manufacturing engineer

engineer

maintenance mechanic

assistant

production operator

3M New Ulm has plant policies that are purposefully vaguely defined in ways that always can be interpreted to benefit management.  

Training plans are documented and completely ignored other than pressuring employees to sign others off as having been taught and having spent time on things they haven’t.

Documented procedures and guides are usually incorrect or obsolete.  Replacing obsolete equipment takes a lower priority to numerous check sheets that production employees are required to sign off on as if it magically makes the machine work better.

Think you signed up for the shift you posted for such as days and afternoons alternating?  Think again. Management can and will adjust the schedule and add mandatory overtime so it ends up being closer to alternating 12 hour shifts if they find it even slightly more convenient.
You’ll also be expected to keep your weekends clear, but games will be played to minimize how much you actually be paid (such as no Sundays, but instead of an 8 hour day M-F a mandatory 10 or 12).  It will also be emphasized that there is no flexing of hours but this will be ignored just as long as its your supervisor’s idea.

3M emphasizes listening. Not actually communicating, but rather going through the motions,  Blue notes will be repeatedly stressed but ignored unless they are ones management produced themselves... Then they are an immediate priority.  Projects that affect your own job won’t be communicated until they’re actually happening so its impossible to plan ahead much like your own weekly schedule which you’ll be lucky to know 4 days in advance.  

All accountability is on production employees with little to no accountability on management. Employees can have a day off months in advance and management won’t have a replacement scheduled.  Similarly, they might require employees to show up early to run a machine but they won’t go to the effort of actually making sure the machines are on and ready to go.  Think you’re supposed to call maintenance if something is broken and needs to be fixed? This can also go both ways as your supervisor can chew you out for not running the machine while waiting for it to be fixed, OR can chew you out for not calling maintenance even after talking to an engineer who says to shut it down.

20 years of experience as an operator doing the same thing?  That means nothing compared to a new supervisor or engineer who reads an old document listing that a piece  of equipment can run faster than it has been running for the past 5 years.  Dare to suggest that they may be incorrect or even go to HR when you know they are? Then its insubordination where the supervisor’s point of view is assumed to be correct and their supervisor will be called in just to double team the employee even more... as for actual witnesses who might be able to describe a situation? HR can’t be bothered to check with them,

Disciplinary action is used by management to retain employees.  After repeatedly pushing policies and procedures that encourage employees to look at other departments or areas for employment, management can and will use “corrective action” as a means to keep employees in a department as they can’t train people as fast as they encourage them to leave.  Management can and will lie to your face when convenient.

Left unsaid from the job description: Employees are also expected to listen to canned music at volumes well above normal conversation levels, and cannot use computers for non-work related activities which can be interpreted by management to mean anything such as checking that weather or reading a document directly off of 3M Go that isn’t directly connected to your current task, even if the machine is still running,  Also; your supervisor is always right.  He may have never run the machine you’re running, but he knows how it works better than you do anyway.  Similarly any input on schedules will be ignored using the magic words of work requirements even if its to catch up on orders that you pointed out were late months earlier when they were not a priority.  Training consists primarily of old online videos and slides which frequently tell you not to do things that are required due to poor placement of machinery.  Similarly plugging in a cell phone is the same as stealing from the company, even though you’re also required to use a cell phone to call in if you suspect you may be 1 minute late due to weather, traffic, etc.

Also, additional night support staff? They’re actually babysitters as they don’t know how to do the most basic tasks other than contacting people that are already on your escalation plan, which you are expected to do anyway.  So rather than actually support employers they exist to write  them up.  

Recognition is to be avoided and advancement is non-existent as far as your supervisor is concerned.

Huge company with deep systems,  wide range of products, processes and lots of HR policy to try to be consistent.

Resources (people, money and time) are their when and where they want them.  Where they want them is sometimes hard to understand, fluid, and can be demoralizing if you are committed and caught in the middle or left out indefinitely.  

Eventually employees conform and lose the drive and commitment, quit or get pushed out if not a climber, sometimes even the climbers step out of line with a different idea/decision and get froze out.

Standard pay has been steadily driving out work ethic, contrary to what Mgmt/HR say in their presentations.  The salaried and hourly employees see it and feel it.  This has accelerated the conforming and clearly impacted hiring and retention across the spectrum. 

