As a mechanical engineer working in thermal validation, I've been with the company for 13 years. Over these 13 years, I've noticed the following groups are extremely fat without affecting the actual vehicle development process and could be slashed without much heartache - Legal, IT and most of HR. Also, we have wayyyy too many CAD folks who are just plain lazy and slow and could get rid of half them as well. Thoughts?
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The cuts in Ireland were already announced and the ones fired were given a heads up. Their last day is Monday. From my understanding they have labor laws where they can't just tap you on your shoulder and tell you to go home...
If you have been with GM 13 years, tell us why you didn't take the VSP?
EDS>HP>GM.....been at GM for some time. In all those years, it has been GM leadership dictating the process. To use a broad brush stroke and say "get rid of CAD folks, legal, IT and slash half of HR" is incomplete. GM needs to get rid of employees everywhere, including thermal validation engineers. But....it should be done as part of streamlining every process. There is too much process overhead. It's impossible to do even the simplest things without having to submit "this", follow some "process", figure out "who can do it". There is c-ap in every department, every process, and every discipline. You, Mr. Thermal Engineer, could be replaced by automation and software.....easily. Take heart and don't point fingers. Good luck starting Monday, you may need it.
To -tni
When you think everyone around you needs to go, maybe you are the one that is the problem.
To : ldp , I am 42 love the automotive world regardless of all this drama , Teach me , I have the mechanical apptitude and patience to learn.
I think there are too many Mechanical Engineers in Thermal Validation and you need to go. Imagine that, an engineer bagging on CAD. I know many engineers that are worthless and get by merely cuz they have good Cad Designers. So please worry about the log in your own eye before worrying about the splinter in someone else’s.
Very sad! It would have been nice if GM had managed the business more efficiently over the last 10 years!
Some of the worst CAD people I’ve worked with are younger (under 30) and dang arrogant. They just want to finish as fast as possible and have no understanding of manufacturing processes, GD&T or assembly plant operations.
There have been rumors that Randy Mott is retiring, and if that is true maybe GM will eliminate all of IT's Ireland locations since GM no longer has operations in Europe. In-sourcing IT was a great idea as we now control all of our intellectual property, the problem was GM was forced to accept all of the HP people or get nothing and still be on the hook with the contract they had with HP. Randy also brought on his own team which in turn brought on their friends and family along as did the HP people who were nobody's at HP but now are managers at GM. Not all of the people from HP were bad there are a lot of them that are really good at their job but there are also ones that do nothing and are protected by their boss because of relationships.
By the way CAD guys.. stop f---ing sketching out features without making a constraint. How f---ing stupid can you be. All it takes for the next id--t is to move your sketch and a production tool becomes a boat anchor. Do your f---ing job right.
There’s a lot of good designers but there are definitely ones that need to go. I’ve done design/CAD/drawing work (I am an engineer) and it shouldn’t take long to do some of the stuff that is assigned. I could do the work, take a smoke break, a dump, and take a three hour lunch.. and it would still be half the time some of these guys take to do their job.
Most of the best CAD people I’ve worked with are younger (under 30) and dang sharp! Great listeners, eager and quick to learn and worth double the pay they receive. Others have been at it so long that they rest on their laurels and blather on about their 30+ years experience and why they know more than the engineer does - it’s exhausting. Shut up and model. Leave after their 8 hours - in the middle of a meeting or conversation if they have to like it’s a union shop. I can’t wait to see some of these people shown the door.
No doubt GM spent too much on IT, much more than they needed and they filled it up with average IT workers. However, it's also true that demand for their cars have gone down, that has nothing to do with IT. GM actually should consider wrapping up their whole business. Or else, sooner or later, tax payers will need to bail them out again!
Randy Mott hired too many people, and too many inexperienced people, and then had them managed by nontechnical incompetent ex-Dell bozos.
What could go wrong?
IT wastes so much $$$$. If you cut IT, start with Randy Mott. In-sourcing is his failure. Go back to contractors and outsource.