out" the UK HR Manager, only for the person to be replaced almost immediately with another candidate doing the same job in all but name. A few months later, the same person got promoted without the job being advertised, internally or externally. The place is rotten to the core and stinks. Thursday, November 13, 2008 These are the facts how Rockwell ditched the existing distributors in Australia and New Zealand:
Thursday, November 13, 2008 This type of practice is illegal, and Rockwell UK are being investigated. If found guilty there will be millions to pay and I expect the entire HR department may well find themselves being fired. Oh well, at least they will escape being made redundant! Thursday, November 13, 2008 There is no 'borderline' about it. It is illegal. It'll take a brave soul to challenge it, however. Who? Thursday, November 13, 2008 Agree with the last post. Its widely known that HR in general is a core incompetency at RA :) amazing they can pull something like this off Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Here's something I don't understand. Rockwell in the UK lays of a bunch of people because their positions become redundant. The people themselves are seen as victims of circumstance and given basic redundancy packages. This type of practice goes on all the time and is commonly accepted. However, the positions suddenly re-appear in a slightly different guise and other people get promoted into them. It's fairly obvious within the organisation that Rockwell are clearly bending the rules. What gets me is that HR facilitate this type of practice. Surely this must be borderline illegal. Tuesday, November 11, 2008 No worry about support in the future. Customers will simply call the "World Class" help desk in Melbourne. That is assuming they have paid their "World Class" support fee up front, for the privilege. Sunday, November 9, 2008 NHP and Rexel are now Rockwells support network. I wish any Rockwell customers good luck getting the level of service that the old distributor network provided. Competitors in the Australian market must be rubbing their hands together with this news. Sunday, November 9, 2008 I have worked with NHP and Rexel find them world class distributors. I guess all the Oz distributors are ticked because their cash cow is milking elsewhere. Past performance doesnt seem to have been good and so what do they expect? Brave move Rockwell, and if I was a betting man I would say a good one. Sounds like RA Australia has had a total makeover and can provide much better service to its customer base. Friday, November 7, 2008 While I'm certain that the channel changes in Oz will likely spawn huge resentment and most likely a chain of lawsuits, after the reality sets in, it is likely that many of the A-B experts currently in the employ of the distributors will indeed seek employment with the S&S distributors. The anger is probably well directed, but the reality is that people need to work. Thursday, November 6, 2008 - Australia and New Zealand: On Nov 5 All independent Australian Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley distributors were given notice that they were being terminated without cause. That termination was issued without any notice, discussion or consideration of the huge commitment made by distributors to Rockwell over the last twenty years. On Nov 6 it was made known that NHP (the local Sprecher & Schuh distributor) would take over distribution of Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley across most of Australia. Inaco - a division of Rexel - retains Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane. This rumour had been circulating for months - but Rockwellclaims the decision was only made in the last few days - bullshit! NHP has been granted access from Nov 7! That is - distributors have been given ONE DAY'S notice that they are no lonoger exclusive or preferred. What is happenning now in Australia and New Zealand will very likely an happen across the rest of the world. Distributors in all countries should now be demanding revised contracts and removal of the provisions that permit termination without cause - otherwise their days are numbered! The distributor network has taken Rockwell from a niche supplier of PLC-2's and PLC-5's to a force to be reckoned with in the automation industry. In the words of a recent Schneider employee - the distributor network is "formidable - impossible to get past". The industry in Australia is speechless and the support extended to distributors by Rockwell's competitors has been awesome. Rockwell distributors have lived and breathed Rockwell Automation for two decades and the reward they have got for the amazing commitment and loyalty is "thank you, you are sacked, go away quietly". This is typical of American corporate imperialism and symptomatic of the complete lack of principles and values in American corporations. Rockwell is a very sick company. In Australia they will lose a lot of their staff who are horrified at the behaviour of the Asia Pacific president who has ordered this execution. They have already lost their best and brightest. The half dozen staff who have showed some loyalty to distributors are likely to be disposed of soon. The yes-men who thought that the distributors weren't worth standing up for will be surprised once retrenchments start - many of them will go because Rockwell with NHP won't need them. They won't have saved their own necks anyway. Saturday, November 1, 2008 - comments responding to an earlier weblog - Wednesday, October 15, 2008: "Recently heard from a friend in Rockwell that not only are the cuts over, but also they are looking forward to take on the challenge of the down economy and have a go at better performance, as they have done time and again in the past."