There is still good pay for standard work, even being minimally committed. This is removing competition and drive for a race to be just below average not just in pay but performance even though we pride ourself on being premium.

Overtime is exhausting and tolerance of mediocre or below as the expectation is lowering the bar and driving more overtime, frustrations and less commitment.  Employees want and work for pay and/or flexibility.  Most have limited flexibility due to manufacturing demand and so pay (total benefits, if you want) has to be related directly to individual performance or the driven leave and replaced with one's not so motivated unless they conform.

PROS:
1. Pay vs work expectations,
2. Advancement if selected and able to conform as one of the climbers,
3. Flexibility if outside manufacturing or by special cases in salaried manufacturing jobs / roles,
4. Work environmental conditions in manufacturing vs typical in manufacturing,
5. Tools, toys, breadth of products, depth of expertise in products and processes for salaried roles and cutting edge or highest priority areas for salaried/hourly staff in certain areas,

CONS:
1. Advancement based on work ethic, drive, skill, experience and desire are only values for salaried and even there mostly related to mgmt climbers moving steadily and advancing. It's tough watching mgmt realize that they are stuck, done and not a/the climber and can't actually make decisions and have discretion. It's even tougher watching OT for all and vacation use to preserve regular time off while a coworker leaves equipment down or makes scrap instead if good product.
2. Class System: climbers more frequently are poor character people that look down at hourly, less educated employees that are apathetic instead of empathetic.  We define the future of the company and need to start with humility.  Oddly, apathetic people tolerate low performance and expectations since it "doesn't rock the boat" do they can get to their step.
3. Flexibility is great even for hourly production and support personnel, so ability to swap, split shifts and work part-time alternative work schedules should be implemented instead of dismissed repeatedly and especially then forcing OT.  It can be done for a little more commitment with HR and supervision to make a happier, higher retention workforce that has to work less OT, train less, make less mistakes and lower cost product for higher pay.
4. Swing shift 4 crew is brutal.  Provide more flexibility and premium for off shift to encourage more desire to work it fixed and / or part time weekends / nights.
6. Great resources are limited and appearing more scarce as time proceeds over the last several decades.  The resources available tiring, retiring, not being replaced one for one in the case of people, assets and ideas/innovation and showing looking back over time, making us concerned as long time committed employees (hourly, salaried, technical and mgmt.)  Without a pension and with less and less pay for performance and sharing in saved costs / increased growth the people here are growing less loyal, committed and productive.

  Let's start this off by talking about the overtime. You will be working 50+ hours a week, you will no longer have a life. Say goodbye to seeing your friends, family, and personal time. The overtime will cause you to be stressed out, depressed, angry and tired all at once. They will force you to work the weekends, and now even HOLIDAYS. They over plan their work factor and force the overtime on the warehouse workers. All they do to reward us is giving a free stale sandwich, some chips, and a burnt cookie; even gave a box of popcorn once. 
  They offer these options that get you out of said overtime called "byes", but if you're new and don't want to work a weekend, good luck getting this so called "bye" as it is based on the overtime hours you have worked throughout the year. They also have a "club" where they offer "coupons" for different places in the Dekalb/Sycamore area. Once again, good luck using them as your life will revolve around work. Your one day off is that day to cram in all your house duties, seeing friends and family, or go shopping.
  The people can make it or break it here. Most people here are pretty laid back and chill. If I had to, I'd compare it to high school. Where people have their cliques, and spread rumors quicker than wild fire. You may need to watch out for the ones who run to management to complain about something or someone. (but what job doesn't have those type of people?) 
  The decisions made by the engineers are what you would believe to be beneficial, but are far from that. During all this forced overtime, they decided to switch up the main system you use to work. Doing so, causes a lot more work not getting done since the system is slower due to the amount of steps they added to ensure customer satisfaction, which I totally understand, but then go on and say your productivity rate does not matter since it is in the testing phase still, but will still write you up for not making that productivity rate for the month which is only at 90% but if you hit an 89% - that's a write up.
  I feel as if this company likes to waste money on pointless additions including the new systems I mentioned in the last paragraph, a new UPS area (where we ship out UPS orders), and these new Strom "employees" they shipped up from other states down south. They pay them more than an actual 3m employee and all they do is get into crashes, sit in the isles and talk, sit on their phones and just get in everyone's way. The first few batches we have got, got into fights in the parking lots and also tried getting into others cars to steal their belongings. We've gotten more which are decently better than the first 3 batches, but more are also to come....
  Overall, I do NOT recommend people to work here. Not only for everything I previously mentioned, but also because we've basically been told over the next five years they will be replacing everything with machines. We call this the five year plan, where we believe they are trying to get people to quit so they don't have to offer a severance package. They will also try to get you fired or make you quit if you're coming up on your three year mark, which at your three year mark they can't touch what they match in your 401k. 
  Save yourself and look for a different place to work.

