forklift operator

maintenance technician

control panel technician

welder

assembly technician

Benteler Group

Benteler HQ current employee. Great work/life balance considering fast-paced automotive industry non-stop issues and very busy from 8 to 5. No personal time, just work. Yes, you do need to come in early or stay late on occasion, and be accessible by cell phone due to global locations in different time-zones (text, email, calendar) but it is rare and weekends are nearly non-existent. Otherwise terrible place to work, constant turnover is miserable, no investment from Global HQ. Good support from Global but the annual merit increase rules are dumb (bell curve) and average 1% to 2% for "meets or exceeds expectations" while the co-pay for insurance increases every year +$60 delta per pay for Family Coverage (+$1,600 annual increase). So annual merit increases are not keeping up with the employee co-pay costs (health, dental, vision). The longer you work at Benteler, the less you make, pushing turnover even higher. Holiday & Vacation Time is right on par with Tier 1 Automotive. Job Security does not exist - Benteler Global Culture dictates they would rather have an empty chair than a low-performer, recently laying off 10% of people at HQ and Plants in 2017 following the Regions "best year ever performance" for the 3rd consecutive year. Unfair merit increases, lack of training, lack of succession planning, too many global processes & procedures for the skeleton staff to follow correctly. Management is slow, very slow to make decisions and when they do finally make a decision it is usually retracted and changed 2 to 3 times before becoming final direction. The only Plants they invest new equipment is Puebla Mexico and BMW Duncan/Spartanburg - all of the other Plants keep limping along on old outdated equipment that should have been replaced or refurbished 5-10 years ago. No clear Message or Strategy on where Benteler is going, where we want to grow market share, who our competitors are, what our Customers need, lack of communication from the top. Not allowed to take Customers to annual Detroit Auto Show to proudly show-off our Benteler Automotive Products due to anti-corruption - one silly example of taking political correctness too far. You will need to take anti-corruption training 4x in 3-years, but you can't take a single real training course such as SAE Chassis Design or Casting Class because it costs money and there is ZERO budgeted for training. This is a Go-Fast "learn on the fly" culture, hit the ground running. Suited for experienced veterans who can find answers on their own, people with self-motivation and initiative. Not good for college graduates who need development, training, and mentoring - or may actually need to take a training class. Forget about it. People don't matter at Benteler, only financial results matter here. That said, I do plan on staying here because of how high I value life outside of work.

Once you have been trained and are considered well off enough to operate without supervision you will come in every day likely to be assigned to the same work area. There were a few of us, myself included, that were constantly rotated around based on shipment needs or who called in. It is generally assumed that the more dependable workers were rotated because they usually had a higher hourly rate of parts made per hour with the least quality issues being missed.

I learned a lot about troubleshooting computers and how to use them to manually control certain robots when an error occurred.  I learned how to professionally inspect welded parts for weld defects including the variety of different kinds of defects.

The workplace culture is currently pretty diverse. It has a relatively equal number of black, white and Hispanic employees. There is even a surplus of Burmese and they are all very hard workers. There has never been any kind of racial bigotry to my knowledge. Especially that led to action with Human Resources. We get along pretty well as a whole. Sometimes when your machine has issues (and, my God, they will) you will have to call your supervisor or department Setter to make the call if a Technician, Tool and Die, or Maintainance are required. Some of the skilled trades are the nicest people there. Unfortunately, some are the reason we have had our worst days.

The hardest part of the job for me was the daily quota of parts expected to be made. Some machines naturally have a slower pace so its very easy to keep up. Other machines feel as though you will require unapproved artificial stimulation just to get through one shift. I managed to survive on excess caffeine, which is an approved substance. So if you end up being a more dependable employee you can expect to be placed on a wide variety of machines. A new one each day. Depending on who called in or what shipment needs must be met. Like me.

The job offers a lot of benefits and pays well, once you have been there a while. The fellow coworkers are what made most days bearable.

A high demand company generally make you work 6-7 days a week and almost every holiday. I understand that in the maintenance field working weekends and holidays is normal but having full production all three shifts 6-7 days a week seems a little over the top to me. I would say this company makes production promises they cant keep and that's why they run non-stop. I also think their materials department lost the ball they've always thought they've had parts and dont and start change-overs or complete change-overs and change right back over. Or they do change-overs and have no parts to run. Another thing is on breakdowns we'll need certain parts a lot of the time on not have them in the building and have to wait for replacements parts or rig something up in a pinch that will work. An additive to that is when you have a part go bad and think a replacement being stocked in the crib would be a good idea it's like pulling teeth to get anything put into the stock room. I believe a big part of that is due to the fact that every production cell they bring in is a completely different cell built with different components, which a lot of which could have just of been designed to use parts we already used and had stocked at the plant but instead used different parts.
They also implement a wide variety of things most of which are decent ideas but they never enforce anything.
Overall I would say the benefits and pay are very good. This could be a very good company with better management and materials flow.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There's cameras everywhere including your weld both. You have to call your line coordinator over walkie talkie to cover you while you go to the bathroom. You have to sign a sheet to leave your line to go to bathroom including time left and when you come back. And about 30% of your coworkers can't speak English. You work 6 days a week every week and you can never use your vacation time because weekends are mandatory and they cancel them after approving. They will take you off your position to move you wherever they need you. Just not a relaxing place to work. Extremely stressful. Numbers numbers numbers is what they want from you.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Supervisors and cameras staring at you while you struggle instead of fixing your machine or jumping in to help you, they throw they hands in the air to say what's taking so long. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Nobody speaks English because the people are from all over. For lack of better words you could say, (diversity). It's production shop so faster faster faster. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Depends where someone is missing they move you around. Sink or swim

