Pros
-Excellent learning-based environment. A lot of the folks on their way out are eager to share their knowledge and make permanent institutional changes with the younger generation. People will seek you out to check up on you, make sure you're doing alright, etc. On top of that, there are formalized trainings led by heads of quality to impart the knowledge you need for this role. -Cross-functional, collaborative role. As a manufacturing engineer, you are exposed to a variety of skills, such as technical (gages, parts, fixtures), financial (cost proposals, quality improvement plans), and leadership (setting priorities for union workers, planners, assistive design engineers, technical experts). -Opportunity. Lynn is in tough shape, and there's always work to be done - you just need the initiative and discipline to execute it. -Visibility. You're regularly interfacing a lot with higher-ups and have a lot of opportunity to ask for help with your problems. -People. I've made some great friends working here.
Cons
I would like to preface this rather lengthy list by saying that I absolutely love working here. THAT SAID, -Way too much on your plate at any given time. Tasks are handed out like candy with no regard as to the length of time it actually takes to complete one. -Work life balance is almost nonexistent. This is a live to work place, not work to live. I would strongly discourage folks with growing families from applying for this role as it stands today. -Difficult to effect change. Projects are often dropped due to hurdles and immediate fires that need to be put out. The technical expert is not available, the specific part having an issue won't be run for a few weeks, another fire arose while you're in the middle of solving your current one, etc. -Too many chiefs. Everyone wants to dole out responsibility, but hardly anyone is interested in executing. Every so often there is a "lean" push with lots of visibility, but the go-forward plan is never implemented because additional resources are needed on the floor to enact change due to the heavy workload on the core team. Design engineers are pulled from their regular roles to assist the manufacturing environment, but they are more interested in questioning everything you do than fixing the problem. -HR communication is limited. I received a cost of living bump that I didn't know about until months later. Professional development and evaluation takes a back seat - I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with my manager about my performance. I imagine this is due to the daily struggle of performing their other work functions. -You're set up to fail. The priorities outlined in your professional development tool do not align with your day-to-day (or even long-term) responsibilities. If they are, they're wildly unrealistic. This makes it difficult to ask for a raise. -Data is extremely difficult/impossible to access. The multitude of tools we have don't give us the data we need. Our workers voucher every time a part is completed. Why do I have to endure a protracted struggle to calculate how much we've shipped in the last three months? Why are our losses metrics not current to the second? Why do I have to look up and calculate this information, when it can just be displayed on a screen in real time, and we have a whole business segment (GE Digital) dedicated to making this happen? -Maintenance is its own separate department, which is good, but you need to know exactly what's going on in your machines and that information is not visible to all. -Difficult to stay in your new role after transitioning. Turnover will ensure you're called back into the role you came from, essentially stuck where you started.