Sunday, October 26, 2008 - Re: Weblog dated Wednesday, October 15, 2008, asking "What do you think is going to happen to quality?" Are you kidding? The "reliability" of products went down the tubes a long time before the VP was hired; more like when Nosbusch was elected in. Why does everyone think that when the VP was hired in he was going to "fix" quality? "Continous Improvement" - what a joke. Just ask anyone who works in the areas of production. They have done away with quality and replaced it with speed. The products are being "reworked" more, tested less and sent to customer under the false pretenses that it was built right and tested the first time. While all of this is going on, the VP was building a huge Continous Improvment group that was doing, well, not so much, unless you count colored smocks, double ESD straps and pointing out dust under a table 'continuous improvement'. Not to worry, the management staff and black belts hired from Ford (another great Nosbusch trade) will save the day. They are like Moses, come to save us all and lead us to the path of maniacal egotism & waste. Gosh, what ever did we do before they came? I am so grateful they came otherwise I would not know what real leadership is, like watching Ford's ship sink as they jumped off in time to jump in our boat. What ever did we do before the point system? Who had the quality department under that VP? No one. It is as it was before he came, left to the operations managers. If ever there was an oxy-moron, this is it. Leaving all of the quality decesions to the operations management and staff. When ever they want to bypass quality for the sake of quantity, they do it and the quality group is told to shut up, and there's the door if you don't like it. The quality managers are puppets to the great Ford empire. Did I mention there is only one quality engineer supporting all of Twinsburg? The quality group used to be over 12 people at one time, supporting all of operations. Now there are 4 in the group. One engineer and 3 techs. The recent blogs on this site have had a lot of sales this, software that. Wake up all of you. If we continue to sell the customer crap, he'll start buying elsewhere and your fretting over who is doing what in sales/software/support will not matter one lick. Only when a customer is physically or financially harmed and a lawsuit cripples us will Nosbusch & company sit up and take notice. Friday, October 24, 2008 Just for the record I want to share my experience of working with Rockwell Automation. Having recently done projects in Asia, I have to tell you that they were awesome. We built plants in Singapore and China and were destined to use a competitors control as most of our machines came from European OEMs. They pitched for the work and we got assurances of support from the President of Asia and his key staff. They delivered on time and we started flawlessly. They continue to support us now that the projects are finished. Hats off to them and I'm sure this would be the same in other areas where Rockwell operates. So, to the bloggers who are negative: It is people who deliver, not companies. We are proud to work with the folks we have known at Rockwell Automation: engineers, sales and executives. Keep up the good work! Friday, October 24, 2008 Ralph Carter cutting heads will not be an option, as the software group needs to reduce costs more than any other part of the business, and has not yet been affected greatly by the recent cost cutting measures. Like the other person, I hope he cleans house of the deadwood. Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Rockwell Software has a new leader to replace Kevin Roach. Ralph Carther was recently announced as the VP of Rockwell Software. He will have his work cut out for him as he will need to weed out the "yes" men of Kevin Roach. While Kevin did have a vision and surrounded himself with people who could execute it, he also enjoyed getting his butt kissed by people and he would make room to surround himself with these useless folks. Let's see if Ralph has the stomach to weed out those butt kissers and move Rockwell Software forward. He could certainly make a great impression by knocking off this deadweight soon. It will also be interesting to see how he fits into the Rockwell Automation culture. He needs to adjust from being a big fish in a little pond to now being a little fish in a big pond. I have confidence in Ralph if he shows over the next few months he has control of the situation and boots some of these "no ops" out of there. Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Rockwell in the UK have let a load of people go over the last few weeks. One thing I heard is that they went from three sales regions down to two. Basically the guys managing the central region were so incompetent that the sales director fired them both and has reduced the sales region to three. I guess that means good news for the rest of the UK team. It's always good to see some good decisions being made for a change. Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Rockwell just announced they are closing their Mancheaster NH plant, eliminating 168 jobs. More jobs to Mexico. ROCK-on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Ralph Carter has taken over the helm at Rockwell Software. Wednesday, October 22, 2008 The cuts at Rockwell are most certainly NOT over. With the pending announcement of a new leader on the software side of the business, this unfortunate individual will likely be tasked with the unpleasant role of severe cost cutting. Monday, October 20, 2008 Well morale is at an all time low in the software group. Kevin Roach and friends really left their mark; a gutted powerless group with no direction. The relics that control Rockwell have pillaged any software product that makes money and left the software group with no funding or direction. Friday, October 17, 2008 I am approaching 2 years since I too worked for RA (Looks like there are more members of the "former Rockwell Automation" group that will be joining me). Since leaving, I work for an A/E and we have been growing at roughly 10% annually. I still use RA equipment (PLC, HMI, etc.) and do feel comfortable using it. However, the sales person that was supposed to call on me had yet to visit my office (their sales office is 5 miles from mine) and then I heard that he was part of the 3% reduction. So far, no contact from the RA staff (maybe they are still figuring out who gets to service my account). I guess the distributor is who I'll be looking toward for my support. In reality I know the equipment quite well so it is not a big thing but what about my customers? One question has occurred to me: How is RA going to explain their recent staffing moves at Automation Fair? There are way too many customers who will have questions that will be asked face to face at the Fair to just make something up. Talking points may work well for politicians but can a consistent message be relayed to the 100s of RA staff in Nashville? For the many friends that still are at RA, I hope the changes can be explained to thier customer's satification or this move may come back to haunt. BTW, we consistently beat RA services in our marketplace and are happy with the mark-up we get. RA never knew how to set reasonable mark-up pricing when I was there and it still seems to be the case. Expetations don't match reality in my view. Thursday, October 16, 2008 Does anyone know what is happening with Rockwell in Australia at the moment? The distributor network is rife with rumours of major changes to the distribution model. Can anyone shed any light on this? Thursday, October 16, 2008 Yes, Rockwell is loosing market share and basically in process industries. Today many more customers are asking for hybrid and integrated systems (PCS7 well prescribed by Siemens) and Profibus DP/PA, Hart and Foundation Fieldbus real integrated solutions for instruments. Rockwell can’t deliver that in a perfect integrated solution. A more analytical end-user has an interpretation that a company that has Hart modules and Profibus modules coming from third party suppliers doesn’t consider these technologies core, so, they translate that Rockwell doesn’t consider process control as core – where users prefer to go to the big guys. Also some end users are doing partnerships with suppliers with process know-how in specifics domains – strong enough to give recommendations for customer process improvements – Rockwell is still far from that. The Pavilion acquisition was basically tentative, to show that they touch Process Control; a decision driven by this identity problem. Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Recently heard from a friend in Rockwell that not only are the cuts over, but also they are looking forward to take on the challenge of the down economy and have a go at better performance, as they have done time and again in the past. The comments were that senior leadership in Rockwell always have been providing very open communication to all employees about what is going on. This is a very encouraging and comforting feeling for many employees. If this is the case, then Rockwell management is really taking better care of their employees compared to most of their peer companies. I have heard really bad stories on how some other companies senior leadership communicates (or lack of..) to their employees. Wednesday, October 15, 2008 What do you think is going to happen to quality from Rockwell Automation, now that they have fired the VP of Continuous Improvement - who had the quality department under him? My understanding is that there is no reliability department - is that why the products have had such problems? Monday, October 13, 2008 I have worked on the factory floor of Allen Bradley...now called Rockwell Automation, for 24 years. The supervision on the factory floor is strictly paid for accounting attendance issues. And they pay these 'supervisors' $60,000+ just to do this, because they have no other accountable qualifications. You would think upper management would have realized this when their first shift went without supervision for more than two years. We, the so-called peons ran the lines perfectly. Their supervisors' motivation to do a good job, myself included, but no matter what they do to me it is in me to continue to do a good job because they have given this single mother a roof over my nhead, and my childrens' head, and food on our table, and I appreciate that. Long story short.....single Mom....cars vandalized on a Saturdy morn...I walk out at 4:10 A.M. as vandalizers are robbing my cars. Have to be at work by 5:00 A.M. or I am going to get a half point. Actually thought for a second of going out to my car knowing the vandalizers were out there cuz I had to be at work on time so I wouldn't get my half point. Luckily, the total brainwashing didn't totally set in by this point, so I called police to come to my house knowing this would make me late to work. Long story short... thought my 'supervisor/attendance man would have some empathy on a single woman not wanting to walk outside as vandals were robbing her cars....shows how much I know.... My shift starts at 5:00 A.M With all this that went on, I made it to work at 5:07 and my 'supervisor ' said he "has to do what he has to do" regardless of what I had gone through. Long story short.... I get half point, whether its 30 seconds or 6 hours...half of my shift... So, I went home and slept for 6 hours of which the company paid me for. What sense does that make?? An employee ready to work and get paid for it but a supervisor who has no empathy for the employee and sends her home to get paid for sleeping 6 hours. Monday, October 13, 2008 It's very interesting to read that people still think Rockwell is a leader in Automation and control products. Nearly 70% of their catalog is brand labeled from other vendors. They have limited resources overseas and their stock continues to go down. They recently hired many people for the new Aggressive Growth Sales Model, only to let some of the people go! There seems to be a lot of knee-jerking type business strategies going on. There are so many layers of management within the company, that no one knows what many of them do. Hence when issues arrise in the field, the issues are very well sheltered from upper management, especially sales engineers getting their commission sales correct. There are many sales engineers getting hurt fianancially that they are scraping by with nearly 30% less salary then they had last year, even though they are at or above 100% to plan on their quota. Sales management has turned a blind eye on help sales people get paid. It has been said their are less management layers in the US government than Rockwell Automation... Go figure. Friday, October 10, 2008 I've had it with Rockwell. Time and time again I see people being promoted to their level of incompetence. It makes me furious. Just why are these decisions made. Rockwell, consider yourself sacked. I'm outta here! Thursday, October 9, 2008 wah,wah,wah... I went over to the UK in the past. I'd think that some of you need to check yourselves I found field service more concerned about their own deal, rather than focus on customer. In the past my contact with UK service in general has been poor along with sales guys who are more interested in sales than customer issues. Always looking for the next sale rather than supporting customer installations and problems. Take care of you customer first, service, then yourself. Focus on customer and sales will follow. Thursday, October 9, 2008 Rockwell UK have just announced redundancies - about 20 in all. As predicted, incompetent managers have either got to keep their jobs or have had new roles created for them. Long term veterans of the organisation, and people on the front line have been given the boot. And we were hoping Rockwell would change the way they do things..... You can draw some distinct parallels between what is going on here and the recent events in UK banks, where the people who made all the bad decisions in the first place got to keep their jobs, and those who did all the hard work got fired. Thursday, October 9, 2008 Was there a big layoff in the Rockwell Software organization? That is the buzz, but can someone on the "inside" confirm or deny? Monday, October 6, 2008 It would be nice if some of these bloggers where more in touch with reality. Take a look at Automation growth in both Latin America and Asia; Rockwell has gained share considerably versus Siemens, Schneider, Omron and Mitsi. It's held its own in the Americas, albeit struggled in Europe. However where markets are growing it is winning and that may just have something to do with strategy, people (including management) and execution. Monday, October 6, 2008 I don't see why management would be opposed to a takeover. Didn't you pack your golden parachutes? Monday, October 6, 2008 Anyone who believes the "Äccelerated Growth Model" is successful must not have been breathing at the time of implementation. Here are some questions they can not answer.
