team member

maintenance technician

cnc operator

operator

process engineer

Fritz Winter North America LP

Utilizing the template points provided by indeed to offer a brief overview of my experience at Fritz Winter. While I don't have a job title listed in attempt to stay anonymous, know that this review comes from someone in a technical role.

A typical day at work:
Review production reports from shifts prior, review / respond to emails, support both maintenance teams and production as needed, and carry out project work.

What you believe you learned:
Starting with little experience, I've been able to build a really good and solid foundation of knowledge here that is widely applicable.

Management:
I've been with the company to see plenty of managers come and go, for good reason. I've read here that the "people who care are long gone", with "people" referring to management, and that couldn't be further from the truth. The same goes for "it's a sinking ship". The team that is present at the point of writing this review is bought into the overarching goal of succeeding and they expect the same from their employees. There has been tinges of micromanaging at times, though the company is in the faster-paced automotive field, so it's expected.

Workplace culture:
The overall environment is positive, but can be a bit stressful at times depending at the issues present. It's very easy to get along with your colleagues for the most part, but there are a few exceptions to that. 

The hardest part of the job:
Not being able to properly plan my work due to day-to-day downtime occurrences. Also, being called for remote support is never fun. Though I will say, the technical personnel have took a good turn around and both issues have started to slow. 

The most enjoyable part of the job:
The people, challenge, and bi-weekly paycheck.

Closing / Overall Review:
A lot of disgruntled reviews here are rather unprofessional and I wouldn't let them take away from a potential opportunity as an interviewee. There's a great saying that goes: "people fire themselves". If you do what is asked of you and have a genuine want to do good and do right by the company that pays you, you will be fine and have a great time at Fritz Winter. Nothing is perfect, no one likes a job, but it is a great place to work. There is ample amount of need / opportunity for well rounded technical skill sets. 

Fritz is frustrating because there are many good people on the floor and even a few in junior to mid level leadership roles still working there, but the autocratic, top down, heavy handed senior leaders ruin things. The company has good people who know what they are doing and equipment that has proven itself capable of running exceptionally well with the right maintenance schedule and operators. Yet, the company finds itself working production employees a schedule that is functionally 12 on, 12 off indefinitely due to poor management choices. As they dig themselves further into the hole they are in they lie to employees about when and how things will improve hoping to retain people. All this said they work itself is not bad and neither are a lot of the people. The pay can be ok, but unfortunately the company has distanced themselves from the posted pay scale and pays new hires more than employees with years of experience. On top of that, the new management change came with a raft of new salaried positions that were largely filled with worthless outside hires, to include the son of the new COO. 

This used to be a better place to work, I'm sad to see what it has become. 

I joined Fritz in hopes that it would have been a place that people cared and wanted to see the company succeed. Everyone wants to see the company succeed but at the cost of everything. Production was promised a schedule of 3 12 hour shifts one week and then 4 12 hour shifts the next week so people would agree to work 12’s. This schedule has never been accomplished and this week they will go to 6 12’s with 8 on Sunday. The equipment is run far beyond the PM point and then Managment will take away everyone’s weekend to make up for the lost time because of the failure to shutdown and properly maintain the equipment. In addition they will send people home in the middle of the week because of no cores to run and then run the weekend and it will not be overtime. Majority of the senior leadership that was any good and cared has long since departed because they know the place is loosing the battle and will never be a good place to work. 


The people that work at Fritz are very enjoyable to be around. It’s like the situation of a sinking ship, everyone is in the situation together and they are nice to each other because of the situation. Shifts are starting to band together and call out all at once because of the schedule. Management won’t open their eyes and see what they are doing to their own people so this is the result.

