Manufacturing Engineer | Ithaca, NY | Nov 15, 2019
Depends on where you are
There are three business units on the Ithaca campus. Depending on which building you work in depends on your work load, innovation and bonus. The campus is a union facility (UAW).
Technical Engineering Center (TEC) - This is where you have the most innovation as it is an R&D facility. Work load is pretty light as you get to set your own testing schedules from requests around the world. Bonuses are big as your amount is based on global results. BorgWarner does outstanding year after year of ensuring profitability globally. - This is the place you want to be on the Ithaca campus. 1st shift work only.
Transmission (Chain) Components (TC) - This is the least innovative of the facilities. They have been making chain the same way since the 1880's. They have added some automation but some of the machines operating on the floor are close to 50 years old and still putting out product. Work hours are average. Need to work extra when a machine breaks down and you need to get it back up and running to meet production. Bonus are good as the facility usually meets goals. - Tow the line and you can have a long career here. Many people in this facility with 25+ years at BorgWarner. 3 shift plant
Engine Timing Components (ETC) - Stay away from here. High turnover and destructive culture. Plant is very poorly run. Lots of blaming and infighting between departments. Plant has not been profitable since opening. Bonuses are a fraction of the other facilities. Long hours of management beatings
BorgWarner was once highly regarded as a company which brought product leading products to market. This allowed them to compete on product value than on cost. This strategy, through investing in engineering, brought exceptional growth rates and margins that were the envy of the supplier industry. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. High level managers were brought in from the outside which marginalized engineering and managed the product lines as if they were commodities. In many business units there is no significant new product development. Further in a panicked attempt to leapfrog into the electrification trend they are proceeding with commodity type products with insufficient engineering to make them product leaders. Larger suppliers with significant investments in the electrification revolution have products with significantly better performance and better value.
To cut costs older engineers see their jobs eliminated to side step age discrimination laws. Younger engineers are put into situations with insufficient training and knowledge. HR is largely absent in regards to training, career progression and management practices. Extreme arrogance is the rule for upper management, with the exception of the CEO.
For young engineers there are many other companies with rational approaches to the market and exciting programs. For older engineers at BorgWarner, be prepared for an exit strategy.
I will start with HR. Horrible HR they aren't helpful with anything. If employees go down asking about Insurance for instance, they have no knowledge and instead of researching with you and following up they just give you a number to dial and send you on your way. Also they choose who they hire not the hiring manager.
Upper Management is ran on the good ole boy system. For instance one of my bosses had no education at all and yet had climbed her way to the top by riding the backs of others and I am sure in some cases the fronts of others too. There where also employees there with Bachelor degrees that were doing jobs that required a high school diploma yet weren't able to ascend to a Salary type job because of the HR/Upper Management system.
You will probably hear how well Seneca BorgWarner did during the recent Tornado that destroyed the building. What you won't hear is that the Upper Management is so incompetent that they had to bring former Managers that had since moved on back to the Seneca plant in order for Seneca to have a fighting chance.
I mean during this Covid-19 situation why do you have a group of Maintenance working on a Sunday night (The tornado hit at 3:30am) on 3rd shift when the plant is closed? Seneca Management Strikes again.
I have worked at Borgwarner Turbo Systems for over 20 years, and in the last 5 years they have really gone down hill. We are consistently running shorthanded, managers only let 1st shift know what is going on, and training is a joke. Management is more concerned with employee's social media postings and hitting hiring quotas rather than trying to run a business. Due to a lack of business, over a 150 full time and almost 200 temps were let go last year, and now everyone is trying to wear multiple hats while meeting customer demands. Due to shortages of materials/orders, you don't know if you are working 32 hrs a week or 60 until the last minute. If you don't know the right people you can forget about advancement or even changing shifts voluntarily. Multiple times, multiple people have been forced to go to an off shift for "customer demands" only to switch back after a couple of weeks, and if you disagree, you know where the door is. The unofficial motto is "We make turbos, not sense." The only good things is the pay and benefits otherwise you feel like a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed bulls**t.
ProsGood pay for around here
ConsPoor management, poor communication, inconsistant hours, no training (unless something just HAS to ship, then it is sink or swim time.)
Great place for someone starting out or for a long term career
I started at BorgWarner as an intern CAD designer while I was finishing my degree. The company is very open and welcoming for interns and co-ops and are very willing to work with your school schedule. I would usually work between 20 and 30 hours a week (sometimes more hours if it was a busy week or I had time). You are expected to normally arrive between 7am and 9am unless classes got in the way, where you would then talk to your supervisor to work out a balanced weekly schedule.
As a designer, you'd go to a weekly meeting to prioritize work that needs to be done and how soon it is needed. Engineers will submit work orders and will collaborate directly with the designer the work order is assigned too. The designer is then responsible for making models and drawings to be reviewed with the engineer before it is approved.
BorgWarner's Power-train Technical Center has a good cafeteria, but can be a bit pricey. The people there are very friendly, work environment is somewhat laid back, but meeting deadlines are the hardest part of the job for a designer. Because everyone was so willing to help, I never felt intimidated to ask for it when I needed it.