I saw a few reviews on the Brookings plant here and thought I would add some feedback of my own. 

Having only been with the company since 2007 I don't have the experience some have had, but let's start with the basics... it's by far the best paying job in town, with the best working conditions. A medical products plant that is temperature controlled, with ample length breaks (albeit a break room and parking lot that need to be larger with expanded lunch and vending options) 

There's a bit of retirement pains going on right now, as many employees that have been at the plant since the beginning are retiring, in large numbers, all at once, so with the new employees comes learning pains... old time operators telling me that it used to take forever just to get 'postings' to run machines that new hires can now get right off the street. New operators training new operators combined with attainment rate pressures will lead to some quality issues. Corporate seems to be offering 'buyouts' which are speeding this process along. 

Also a bit of a culture change as well, as old timers are used to constant overtime, whereas new timers don't want to be at work every weekend, week after week. Some of us got lucky and landed 4-crew positions which eliminate a lot of this overtime. Others don't like the rotating 12 hour shifts, so they take the 3 crew positions, which end up being 'level 3' every other weekend all year. Generally you are not required to work more than a 50 hour per week rolling average though. Everyone's different and some love the overtime. 

The plant is somewhat compartmentalized in that each department can have a different culture depending on who runs it... some are more strict about coverage than others and can be really nice to work for, others not so much... and also it seems like there is virtually no collaboration between neighboring plants either. 

They did reduce their packer pay, their lowest job grade, way down recently.. it made some people unhappy in the process, but sadly, even with the reduced pay these packers are still getting paid more than most places in town... what's done is done.. we shall see how that works out. Hopefully they reverse this decision in time.The corporate policy of not allowing us to bank any vacation hours is also causing some issues. Being able to bank 40-80 hours would be nice. 

With that said... great pay, it's the reason I still live here in an area that's too cold in the winter. Temperature controlled. Relatively easy work with an emphasis on safety and ergonomics taking high priority at this plant. For blue collar work it really can't be beat in this economy. All corporations have their problems, but 3M seems to be one of the better ones out there.  I can actually go around town with some pride about where I work... that's kind of nice. 





3M is a huge company, and as such has put many policies in place. Employees don't appreciate these policies until they work elsewhere and find out that those policies protected employees and tried to respect the diverse workforce. On the other hand, some policies seem to be made at the whim of plant management rather then the company as a whole which are not well thought out or fair to the employee.

Having said that, one arbitrary rule our plant enacted was that no employee was allowed to step off of the property while on the clock, not even on their breaks (unless they had to leave the plant for a job responsibility). We're adults, but we weren't treated as such.

As time goes on, the company offers less money for raises, and one looses income from year to year. The corporate culture started going downhill about 2006 and has gotten much worse as time goes on.

Meanwhile, if you work in maintenance, your raises go up every year at a much faster rate than the major majority of the workforce. Those raises for maintenance compound every year, and the gap between them and the bulk of the staff skyrockets.

At least in Minnesota, for non-union plants, you are paid according to your job code. So everyone doing your same job works at the same rate. Some departments have a few different job codes, so there is some room for pay increases. But everyone works under the same schedule. I think that is a fair way to work, and it takes away the possibility of coworkers resenting each other due to favoritism.

Management seems to have a small poll of in-house talent to draw from when it comes to promotions. Therefore very often people are promoted who are not ideal for the position. The best and the brightest aren't always the ones who become in charge.

3M does not teach anyone to manage people. If someone works under the mentorship of a good boss, it's to their advantage. But it's also the luck of the draw. Low- and mid-level management gets away with a great many things they have no right to do. With any luck, by the time a person has gotten to the highest levels of management, they've learned enough from their past mistakes that they've become better at their jobs. That's not alway the case.

Now it's seldom that a plant manager actually listens to the people on the floor. They've become much more politicians than representatives of the workers. Upper management, and especially plant managers, have their agenda, and you just better go along with it to avoid disappointment and failure.