Is Rockwell product any better than anyone elses? I think not, they just have an excellent distribution model that is able to pick up for the short comings of direct Rockwell personnel. Rockwell wishes one day to wake up and be a large company, but will always be to narrow minded to be so. Remember the Titanic; all was lost in the end except for the captain. Monday, October 6, 2008 Boy! That recent comment sure sounds like it's from one of the self-absorbed, do it or else, faultless, old boy sales network senior management. As one of their successful managers, the sales re-org is NOT successful, and is driving the company into the ground, as evidenced by the share price and performance. Emperors with no clothes...except when you tell them, they still refuse to look at themselves as the issue....Milwaukee-centric...some never having been out of a couple of states in the US. It's a joke. The collapse of Rockwell Automation as we know it, is here. Monday, October 6, 2008 The Rockwell post (evidently a manager) dated from Sunday (assuming it is genuine of course) makes for some very interesting reading. No-one is suggesting that the growth is not impressive; but surely the whole team have worked together to deliver the end goal and everyone should take the due credit in delivering this performance. The crunch is this ... Rockwell Automation as a global corporate organisation has no where to go - Jim Pinto makes some fair points to this effect. If someone wants to make an offer that the board are obliged to share with the owners of the company, do you really think they will turn around and say "No thank you, the UK Sales Organisation are doing such a great job and it would be such a shame given all their hard work." ? I don't think so. Monday, October 6, 2008 I am surprised to see that such a positive Blog was written on Sunday 5th October - eviodently by a memeber of the Rockwell Management team. I am even more surprised that the 'Sales Process' is considered to be so successful. It would be interesting if surveyed how many frontline Sales Guys would agree with such comments. I'm guessing its just another case of Management being seriously out of touch with reality...more importantly their assets. Monday, October 6, 2008 The person who wrote the Sunday, Oct. 5th weblog is completely outside of the real world.log. This is the typical good-old-boy talk. Rockwell marketshare is slowly but surely declining, no matter if you see it from US, EMEA, Latin america or Asia Pacific. Is this due to big competitors? Probably not. Nevertheless this is reality. You may see it or refuse it but that's it. If you look at the senior management turnover, well again you are part of the good-old-boys-family or you are out. The list is endless. It looks like the worse you are in doing your job, the more you are appreciated. Is this the behaviour of a company that wants to grow? If you are not capable to analyze what's wrong inside your own orgnization, you are condemned to kill it; to shrink it and then destroy it...... but walking away with a bonus of 7 digits or more. Le ROI Est Mort, Vive Le ROI. For the ones that remember history. But it seems it's not going to happen anytime soon. Monday, October 6, 2008 - RE: "We have moved from strength to strength over the years " What a self-deluded comment! Check the growth year over year, and then check the growth of the competition in the same period, in ANY of the global markets! The competition have and continue to outgrow Rockwell. Instead of self-congratulatory remarks about the sales processes and management, perhaps a more critical inward look is required? Sunday, October 5, 2008 Rockwell shareholders are bleeding and disgusted with current management. I speak as one of them. An ABB takeover would be salvation. Sunday, October 5, 2008 Rockwell will never be acquired by ABB. End of story. We have moved from strength to strength over the years and are formidable competition to ABB. Over the last year Rockwell has concentrated on the Sales Process, and the correct management of the process. The results speak volumes and we are enjoying growth like never before. This tradition is likely to continue over the next several years. In spite of all the recent emails criticising management, it is the sales management who have developed, driven, and delivered this increased performance. The thought of losing management personnel during this tough period would not be a very sensible move. However, I am convinced that this won't be the case. Oh, and as for managers being referred to as "spread-sheet monkeys" who can't sell, think again. The results achieved wouldn't be possible if managers didn't know how to sell. Sunday, October 5, 2008 If Rockwell gets acquired by ABB, what are the chances that Processlogix survives? If history is any type of indicator (remember the fate of Elsag Bailey?), I'm thinking it gets killed in favor of the ABB platform. Saturday, October 4, 2008 Rockwell UK is a very scary place to be right now. In light of all that is going on, management have failed to alleviate the feelings of uncertainty within the workforce. Interestingly enough, a competitor had an unexpected vacancy two days ago and 11 sales guys from Rockwell UK applied for the job. I bet the majority probably don't even live in the right area. It is truly scary that people are feeling so jittery yet the management team are sitting back congratulating each other on what a great year they've had. Saturday, October 4, 2008 As with a lot of American companies the more layers of management they put in place the easier it becomes to protect the guys further up the tree. This has led to a culture where middle managers are commonly treating their inferiors with no respect but making sure they are being perceived in the eyes of their superiors as "doing a good job". It's unfortunate that Rockwell has ended up in this situation, and doesn't change it's behaviour to address the problem. So go on Rockwell, fire more of your sales guys, based of course on the recommendations of the incompetent middle managers you hired in the first place. Where will that leave you? Or more precisely, who will taht leave you with? I'll tell you - a bunch of spread sheet monkeys who couldn't sell if their lives depended on it. Yep, and next year we'll be looking at another 5-10% redundancies. Friday, October 3, 2008 In view of the recent cut backs at Rockwell, I didn't notice any of the "Black-Belts" and the top-heavy management team who hired them lose their jobs, of course I could be wrong. The Twinsburg facility itself was impacted by losing 10 people, 3 of which were re-assigned to jobs on the manufacturing floor; they had no choice, either take the move or go with NOTHING. At least the other 20+ yr. veterans who were sent packing were given severance. Some who were close to retiring were not even given the dignity to do so. While they were being ushered out the door, the "Black Belts" were laughing it up. Most with less than three years of service, who were hired to save the company money, and I bet they are. The good-old-boy network lives on at Rockwell. They are greedy, looking to shine and pretend they are adding value and saving the company money. Will anybody at the upper levels realize how much they are being lied to? Thursday, October 2, 2008 Cutting costs is a core competency at Rockwell; they have an outstanding record of doing this to maintain margins; they have done it many times in the past. The dissapointing thing is they always fail in the area that is most important: Growth. Take Europe (Which has been singled out in recent announcements as "softening") The core business has not outgrown the market at ALL in about ten years. The majority of the growth was coming from the services businesses but this was at lower margins and the oldboys didnt really like this so the guys behind this exited stage left. Solution from senior