assembler

material handler

maintenance technician

engineer

machine operator

BorgWarner

I've worked at BorgWarner for 7 months now (June 2021) and so far my expectations have been met to say the least. I've worked in plant jobs before but it's easy to tell BorgWarner holds themselves and their employees to a higher standard. BorgWarner uses the 5S model, a common practice in larger corporations used to keep it's faculty's clean, safe and organized. BorgWarner's cafeteria offers a self-service minimart that employees can purchase food or drinks on breaks. Every shift has two 10 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch break. Working on the assembly line can be very stressful and difficult your first few days but after a week your body gets used to it. Physically BorgWarner isn't really challenging at all, however their are times when you can get behind on the line and feel stressed trying to catch up. Most of the time if you're behind or need a hand your team leader or assistant team leads will help you. If you're feeling behind or don't know something, you can always ask your team lead or anyone around you and when they get the chance they'll help you out. The hardest part about working at BorgWarner is staying focus on the bigger picture. Like I said the job itself is really easy, however at the end of the day it's more about the quality of what you're building then the quantity that you're producing. You can get so focused on just throwing parts together to assemble transfer cases that you forget this is a product going into someone's vehicle. My suggestion is to just assemble everything as if it were going into your vehicle. The best part about working at BorgWarner is working as a team to accomplish a common goal. Nothing is better than running well all week and passing your target goal, getting the weekend off and coming back the following week for an extend lunch on the company card. 

BorgWarner was once highly regarded as a company which brought product leading products to market. This allowed them to compete on product value than on cost. This strategy, through investing in engineering, brought exceptional growth rates and margins that were the envy of the supplier industry.  Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. High level managers were brought in from the outside which marginalized engineering and managed the product lines as if they were commodities. In many business units there is no significant new product development. Further in a panicked attempt to leapfrog into the electrification trend they are proceeding with commodity type products with insufficient engineering to make them product leaders. Larger suppliers with significant investments in the electrification revolution have products with significantly better performance and better value. 
To cut costs older engineers see their jobs eliminated to side step age discrimination laws. Younger engineers are put into situations with insufficient training and knowledge. HR is largely absent in regards to training, career progression and management practices. Extreme arrogance is the rule for upper management, with the exception of the CEO. 

For young engineers there are many other companies with rational approaches to the market and exciting programs. For older engineers at BorgWarner, be prepared for an exit strategy.

I will start with HR. Horrible HR they aren't helpful with anything. If employees go down asking about Insurance for instance, they have no knowledge and instead of researching with you and following up they just give you a number to dial and send you on your way. Also they choose who they hire not the hiring manager.

Upper Management is ran on the good ole boy system. For instance one of my bosses had no education at all and yet had climbed her way to the top by riding the backs of others and I am sure in some cases the fronts of others too. There where also employees there with Bachelor degrees that were doing jobs that required a high school diploma yet weren't able to ascend to a Salary type job because of the HR/Upper Management system. 

You will probably hear how well Seneca BorgWarner did during the recent Tornado that destroyed the building. What you won't hear is that the Upper Management is so incompetent that they had to bring former Managers that had since moved on back to the Seneca plant in order for Seneca to have a fighting chance.

 I mean during this Covid-19 situation why do you have a group of Maintenance working on a Sunday night (The tornado hit at 3:30am) on 3rd shift when the plant is closed? Seneca Management Strikes again.

I have worked at Borgwarner Turbo Systems for over 20 years, and in the last 5 years they have really gone down hill. We are consistently running shorthanded, managers only let 1st shift know what is going on, and training is a joke. Management is more concerned with employee's social media postings and hitting hiring quotas rather than trying to run a business. Due to a lack of business, over a 150 full time and almost 200 temps were let go last year, and now everyone is trying to wear multiple hats while meeting customer demands. Due to shortages of materials/orders, you don't know if you are working 32 hrs a week or 60 until the last minute. If you don't know the right people you can forget about advancement or even changing shifts voluntarily. Multiple times, multiple people have been forced to go to an off shift for "customer demands" only to switch back after a couple of weeks, and if you disagree, you know where the door is. The unofficial motto is "We make turbos, not sense." The only good things is the pay and benefits otherwise you feel like a mushroom, kept in the dark and fed bulls**t.    