ProsGood work environment with very friendly people
Rapidly growing workplace with innovative products and many sports groups.
BorgWarner is a fortune 500 company, which lives up to that tag and to its motto to make efficient, green and innovative automotive products. The workplace also reflects the fortune 500 tag in the equipment, quality standards and in-house testing, production, and development capabilities.
With a laid back work culture and friendly people with less micro management, it is great place to work at. As an product development engineer a typical day at work involves working with various internal teams that come together to develop a product and with customer to understand, accommodate & negotiate various requirements for a product.
The hardest part of the job is to keep up with the evolving standard practices that need to be followed by a product development engineer. That said, it is the case with any company that has a developing group.
The best part is to work on PACE award winning technologies that help in fuel economy improvement of vehicle and to work in a laid back friendly environment that sports enthusiastic and capable workforce.
Best benefit package I've seen, hot-line cafeteria with good mix of healthy and tasty choices. Fast-paced. Rapidly changing priorities and long meetings tie up managers and hurt productivity and good communications with their subordinates. Surveys done every few years on how employees feel about working there, but seem to be worded to get only positive responses and little done to improve things. Reasons for problems on lines collected but not always acted on. Hourly people excellent and want to do good job, but they have to work a lot of OT and weekends constantly because of machine trouble and other problems. Profit sharing system, but seems to be shrinking . Review system very time-consuming. Peer recognition a good step with small rewards like hats ans shirts for doing especially good job or fixing problems quickly. No suggestion system. Too many meetings. Teamwork encouraged but often not possible due to workloads.
ProsGood lunches, small reward system, Benefits
ConsCommunications spotty, LOT of OT for hourlly workers, work-life-balance & expectations for good reviews
3.0
Senior Financial Analyst | Asheville, NC | Jan 16, 2013
Started out wonderful went downhill fast
A typical work day was ten hours long. Never worked with better co-workers. Management made mid-management changes moving the key people that communicated with me about was needed. The new people did not communicate. When two people left I was expected to do more with no additional help. Was not given access to everything but expected to do what was needed. Harsh talk but nothing in writing. No one tried to help with issues just laid in my responsibility pile. If you are good at making people communicate with you and enjoy great co-workers this would be a good company at this location to work for. HR is a great support but management over rules what everyone thinks is fair. Best thing about job co-workers! Lot of work so you stay very busy however getting help is slow and often is held out as a way to make things better but they seem to want you to do more and more not help. Some managers have no idea what all a position is doing to keep everything flowing.
A global technology leader | Bellwood, IL | Oct 31, 2012
productive, hard working business.
Inventory, raw and finished goods. I set up production schedules, assigned people what was to be done for the shift. moved material, I did time study's every hour to make sure we were hitting production goals .I was also quality control, if material was bad. I had to reject and DMR the material. I had to work hand in hand with maintenance, to make sure production standards were still met. I had pass down between shifts written and verbal to inform company what was done and what had to be done. Management didn't always help employees, with everyday problems, I felt they just thought they would just go away., The hours were a 15 hour day. and were very long. I liked all the people I worked with. people tried to do the best for the company but were not appreciated for what they did. They made people who work hard work harder and not discipline workers who just were there to get a pay check.
Prosbenefits were good, holidyas were paid, bonuses were given.
Conshours were terrible, mangement, needed more control, to many meetings in front office and needed more help on production floor.
you can go to work and mind your business and still be terminated for reporting staff whom choose to tease and medal folk all day/night long. This is not a place of profession. They throw you around like you are an animal. They want you to work here, here, here and over there. This place is very unorganized. Just because you like being alone and not being bothered with people because they keep up so much drama, they choose not to like you. If you don't gossip, medal folk, lie and keep up drama you are not allowed at BW. If you want your job at BW you have to keep up fuss and be messy. These are the type of folk you are dealing with at BW. A group of people will get together and lie on you when you don't want to do their dirty work. The set-ups and Supervisors are the worlds worst. Only a few people will assist you if you need to learn your job. It all depends on where you work. The SSA line is the worst line there. This is the line where each person starts that is hired. When you try to reach out to HR, they pretend to want to help you but then they will tell the person you report every word you say.
No início eramos conhecidos no mercado de trabalho (interno e ext.) como Wahler Metalurgica Ltda com sede em Piracicaba SP.Hoje depois de dezembro de 2013 a empresa passou por mudanças inclusive de razão social, passando a ser conhecida como BorgWarner Emissions Sistems Ltda e ataulmente conta com um quadro de funcionários enorme. Conhecida mundialmente.
Empresa sólida que , mesmo passando por algumas crises por assim dizer, nunca deixou seus funcionários sem seu pagamento e issopor sí só já é motivo mais do que suficiente para me sentir seguro. Não posso de maneira alguma desabonar a conduta da mesma pois minha demissão já havia sido programada tempos antes de acontecer a reestruturação da empresa. Ótimo ambiente de trabalho pessoal bastante cooperativo, comprometido com as tarefas que lhes eram designadas.Problemas todos temos e em qualquer empresa mas, de facil solução.Interação pessoal condizente com o ambiente de trabalho. Vários benefícios PLR, e plano de carreira implantado recentemente.