● Work-life balance
They force too much OT, especially during the summer.  The worst part is, a lot of the time, they don't even need people.  Management could care less about you and your time.

● Pay & benefits
Pay is decent...but the state of Illinois keeps raising taxes every year, and the insurance company raises premiums and covers less and less.  Cost of living is out of control, but that is everywhere.

● Job security and advancement
Training and advancement are a joke.  This is a kiss butt boy's club.  Most managers are terrible with communication and are very underqualified.  I am sure they do this on purpose, so Upper management isn't challenged.

● Management
They are simply the worst managed company ever.  Management is full of poor communication, "Yes - men", ungrateful people who cling to their spot.  Most are bipolar, which helps cause a revolving door of employees.

● Culture
They use a very poor productivity system with shoddy equipment and one of the worst warehouse management systems in the business.  The environment is similar to a prison with very short breaks and lunches.

● Overall
3M is full of bad management, terrible Human Resources, awful training, no leadership, favoritism, no recognition, and a prison-like environment.  They have a non-sensical productivity system and point systems that "weed" out people unless you happen to be kissing management's butt or that you happen to know someone in higher positions.  Management has no clue who to manage any work/life balance.  They schedule far too much overtime on short notice, and some of the time, they won't have work for you to do!  Training is far too short, and usually done by unqualified individuals who have very little experience themselves.  The pay and the benefits are decent.  However, the cost of living, insurance premiums, and taxes make it feel like minimum wage.  They use equipment that is run 24/7, and should have more maintenance than they do. Management has little to no communication skills, and they do not listen to anyone.  It is a boy's club of bipolar individuals who do their best to impress the upper management, while ignoring people who are on the front line. Recognition is nonexistent, unless you are management who get bonuses.  Human resources is just as bad.  They don't do anything, and ignore employee concerns.  The warehouse management system they use is buggy and terrible, but if you don't meet your quota, they blame you.  The building has a lot of safety rules that people bypass because they are in a rush to meet productivity.  They have short breaks and lunches.  Don't come here unless you are desperate.

3M -Hires many contract workers but they rarely hire them permanently. They hire lots of contract workers so their books ("buckets") look better.   As a contract worker, you will almost never be invited to company meetings, employee picnics, etc. This only creates an unfair work environments and the bad overall moral in the company.  It's like someone in a meeting said one day "Hey, I got a great way to save money and maximize stockholders earnings, let's hire a bunch of high quality people at low wages through a temporary service company, make them think they are low rank employee material and then keep them here for years dangling a carrot above them making them think they will actually become a 3M employee some day".  I am just saying.....

Your benefits are dependent on the contracting firm you work for, and most of the time the benefits are minimal - all for the sake of 3M stockholders/permanent employee benefits.  You can't save for retirement working under these minimizing conditions, so it leaves little to be desired career wise.  I quit 3M.

When they need a new person to fill a position, they will most likely pull from within the 3M employee network of people looking for work instead of looking outside - don't be fooled by the job postings because you can be sure most of these positions will be filled internally.  My suggestion is don't bother even applying at this place.  I worked there for 7 years on several different occasions, applied for many positions over the years, and never got a job there.  Others there would tell you the same.  Look for a real career elsewhere because there's little opportunity with this company.  

3M company abused me by hiring me and letting me go 5 weeks into a project that got cancelled.  I never got paid a dime for the 1 1/2 year project I was to be there working on in the Drug Delivery division.  A decent company would have paid me something to compensate for the lost anticipated wages due to lay off and a company that was actually "with it" wouldn't have hired a person only to find out 5 weeks later they didn't need them in the first place.  I ended up working on a dead end job elsewhere in the company with less pay just to make ends meet.

Signed, High Quality worker, 2 retired 3M employee parents, single mother, and college graduate with science background.