management; a sales growth plan (genius huh ?), they added sales heads (and cost) and low and behold growth started, but look hard. The growth was less than the market growth levels enjoyed by the competition. Now the market has slowed the additional costs are a burden and so a reshuffle and costs are cut. They have to resolve the issue about lack of growth. In many peoples minds internally it is to embrace the market change, accept that custmers want wider scope of supply and more responsibility taken by suppliers. This means higher risk, more services and Im afraid to say lower margins in that value added business, but it will and does pull through the higher margin product business. Get over the silo mentality that Logix has to be seen to grow as a seperate productline and embrace the market and Rockwell can and will grow again. Replace the tired oldguard with new blood and watch the Rockwell superior offerring outgrow the competition. Thursday, October 2, 2008 I'm not familiar with organization outside U.S. but here Rockwell Regional VP's, District, Branch, Local Area(Product), Channel and various Market Segment Managers operate below VP Sales and above individual territory salespeople. Reorg in sales, services, district and branch office structure in 2006 realigned many but resulted in little head count reduction. There appears to be about a 3:1 ratio in many markets between Rockwell salespeople and other automation suppliers Siemens, Schneider, CH, GE etc. salespeople operating in common trade areas calling on distributors, integrators, OEM and end user customers. ABB largely uses independent manufacturer rep agencies. Rockwell augments their sales organization with mandated, by Automation Appointment, dedicated distributor salespeople determined by local market share, sales performance, and sales volume. In general, within the U.S., competitive automation suppliers, some with much larger product portfolios, have leaner sales organizations with fewer layers and larger geographic assignments compared to Rockwell's current structure. Thursday, October 2, 2008 The cuts are continuing the rest of this week. People that were just hired a year ago from other good companies are also being let go. There is no rhyme or reason for some of the releases of some of the people. Especially for the sales people that have been over plan all. The aggressive growth model is a joke. They have been having issues on paying sales people all year long on getting the numbers right. The great quote has continued to be heard "With the new model you will not get hurt financially." Well that is not true there are alot of people make alot less money and having to fight for every penny along the way with no help from management to help resolve the issue. A good company has turned into a club of good old boys that keeps everyone in the dark on what is going on. It may be the most ethical company they tell everyone, although they are some of the most back stabbing personnel, most irrogant company in the industry that does not make anything more, 70% of their products are brand labeled and marked up way to high because it has a two letter name on it. Go figure customers are starting to figure it out ever so slowly. Wednesday, October 1, 2008 There is a news in press about Rockwell cutting work force by 3%. It doesn't mention details about cuts in terms of country or job type. It seems Rockwell is taking this action in light of current economic conditions. It seems it's ahead of its competition in taking proactive measures to beef up earnings for next 2 years, while saving money to provide more equity to it's shareholders and many of it's VPs stock options. Real question is - for $6 billion organization, how many chiefs are needed? What are the ratios of real sales people vs. managers/VPs etc in a "Truely Worldclass" organizations? What do the competition have in terms of number of management people vs. sales people? Some of you industry pundits - please share your thoughts. Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - Rockwell Automation to cut 600 jobs. The Wall Street Journal(10/1)reports that "Rockwell Automation Inc. said it's cutting three percent of its global workforce in a restructuring plan that's expected to save the provider of industrial automation services about $85 million by 2010." The restructuring is expected to include "streamlining administrative and operations functions, realigning selling resources to the highest growth opportunities and consolidating business units." It "should save about $75 million in 2009, [and] will result in a fiscal fourth-quarter pretax charge of about $50 million that wasn't included in previous guidance." Rockwell said that the estimated 600 "job cuts are the first layoffs that were induced by a slowing economy since 2002," according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (10/1) Saturday, September 27, 2008 The reality is that Rockwell will do what it meeds to do, to survive in a Global market, not of its making. The reason it performs so well as a corporation is that it is conservative. The reality is that growth is in Asia. Are they doing enough to grab that growth? Anecdotally, they are doing good. Watch the region you could see stellar stuff. Friday, September 26, 2008 The proposed UK re-org is hidden in a shroud of secrecy as we speak, and likely to be unveiled next week. Some predict big changes, while others think nothing will happen. It's up to European management. Hopefully the changes will be ones that will please the sales teams rather than a pure business-centric exercise. We will just have to wait and see. Times are tough in the UK and even though people talk about leaving if the right changes aren't made it's unlikely that they will given the current climate. However, if the right changes aren't made then sales figures will be affected due to lack of motivation, and the same people will end up leaving as soon as the marketplace improves. I'm unlikely to get affected (if the rumours are correct), as will be the case with many others, but if the whole team is happy then it will only be better for business. Thursday, September 25, 2008 What is up with this ReOrg. We have seen resources reallocated to positions that they no nothing about. Meanwhile, the distribution channel is going through the Automation Appointment which is really a micro management of the distribution channel? What is going on here?? Thursday, September 25, 2008 What exactly was the "turnaround" of Rockwell Software? Sure as heck hasn't happened yet...and who is this messiah? Wednesday, September 24, 2008 There is a key person on the Rockwell Software side who is a program management expert. He was instrumental in the turn around of Rockwell Software by driving changes. What Rockwell needs to do is get him over more of the product development so that he can work his magic on quality and delivery of the other products. If he can be the focus on operations and others can focus on getting the sales house in order, I think that Rockwell can turn it around. Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Big reductions coming down the pipe. Some already know they are in the firing line and have contacted recruiters. Recruiters smell the potential, so then call around others to see if they are interested. It's easier to pitch a few than a single person and more lucrative for them. The bottom line is Europe isn't making the numbers. Keith has stated as much in financial analyst discussions. Although they blame the market, the fundamental issue is with poor management and lack of strategy. Monday, September 22, 2008 Kevin Roach leaving is just "interesting"? It's not surprising, and it is probably the end of the line for Rockwell's long term prospects as a software company. The hardware-centric mentality and old boy network at Rockwell will never change, despite having spent a boatload of money to acquire a few software companies. Another one bites the dust. Friday, September 19, 2008 - Rockwell UK again. Everyone's expecting some big changes at the end of the month and speculation has gone mad. All we know is that unless a big change occurs (read that as a whole load of middle managers get fired) then approx 25% of folks are likely to leave anyway, based on conversations with a couple of recruiters. Let's hope some sensible decisions are made. What do you think will happen? What do you want to happen? Has anyone got the guts to do it? Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - Rockwell UK. How many of the sales guys have been contacted by recruiters? Whatdo the recruiters know that that the Rockwell employees don't? Friday, September 12, 2008 Kevin Roach will be leaving Rockwell and joining a small ERP/SCM company, Activant Solutions Inc. Interesting. Tuesday, September 9, 2008 So here we are in 2008, with Rockwell Automation trying really hard to prove they are a process company, not just an automation company. They are even bringing out a line of RTUs. But, taking a step back and talking to my friends in the integration stream, Rockwell are taking a page from the Emerson-DeltaV book. And not a nice page. Emerson-DeltaV likes vertical integration. They don't care too much for integrators (yes they have some, and when you get on their good side you are OK - for $50K plus a year to boot). But, if you're a regular competent integrator and you have to bid on a job with DeltaV, it seems that the tortuous hoops you have to jump through with Emerson-DeltaV are too many to get a fair price on paper. Not to mention in many cases the local Emerson rep. is also an integrator and you get stabbed in the back. Back to Rockwell though; their integration arm is the problem. It almost seems as if, when you call Rockwell technical support (if you can call it that) and mention the customer's name, that their integrator arm suddenly turns up the next day. I've spoken to a few people who make it a point of not mentioning their customer when talking to Rockwell. In the "old days" Rockwell used to call integrators with sales opportunities. They were keen to push their brand and quite happy to stand back and let a few integrators go at it. Now, I rarely hear of anyone getting a sales tip from Rockwell. Their distributors are mostly good, and they suffer equally as they can often lose hardware sales (or their profit margin). Now when you bid the job you find out that the larger customers get significantly better prices than you for the components. I understand that a small integrator pays $2 per widget and a large one pays $0.50 because of sales - that is life. But when Rockwell come in at a price their own people say isn't possible, say $0.25, then something is awry. On top of that it is difficult to get discounts on software, yet Rockwell manage something if they quote the job. So in the end, what this does is shut out many integrators from the bidding. Is this intentional? I believe so. I think that Rockwell wants their integration arm to compete with a few large integrators - preferably with global reach - and with high overheads like Rockwell, so that they can be charging say $200 per hour for services that could quite easily be profitable in the $100 to $120 range. They are quite happy to lead on the smaller integrators (and medium sized ones) and let them snap away at the tiny jobs. This is part of the Rockwell recognition that the hardware and indeed the software is not really the profit centre - it is the services - and what have they been doing all these years letting tiny little integrators steal all that profit! Meanwhile Schneider Automation and ABB come to the door of these integrators aggressively trying to expand their factory automation and/or process automation lines. They indeed have integration arms or services arms, but they come with the old Rockwell (Allen-Bradley actually) way of recommending projects and clients and then getting out of the way. So, if Rockwell thinks this is a good business model, then more power to them. I don't quite agree, and think that their hardware prices are too high, software prices are way too high and their software is too buggy (e.g., FactoryTalk View). They need to work more closely with their distributors and integrators in existing markets to maintain their dominance. Go ahead and play dirty in a market where everyone uses Siemens. I don't think they want to end up like Emerson-DeltaV where people in the systems business actively avoid them. Sunday, August 17, 2008 There is a critical leadership void at the Senior Management levels with too many chiefs unable to execute any creative innovative thought and thus the fractured verticals and poor product and services performance. The massive changes that are being attempted will not be successful with the current lack of innovation and the type of leadership required to truly being great. The gamble of purchasing outside innovation at a premium acting as “strategic catalysts” can’t hold up against the good-ole’-boy succession culturewhich is leading a CEO with tunnel vision continuously to drink his own kool-aid. As a successful, but frustrated, middle manager I recognize that something is needed urgently to get out from underneath the thumbs of these bully, do-it-or-die, white bread, male, “my way or the highway”, senior managers. It’s getting really tough to have these folks continuously adjust compensation downward for their subordinates while they suffer no repercussions for their own inept actions and make more and more. This is especially the case for those in the do-nothing, negatively oriented, management-by-force top sales roles who make disproportionately more money than the rest of us for their ROS. I’d say it’s time for a true assessment and purging of the senior leadership. Thursday, August 7, 2008 I worked for Rockwell for two years and happily left just as the wheels were coming off. The managment knows it must become more than a parts and products company. They know that they must diversify their customers and fix their supply. They understand that their once dominant market share in N America is slowing and sliding, and yet the only thing that their out-of-touch chairman could tell analyts is that they are still looking for cost-cutting measures. Talk to the workers who have been let go, and the workers still there, and ask them how long Rokwell has been and will continue to draw down costs, instead of looking for growth in new markets and emerging geographies. If my memory serves me right, Rockwell is making the same grave mistakes that it is trying to help it's auto customers avoid. Long term, overpaid, incented, benefits-heavy workforce, with old technology, bloated good-old-boy culture, without a global supply-chain and channel strategy. Tuesday, August 5, 2008 With regard to the comment about someone buying up ABB. Who would have the inclination or clout to raise the appropriate funding to buy a $30B per annum company? To suggest that ABB would be a more credible aquisition without suggesting any potential bidders is simply ludicrous. Even with the the share price stagnant, at best I can't see why anyone would make an approach. Wednesday, July 30, 2008 I agree that rumors have been floatimg around that someone will buy Rockwell. And pundits have been making all kinds of statements as to why someone will buy Rockwell. If you look really close, Rockwell has a solid track record of earnings and growing customer base. ABB has done very poorly in the past they have tried to buy companies and integrate, last major one almost got them into bankruptcy. Anyone with good business sense and money will spot right opportunity and can buy ABB, yes... they can suck $5B cash out, and it's more lucrative to buy them than Rockwell. Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Seems that people have been buying stock in ABB or GE. One wonders why, in 10 yrs of rumors, they never they really made a move? I still struggle to understand what would ABB or GE get from buying Rockwell. ABB strenght is on Power and Services, and Rockwell can't bring much of that (or at least not much new to the plate). The low stock ROK has today has much to do with the volatility of the American stock market and the not very acurate growth expectations set at the beginning of the year. It will come back as soon as this effect dilutes. Monday, July 28, 2008 7:04 AM I agree with your thoughts that this news and the confirming statement by the interim CEO on Squakbox confirms that ABB is looking for an automation acquisition. Somehow though, I feel that the recently announced plan by GE to spin-off it's consumer & industrial division will factor into things somehow. Perhaps if nothing else GE may also put the GEFanuc component of the enterprise solutions division on the table. There could also be a race to move on Rockwell. If GE finds a buyer for the appliance division they'll be cash rich (est. $4-6B from that sale), industrially focused and perhaps on the hunt for a major purchase to grow their organic base. Monday, July 28, 2008 JimPinto.com eNews 28 July 08 includes analysis of ABB/Rockwell possibilities:
Two weeks ago, ABB named Joseph Hogan, the head of GE Healthcare, as CEO. During his tenure at GE, Joseph Hogan spearheaded a number of large acquisitions including GE's biggest-ever acquisition. Now expect him to bring out ABB's big guns. Rockwell will roll.
Read: ABB growth roars - new acquisition-orientated CEO
Sunday, July 20, 2008 "Rockwell UK have had an excellent year so far and look to be finishing 40% above plan, and all due to the sales management that has been put in place." As a Rockwell sales employee it's concerning to hear those thoughts come from a person who claims to be a sales management individual. I can only hope that such thinking is concentrated to a region (UK) that is known for it's pompous and arrogant leadership throughout history (no offense to the majority of Brit's who are salt of the earth types). It's truly disgusting to think that one of our own has the audacity to suggest that making the number is only a result of the guidance offered by management and not anything to do with the efforts from the front line troops. I can only hope that should senior management read this entry they will take it upon themselves to utilize the keyboard-entry tracking-ools that exist on all Rockwell issued PC's and have the IT dept. root out this person so that they may hung, drawn and quartered! Friday, July 18, 2008 So, let me get this straight. If Rockwell UK sales management are doing such a great job and country is going to finish up at 40% over target then why decide to lay off some sales guys? Certainly from the management posts that I've seen it looks as though there are going to be lay-offs come the end of the FY. Isn't it the sales guys who make the sales? Would laying them off improve sales? I don't mean to be simplistic here but duh....! If anyone should be fired then get rid of the moron who proposed the idea of firing sales guys. I'm so glad I don't work for Rockwell. Not with that level of ineptitude. Thursday, July 17, 2008 The other big contradiction is that Rockwell tells its customers and prospects that it can be the "valued partner" in implementing a long strategic automation and data centric plan in order to raise OEE and compete in todays fast moving and lean economy. - Big words and requires a longer term strategic investment by both parties. Then internally it apperas to be managed by a product sales mentality which implements a short term target driven sales plan and measurement system and creates division within it's own ranks. If there is no co-operation internally then how can there be co-operation externally? Product sales or engineering solution provider? The business models are different - which one please? Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Have been watching this blog for some time and the most recent blog quoting "all due to the sales management" really seems to sum up Rockwell UK sales management for me. If indeed Rockwell UK are indeed 40% over plan, for a sales management team to take all the credit and not even ackowledge that some the front-line sales guys (presumably RUK do like some of their sales guys) have not contributed to these figures in someway is nothing more than arrogant. And finally i am not a Rockwell employee but a sales guy who puts lots and lots of hours and miles on the clock to get my sales figures. Wednesday, July 16, 2008 I'm confused about the contradiction on the last couple of posts. If my maths is right, starting at a base level of 100 for sales for the previous year, then 30% down is 70. If this is 40% about the plan then the plan was for 50! So you aimed to half your sales revenue ( or order entry if that's what you measure)?? Glad I don't work for Rockwell! To be honest, even as an outsider, it's easy to spot the management posts on the blog, and it doesn't endear you to others in the industry and is hardly an good advert for RA as a great employer when management won't take responsibility for their staff when things get tough. I look at the quality of the people who you took from my organisation (no loss in many cases) and I hope that ABB do the honourable thing and put you out of your misery for your customers' sake. Wednesday, July 16, 2008 40% above plan my **** ! The last blogger needs to go to an open mike spot at the local comedy club. I agree Sales management in the UK is not the problem; it's the European and Regional management who lumbered them with an unrealistic plan who are to blame. Regarding the Proscon posts - I'll eat my shorts if that acquisition has achieved its targets. And now it'll be another burden on the UK management team. Give em a break. Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Rockwell UK have had an excellent year so far and look to be finishing 40% above plan, and all due to the sales management that has been put in place. It is a little known fact that less than a year ago the average number of customer visits made by account managers was less than 3 per week. Thanks to the sales process being rigorously enforced by the sales managers, this number is now up to over 7 visits per week. And the previous post was right - the big axe IS coming. Perhaps it's the sales guys that should be fearing it's effects because the sales management have done a great job. Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Rockwell UK is about to finish the year on a real downer. 30% below last year! Yikes. I see a big axe coming. The middle management are starting to sweat! Wednesday, July 16, 2008 The Proscon guys have just started getting their Rockwell business cards. After 18 months Rockwell has finally accepted them as part of the organisation! Tuesday, July 15, 2008 What is the actual status at Proscon after 1.5 year, post February 2, 2007? Once the Proscon backlog is eaten up, ... into a two year earn out period, then once the guys who pushed it forward have taken their glory, the revenues will erode. Friday, July 11, 2008 The time is nigh I'm afraid. Today, Rockwell closed at $41.65 - nearly half the price at this time last year, when ABB didn't pursue any "official" bid, presumably because that the price wasn't right. I'm not an expert by any means, but if ABB or someone else dosen't move in shortly, I'll eat my shorts. What's that noise I hear... oh.. its the clock... tick tock, tick tock, tick tock..... Friday, July 11, 2008 JimPinto.com eNews 11 July 08 includes Rockwell analysis:
If ABB or GE (or a Chinese or Indian company) offers a 60% premium over current stock-price, say $70/share, this would recover the stock to close to the April 2007 peak of $77/share, and most stockholders will likely fold.