Nada a declarar que possa desabonar a empresa em âmbito algum,tinha em minha área de trabalho carta branca para tomar decisôes no que se referia a manutenção preventiva, corretiva e preditiva de todo o ferramental (moldes estampos dispositivos de usinagem em geral e linha de montagem porém essa última com acompanhamento do engenheiro responsável pela área).
Empresa focada no segmento auto peças para mercado interno e externo mais precisamente válvulas termostáticas para motores a e
ProsSalário condizente com mercado de trabalho, benefícios que a maioria das empresas de mesmo porte oferecem.Local de trabalho muito bom.
ConsNão tenho como dizer nada contra essa empresa.
Empresa agradável de trabalhar que treina seus funcionários.
Era responsável pelo setor Almoxarifado de Ferramentas no meu horário, cadastrava itens no sistema, tomava decisões: recebia orçamentos e solicitava a compra de materiais, analisava itens p/ consertar e em fim de vida útil, etc. Realizava os trabalhos de preparação de ferramentas conf. a demanda da produção. Havia dias tranquilos c/ pouco trabalho nesta tarefa onde aproveitava o tempo livre p/ desenvolver e implementar projetos. No entanto havia também dias bem corridos, posso dizer que essa era a parte mais difícil do trabalho, as urgências na produção, onde precisavam ser atendidas no menor tempo possível, p/ não deixar a maq. parada. Isso nos testava enquanto profissionais e após o atendimento, gerava a satisfação de dever cumprido e até mesmo risos entre os colegas em algumas situações como por exemplo atendendo duas urgências ao mesmo tempo.
A parte mais agradável era desenvolver e implementar projetos, pois debatíamos as idéias com os colegas do setor, depois apresentávamos diretamente à gerência e trabalhávamos juntos na implementação. Era um grande desafio realizar os projetos devido à comunicação, pois trabalhávamos em 3 pessoas, cada um em um turno diferente. No entanto realizamos vários e dentre estes um dos meus ficou entre os 10 melhores no BW SixSigma Awards 2012.
ProsRefeição na Empresa, Fretado, Combustível p/ reuniões e reuniões com real liberdade de expressão, Unimed p/ família, Plano Odontológico, Previdência privada, bom PLR, etc...
Una empresa donde la calidad es lo primero, con gran numero de procesos productivos destinados al respeto y cuidado del medio anbiente.
Gran getion de los recursos disponibles y respeto con los trabajadores.
El trabajo diario deja de ser monoto,ya que dispone de un gran numero de procesos productivos para varias marcas(Renault,Ford,Iveco...)donde las rotaciones son costantes y se consigue una gran polivalencia.
El trabajo en equipo es fundamental para conseguir los objetivos de produccion maracadoas por unos tiempos.Tanbien se dispone de puestos individuales.
Se trabaja con un grupo humano excelete, tanto desde operarios como directivos y responsables de produccion, que estan siempre cerca para cualquier problema.
Deste trajado lo que mas me a gustado es haber tenido la oportunidad de pertenecer a esta empresa y contribuir con mi trabajo a conseguir los objetivos productivos,poder conocer de primera mano la elaboracion de los cooler y su funcionamiento y trabajar con este equipo humano que merece mucho la pena.
Aprendi el manejo de herramientas que no conocia.
ProsSalarios y operaciones productivas
ConsEventualidad
Questions And Answers about BorgWarner
How often do raises occur at BorgWarner?
Asked Jan 3, 2017
They changed the raise policy this year and it's every 12 months and you top out at the 2nd raise. 2 years
Answered May 22, 2019
Every 12 months you get a raise. And once a year a cost of living raises
Answered May 22, 2019
If you were in charge, what would you do to make BorgWarner a better place to work?
Asked Jan 10, 2018
Find a solution to reduce overtime. People get burnt out and feel as though the company doesn't care about them.
Answered Jun 17, 2021
I would have employee/supervisor meetings so that the employees can speak up too instead of one-sided meetings where only the supervisors talk. I would also raise the hourly pay rate. For all the work duties the employees are expected to perform, the pay should be more than what it is.
Answered Feb 23, 2020
Do you do random drug screens
Asked Jan 31, 2017
Yes. They do random drug tests
Answered May 22, 2019
Yes they do random drug test.why are Seneca employees saying they don't. People are getting fired every year since the last 8 years when they started going random drug test.
Answered Mar 10, 2019
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at BorgWarner?
Asked Aug 28, 2016
Make sure the shift you sign up for is the shift that you want and one that you can work.
Answered Feb 23, 2020
Be staight forward be yourself
Answered Nov 19, 2019
What is the most stressful part about working at BorgWarner?
Asked May 10, 2018
The last minute assignment notices and the nearly impossible deadlines they give you to do so.
