Leadership has made the bold and courageous decision to have production planners report into mfg plants…exactly where 3M was 2 years ago.
Current leadership has us going in circles instead of moving forward.
8 replies (most recent on top)
At least this change is in the right direction. It was the prior decision to "centralize" supply planning that was the disaster.
Some MBB who had not been in the org previously was handed the director job in PE 216 because he was an MBB. Sound familiar? Old 3M ways coming back around. Dude has some wildly ineffective and inexperienced management that he never wiped out, below him. Anyone remember clock removal on Maplewood campus circa 2016-2017-2018? Thank this PE group for that brain child. Someone won a cash award recognition for that project. The managers that championed it are …. Still with jobs in the org…. Gross.
The same group has been changing out bathroom hardware on campus to “save money”. When I asked the guy in the jumpsuit outside of the bathroom as he hung his yellow sign “What he was up to today?”, he chuckled sharing this bathroom hardware swap out info. I thought … my company spends money on this sh-t… why am I being worried about the cost of printing one sided instead of two?
Hard to believe the volume of hours spent replacing bathroom hardware at sites with very few building occupants is going to add up to any significant savings. Seemed like busy work to check some boxes somewhere.
An org I’ll never find myself drawn to right there. I prefer meaningful, measurable and impactful work.
Pretty crazy hearing the stories about 216 PE. that group used to be a pretty solid resource and a nice group to recruit from later. It seems like some "leader" decided to make it into their own personal fiefdom, complete with jesters.
The on-call duties in general at the company have become a royal Payless pain in the ar-e, that includes manufacturing. I'm retired now but remember on-call in the 1980s when you were on once every 8 weeks. And leadership took a role in the schedule. It could be crazy but you figured that you were doing your part for a great company like Mother Mining that treated you like family. It was only OK in the 1990s because the schedule went to more like 1 in 5 and some staffing was reduced due to attrition (the way 3M used to benevolently reduce staff in those days). Last time I was in the cycle is was more like 1 in 3 weeks, and still remember when one person left and we weren't given permission to fill right away. The other engineer went on maternity leave and I was on-call 24 7. That was the time when I wished the engineers on staff were in a union and could force either mandatory pay or comp time off. Never got back those hours off nor more than the customary 3 percent raise. That was when 3M management and HR under mcnerney was going over to the dark side.
As for six sigma, I did see some value when done the right way at the right depth and for the right reasons IN MANUFACTURING only. The problem is six sigma turned into "sick" sigma when mcnerney turned it into a way to promote 30 somethings into BB and MBB ahead of 40 and 50 somethings. The folks then got promoted after 3 years into JG15 and up while the older crowd were denied opportunities for advancement. This led to the age discrimination lawsuits that 3M has to settle post mcnerney.
From what I've heard, a number of organizations have turned into this toxic mess as you described with 216 PE. EO was already a flaming tire fire BEFORE tireman showed up. Now it's a Gehenna full of passive aggressive maniacs bowing in homage to the Starbucks Scot.
I’ve worked with the 216 leaders for plant Eng. and praise the worker bees of that group for putting up with the out of touch leadership. It’s a bad egg.
I tried to hire one of the non-union 3M plant engineering employees into my group and they blocked the employee stating they were an essential worker. Now, several are sitting quietly coordinating to leave 3M at once, instead. This is the reality that 3M is creating across every layer of employees. The mindset of employees is worse than a strike and these movements are embedded everywhere, some targeting to fail the spin-off in timing. It’s unlikely restructuring leadership can change anything at the company because the morale has already and unsurprisingly tanked.
This 216 pl. engineering groups on-call rotation demand has more than doubled due to attrition and being “unable” to backfill roles. The leadership of the 216 PE group refused to join the rotation to ease burnout of the “essential workers” because it requires reporting to campus on those weekends without any compensated time off, even for holidays that are eaten by on-call time.
Why would they change out of their pajamas and get off of their couch to work? Epitome of poor leadership WYW’ing when they don’t allow any employee to WYW. Some of those leaders are JG12’s and have learned this entitlement already. There is no future that looks bright for that 216 leadership group.
My directors even take call rotation for us. No one is above any work in my organization.
From what the org members share, it sounds like a group that needs a management clean out and I’m happy to read this rumor. I pray it comes true for the sake of those employees impacted by the organizations environment.
An ex-master black belt Director no longer has the right mindset to lead any group at 3M and anyone he’s sheltering with his ideas should go too. He’s still pushing green belts and black belt projects that have zero (literally) ROI.
The organization has always been very nepotistic, with a track record of handing out jobs without interviews and double bumping buddies who spent their days earning their “degree” 100% on the clock.
It isn’t my organization and it makes me sick and sad for the worker bees who are some of the nicest folks. This wasn’t the company I joined a decade and a half ago. I have to wonder how many more stories like this group’s are out there, being ignored while numerous ethics issues are rampant.
!! Serious nerds in that SP center PE group. Repurposed LSS leader and some metric slave drivers with zero people skills.I hope to see them go. Nancy at least cared about her people.
Heard plant engineering in St. Paul is finally going to get some headcount reduction!
Old school org still trying to carry out LSS despite the company hacking it out of existence. Funny how some just cannot let go of the past. Good riddance.
I left before A3M, production planners used to report into the plants. How was it structured with A3M?
It is such a f.r.e.a.k.ing mess.
Suddenly product managers in the plant are told they are responsible for the DC inventory.
What is regional team there for??