I started at BorgWarner as an intern CAD designer while I was finishing my degree. The company is very open and welcoming for interns and co-ops and are very willing to work with your school schedule. I would usually work between 20 and 30 hours a week (sometimes more hours if it was a busy week or I had time). You are expected to normally arrive between 7am and 9am unless classes got in the way, where you would then talk to your supervisor to work out a balanced weekly schedule. 

As a designer, you'd go to a weekly meeting to prioritize work that needs to be done and how soon it is needed. Engineers will submit work orders and will collaborate directly with the designer the work order is assigned too. The designer is then responsible for making models and drawings to be reviewed with the engineer before it is approved.

BorgWarner's Power-train Technical Center has a good cafeteria, but can be a bit pricey. The people there are very friendly, work environment is somewhat laid back, but meeting deadlines are the hardest part of the job for a designer. Because everyone was so willing to help, I never felt intimidated to ask for it when I needed it.

BorgWarner is a fortune 500 company, which lives up to that tag and to its motto to make efficient, green and innovative automotive products. The workplace also reflects the fortune 500 tag in the equipment, quality standards and in-house testing, production, and development capabilities. 

With a laid back work culture and friendly people with less micro management, it is great place to work at. As an product development engineer a typical day at work involves working with various internal teams that come together to develop a product and with customer to understand, accommodate & negotiate various requirements for a product.

The hardest part of the job is to keep up with the evolving standard practices that need to be followed by a product development engineer. That said, it is the case with any company that has a developing group. 

The best part is to work on PACE award winning technologies that help in fuel economy improvement of vehicle and to work in a laid back friendly environment that sports enthusiastic and capable workforce.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Team Leads were very helpful in assisting operators when needed. My area lead was also helpful when there were issues needing attention.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Struggling with machines that seemed to be more problematic than should have been while trying to achieve unrealistic production goals with a totally detached upper management that seemed clueless.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Air quality and temperature control seemed like an issue during hot weather, air to the bathrooms in machining was turned off. Met alot of very good people, and everyone got along well.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Always concerned about what new "thing" we were going to hear about in the daily start up meeting. Most of the time it was all repetitive. Get through start up meeting and then go to your area and start your shift working on whatever machine you were approved to operate.

Best benefit package I've seen, hot-line cafeteria with good mix of healthy and tasty choices. Fast-paced. Rapidly changing priorities and long meetings tie up managers and hurt productivity and good communications with their subordinates. Surveys done every few years on how employees feel about working there, but seem to be worded to get only positive responses and little done to improve things.  Reasons for problems on lines collected but not always acted on. Hourly people excellent and want to do good job, but they have to work a lot of OT and weekends constantly because of machine trouble and other problems.  Profit sharing system, but seems to be shrinking . Review system very time-consuming. Peer recognition a good step with small rewards like hats ans shirts for doing especially good job or fixing problems quickly. No suggestion system. Too many meetings. Teamwork encouraged but often not possible due to workloads.

A typical work day was ten hours long. Never worked with better co-workers. Management made mid-management changes moving the key people that communicated with me about was needed. The new people did not communicate. When two people left I was expected to do more with no additional help. Was not given access to everything but expected to do what was needed. Harsh talk but nothing in writing. No one tried to help with issues just laid in my responsibility pile. If you are good at making people communicate with you and enjoy great co-workers this would be a good company at this location to work for. HR is a great support but management over rules what everyone thinks is fair. Best thing about job co-workers! Lot of work so you stay very busy however getting help is slow and often is held out as a way to make things better but they seem to want you to do more and more not help. Some managers have no idea what all a position is doing to keep everything flowing.

Inventory, raw and finished goods. I set up production schedules, assigned people what was to be done for the shift. moved material, I did time study's every hour to make sure we were hitting production goals .I was also quality control, if material was bad. I had to reject and DMR the material. I had to work hand in hand with maintenance, to make sure production standards were still met. I had pass down between shifts written and verbal to inform company what was done and what had to be done. Management didn't always help employees, with everyday problems, I felt they just thought they would just go away., The hours were a 15 hour day. and were very long. I liked all the people I worked with. people tried to do the best for the company but were not appreciated for what they did. They made people who work hard work harder and not discipline workers who just were there to get a pay check.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assembler 1 salary reported	$20.42 per hour
Material handler 1 salary reported	$23.14 per hour
Maintenance technician 2 salaries reported	$31.05 per hour
Engineer 6 salaries reported	$94,833 per year
Machine operator 15 salaries reported	$19.03 per hour

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