A typical work day is not very good especially with Summer time coming around. We don't have small fans anymore so when it gets hot in there it makes it much more difficult to work. I haven't learn much there on top of me having 7 years manufacturing experience before I started there. I have learned how to use a scan gun, adjust scales, use MES system and know about alloys and billets.Management is not the best there. Sometimes they help you but most of the time they just want you to help them. Not being there for us when needed but always having to do things for them. Culture is ok we work with many different races and they do celebrate diversity day for us. Hardest part of the job is lifting heavy parts constantly keeping up with the line to make rate while building all my own supplies to help keep the line running. I have to constantly inspect parts to Quality standards and tag every container once Its full. Most enjoyable part is working with some of the people there who are willing to go out of there way to help you when you need it. Taking my breaks when I'm able to relax from hectic work conditions and getting paid.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Today I've been working at Benteler as a machine operator a few months shay of five years,  I feel Ashamed Stagnant, I have allowed myself to continue where the organizations culture is every man or clique for themselves. See I hold a BS in Business form Ferris State but I work under poor leadership, who continuous to scale upwards steadily with an attitude of a toddler on the verge of a temper tantrum. HR  is non existent since I work third  amongst fellow operators with low moral  no family/work life balance, unsafe slippery floors, hard on the joints repetitious work. I continue because I believe in the choice I made all those years ago that I can professionally grow within since the company is global and I am flexible as to where to move to as long as I am learning something new for the best perhaps I'm just a fool for staying.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The facility is not climate controlled is always hot or extremely hot, second talking to the setter about fixing the equipment for better results

I started working for benteler through MAU 2 weeks before this incident happened which caused me to literally walk out the door. I was doing my job at a good pace when I started overhearing a few employees talking about how I was slow, then I was going to fast. They ended up saying things loud enough for me to hear it and it started getting under my skin. I tried to just man up and deal with it but after lunch it got worse and I walked outside right before the 3 o'clock break to calm down and compose myself. I went back in and found the manager and briefly attempted to explain the problem. I asked to possibly be moved to another area and that got shot down. And then a different manager chimed in and sarcastically said " I have 8 girls wanting to move to different areas. He noticed the anger 9n my face and said "just joking" I walked out and now hope to explain to MAU the situation and hopefully be placed on a different job.

A typical day involved shifting headcount to cover absenteeism. Constantly resetting equipment that broke down. I learned early that absenteeism was tolerated. Several Associates had exceeded the attendance points multiple times without any actions taken. Associates terminated by the Supervisors were allowed to return to work. Management more concerned with pointing fingers rather than solving problems. The hardest part was dealing with the equipment issues and Management. The company has real potential to be better than it is if Management supported the Supervisor level better and address disciplinary issues in a timely manner. The culture can improve only of Management abide by its on rules when it comes to respect for the individual.

This company requires you to work 7 day weeks. You can be forced to shift change without your approval. Very hot environment. Misinformed upper management. They have a high rate of Temp employees who have to work for a long time to get hired.  Virtually no training.Sometimes required to work long hours. 
No communication skills throughout the company. There are several employees that can not make the rates required for the job do to lack of caring about the companies productivity. Rates are definitely do-able. Some employees are required to run several operations while other people get sent home. A lot of paperwork required for each job. Majority of the time you are cleaning through the week because of inventory issues and forced to work the weekends because you now have inventory, every week.
New temps are training newer temps and don't know their own jobs yet. Overall, a very intense environment to work in!!!

Typical day - automation calls on production equipment. Monitoring and maintaining electrical production equipment.  LOTO and assist mill rights. 
What you learned- hot roll mill equipment functions/ automation program functions/ 
Management- learned that some would back you in a situation and some would not.  Alot of finger pointing and delegating of management responsibilities to loyal underlings.
Workplace culture- buddy system/cliques/favoritism 
Hardest part of job- constant breakdowns and very little production due to having to obtain replacement equipment from foriegn countries. 
Best part of job- working with senior/advanced leaders in my department. Knowledge sharing. 



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Forklift operator 1 salary reported	$19.37 per hour
Maintenance technician 2 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour
Control panel technician 3 salaries reported	$29.50 per hour
Welder 5 salaries reported	$20.40 per hour
Assembly technician 2 salaries reported	$19.10 per hour

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