It can get really tedious at times of struggle with no help. expected to hot numbers with downed machines half the time. at shift change, inserts are burnt up and dimensions are wayyyyy out of spec. every day taking a hit on downtime to change inserts and getting dimensions back in and no feedback from first shift. chemistry is always off from foundry and no 2 dates have same chemistry so dimensions shift and can burn up inserts quickly... at times 8 parts to 20 parts. get talked to from team leads and at times people are written up for changing inserts "prematurely" when dimensions are not sticking. Maintenance band aids everything on these machines that are ran 24/7 between the 3 shifts. At first loved working there and great pay... can be overworked really quickly when seasoned with time after shift and staying over for weekends and sundays. expect to work some stretch of 40 days straight for your shift more or less. 3/4 of the year smooth sailing when coming in or leaving. Team leads can either become your best friend or your worst enemy. Do not complain and be a "yes" person and they will come out to help you no problem and teach you something you probably did not know. PAY IS GREAT AND WORKED TO DEATH JUST ABOUT

If you need money that will help you out during this pandemic fritz will help. 6-7 Day work weeks.  

The foundry this is not the place to be!!! 

You’re safety is at risk in multiple departments!!!! Please please be aware around machines and people operating mhe!!!! 

Overworked & overpaid is the game of fritz winter. 

No lock out tag out chains or locks but expected to enter machines to clean or troubleshoot faults. 

Beware!! 

7 Days a week since 2020!! 10-12S often on top of 6-7 days. Only days off are when the machines are broke!!!!!

No respect for employees from management or team leads. This place does not seem to care, and does not seem to be interested in being a stable company, as they can hardly keep any & every single department fully staffed. It’s not the work, it’s the management. 



Do you enjoy hating your job? Come work here. Toxic work environment, toxic management and underwhelming pay. You want a raise? Forget about it. They would bring people in making more than you and then make you wait TWO YEARS for a raise that we are currently fighting for. Do you want to take vacation? Well your in luck because after you jump through multiple hoops and argue with the terrible supervisors about a date you put in six months in advance then you *may* get your day off. Overall this company really doesn’t care about its employees and it shows. Doing a good job and getting stuff done quickly and efficiently? Here’s another page of job duties for you to do for no extra pay because “your job description says ‘all other assigned duties’ at the bottom of it”.  
Please look deep into other jobs before you dedicate time to this place.

A few years back FWNA was a good place to work.  We had decent managers and hard working co-workers who would do their best. Now we incredibly top heavy with useless management and nepotism.  The COO doesn't understand how to run a company, nor does he listen.  It is his way or the highway.  His son, who is as useful as glitter, had a position created for him then promoted within several months.  The HR department has ruined our pay structure and only works on appointments.  Given more than 70 percent of staff are production workers with no access to email to make an appointment their jobs are a whole lot easier.  No one in management cares about you, your health, your work life balance or your mental well being.  They will work you until all hope leaves your body and you are mindless drone.  That is there end goal.   

Excessive overtime for poor planning and extremely incompetent upper management. Ran by a German Parent Company that rewards the incapable and forces any sane person to leave as soon as the opportunity arises. They will work the life out of you and step on your back to move on to the next person crazy enough to put up with the treatment. Micro management runs rampant in this place and they refuse to supply parts and maintenance time to fix the worn out machines. However…… you are expected to hit your numbers even with mechanical failures that happen daily. Never in my life have I seen such a poorly ran place. Some great people there trying to make a difference, but…..,,,

Managers and supervisors do not care about you here. And HR barely helps. There’s no real opportunity for advancement here unless you're friends with the manager or sucking up hard. They’ll hire in new people to be your team lead despite them having no clue how to run the machines and expect you as the underling to teach them. Paint lines were super underpaid and super under-supported. No team lead or supervisor in the building on any shift knew how the paint lines worked or ran so you basically bounced around from supervisor to maintenance over and over until the line suddenly started working again. Worked here for nearly 2 years. Pay was the only worthwhile thing here. 

Horrible about giving reviews
Inconsistent work schedule, can change multiple times and last minute
Filthy environment that you have to come in a extra day every other week to clean for 4 hours.
Constantly changing work days and hours.
Machine are constantly breaking causing more hours- if the machine breaks down you are stuck at work for hours sweeping.
Stay extremely short handed due to treatment of employees. 
Management shows very clear favoritism

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Team member 5 salaries reported	$21.12 per hour
Maintenance technician 3 salaries reported	$36.00 per hour
Cnc operator 3 salaries reported	$22.63 per hour
Operator 1 salary reported	$20.63 per hour
Process engineer 2 salaries reported	$84,000 per year

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