Read: Rockwell dangles within acquisition range
Friday, July 11, 2008 It's about time that another company takes over Rockwell Automation. This central driven, products company, has no serious future in the industrial automation world of today, where software and services become more and more important. This is coming from an ex-RA employee who left RA (to some posters on this blog I am now a loser) voluntarily (without taking or asking for a getaway premium). The reasons why I left were twofold: 1/ after working so hard (which I really liked and still do) I found that my direct senior managers (VPs)had no knowledge whatsoever on what I was doing, and therefore could not really advise me nor manage me. 2/ The way that the people who actually do work in the field are taken for granted. The best engineers leave RA and start for themselves. The reason why they leave is all about how they are being managed. PS: After I left RA I started my own company, which is now a "Phase 1 company" according to Jim Pinto. I work even harder than at RA, and it shows. Some advice to RA senior management: Implementing 2 new business systems (Peoplesoft, and now SAP) in a period of 6 years is not really solving anything. Tuesday, July 8, 2008 What is going on at EJA, the Rockwell company in the UK, is nothing short of ridiculous. The decision by the bean-counters to move manufacturing to lower-cost countries was made a while ago. It's now being split between two other countries hundreds of miles apart. The suppliers are still in the UK meaning that parts are getting shipped across oceans and lead-times are going out of the window as a result. The engineers and their product know-how are still in the UK for these products, so any on-the-spot reaction to our manufacturing issues has disappeared faster than we manufacturing people at EJA are getting the bullet. The timescale for these moves that has been organised (did I say organised?) is chaotic, leading to all kinds of problems. EJA use to be a great place to work; we made all the Guardmaster safety switches which were designed here by good engineers and built by a loyal workforce (remember loyalty do we?). Now these switches have gone to places who don't have any of our manufacturing know-how, purely to save money. This is completely false, as all the shipping costs will make these products far more expensive. Whoever made this decision needs to seriously recheck the finances. There's no way on this earth that these figures could support this commercial and logistic folly. Who organised this? It could only be an extremely cunning plan by one of our competitors. Monday, July 7, 2008 Well, the jelly-belly duo have finally taken the North American cash cow and milked it dry. With their HQ-centric driven, do-it-or else, micro-management style, along with a hard-headed, no turning back, crippling re-orginazation, there is no faith and no morale in the field. Parallel that by what will be a paralyzing SAP transition, the HQ "emperors" have no clothes and ought to get off the bus to nowhere themselves. Hopefully, I'll get off before it crashes. Monday, July 7, 2008 - Whither Rockwell? Not easy when your local (American) market is in a tailspin. I've seen Rockwell operate in several countries now - everywhere from Switzerland (where they don't seem to have a presence at all) to Australia (where they have a good market share). What are they doing wrong? Problem number one is their software - it is weak and buggy. The whole FactoryTalk Directory, Security, Activation etc. is awful. Seasoned integrators struggle with having to use Vmware sessions of various packages because "they don't play nice". RSView ME, er I mean, FactoryTalk View ME is one particularly awful package. Worse yet is RSView SE or FTV SE. This package (now at version 5) has NEVER WORKED in larger installations. Imagine, perhaps, a large facility with scores of screens and tags and background scripts. It just does not work. I will say I was happy to hear about the deal with Pi as RSSQL/MSSQL never worked either. I've seen FTV SE put up against Wonderware etc. and it just is too buggy. RSBatch etc. - just as bad. Of course if you have ever had to suffer with Siemens SIMATIC PCS-7 then you might forgive Rockwell Automation! What are they doing right? Their PLCs are top notch (I still think the Siemens S7-400 is the best piece of hardware I've ever used, but Step7 hurts my brain with all the weird tricks you have to remember). OK, the whole IEC 61131.3 thing is a big joke, but everyone else has the same problem. I don't care for structured text on ControlLogix but the traditional ladder logic is great. Even the RSLogix5000 software holds up quite well (yes, don't forget to save often as it does seem to crash quite badly once in a while). But there is FactoryTalk Activation. Oh yes, and |