I am thankful for my job, best pay I’ve ever had for factory production work. Benefits are good and affordable. Management is aloof and does not hold employees equally accountable. Seems the more you get paid the less you do. There is a huge disconnect from management to actual production employees. Acronyms are ridiculously overused and it complicates employees understanding of who to go to, creates a “too many cooks in the kitchen” or “ the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” environment. The lack of leadership creates confusion and disengagement among employees. Maintenance on anything is a reactive not proactive approach and duct tape is a common remedy. 3M training consists of “Cool-Aid” which you are expected to consume and verbally regurgitate. 3M is concerned about ergonomics however that’s just a saying. The number of days without an injury at my location has not exceeded 4 months and many people work with restrictions due to injury related to repetitive motions. For such a massive company one of the things that surprised me the most was the amount of incorrect information on how to complete the job tasks via the online information portal they have. It is outdated, difficult to find the information you need, and supervisors delegate their role to CT’s and TC’s LO’s and whoever they favor. This Leeds to conflicting information and staff frustration, and again disengagement. The company does not invest in computer software that is consistent with how paperwork is labeled, aka, a lot, run, id or order number change to each other so paperwork to pc is just inconsistent and confusing. Overall would i recommend working here to a friend due to a production employee starting at over $24.00 an hour but don’t think you’ll move up the ladder without a bachelors degree. Tow the line, find a few good coworkers and tow the line and you’ll do just fine. Hopefully things will be less woke soon when they realize it’s degrading the company and the image is getting tarnished. 

Can't ask HR for help as they redirect your questions or concern directly back to your chain of command even though you have already addressed these concerns with them and nothing has gotten done. Either that or they will just ignore every email you give them. If you decide to go see them in person you'll be punished for leaving your area of work. If you have a good idea for change that's disregarded because you're only a lowly production worker. Unless it's a good profitable idea. Then they'll pass it on to who it needs to go to and they will take all the credit and you won't even receive a thank you. Getting punished for a machine's malfunction is a common occurrence. Even if the policy is being followed and they notice something they don't like, they'll make something up on the spot to make sure you're punished for it. You know that it's wrong for them to punish you for it and want to go to HR but they'll again ignore you or they'll justify the made up rules not anywhere in the policy. Huge amounts of jobs cut and employees relocated within the location because of budget. Minimal communication between management and employees. So if something changes and you're not notified of it, you'll receive punishment for not doing what you weren't communicated to do. But then turn around and hire a copious amount of employees. Seen a lot of good contract workers who wanted full time get shut down or replaced with someone off the street or just flat out denied a full time position. Even repeat contract workers who have been there before and know the company. For a reason unknown they would rather hire someone who doesn't know the company and with minimal experience. By some magic chance that you get hired full time they will move you to an assignment that you know nothing about and cost the company more time and money with training. If you want to signup for an assignment with different hours because what you have doesn't work anymore,l you can. But even then they can and or will move you to a different rotation and shifts with no notice if they want to forcing you to have to completely re organize your life at home to be situated with life at work.

Hiring process is a bit on the longer side and varies, personally it took about a month for me, for a few other coworkers I was hearing up to 2-3 months before they were finally given job offers.

Generally there was only 1 mandatory meeting per day with ALL staff on the shift. Some safety tips, general idea of productivity and occasionally a hint of potential mandatory Overtime. Depending on any incidents that happen, there may be another meeting thats mandatory for the entire building, not just the shift, explaining what happened and giving advice on how to avoid it in the future without naming names of any employees involved.

Overtime is ridiculous, esp at DK6, you will probably be looking at 50-80hrs/wk for the entire duration of your employment. DK1, DK4 and DK5 are a lot more relaxed on the Overtime, but make up for it with having far tighter productivity/performance metrics to meet. Your safety is everything, but if you fail to meet productivity/performance metrics, you'll get disciplinary actions 2-3 times up to and including termination.

Most management above your immediate Supervisor has no clue how your job works and doesn't care, my previous Supervisor was amazing however and everyone sort of lost hope after he moved on to a different company.

As with most jobs, the coworkers are both the best and second worst part of the job, met a lot of really awesome people and a few incredibly irritating people while working here. 

Personally, I'd go back if the Overtime wasn't as heavily mandatory and the performance metrics weren't near impossible to meet. Its a bit hard to keep up 100% work performance when you have 0-1 day off a week and are expected to move at a speed of 300+ cases per hour. (Old metrics were estimated to be around 60/hr would make the bare minimum performance.)

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Manufacturing engineer 76 salaries reported	$120,147 per year
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$126,333 per year
Maintenance mechanic 27 salaries reported	$35.07 per hour
Assistant 5 salaries reported	$17.20 per hour
Production operator 2 salaries reported	$23.03 per hour

Working at 3M: Company Overview and Reviews

3M

3M Ratings

Popular jobs at 3M

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected