forklift operator

production supervisor

manufacturing associate

maintenance technician

truck driver

Hatch Stamping Company

The management is the worst I've ever seen. It boils down to finger-pointing. Corporate in Detroit makes all the decisions for the plant in Tennessee. They schedule the work, order material and tooling.

Hatch took a company that was producing over 100 new die builds a year and thru their mismanagement and lack of employee relations has dwindled the company down to less than 25 new builds a year.

Example:
A die package comes in with 12 new dies to design and build...

1) A priority list is provided with delivery dates
2) A spreadsheet is created to show progress
3) We wait and wait for the design which sometimes takes over 3 weeks.
4) We start programming on what few details are slowly being released from engineering while waiting on material. Tool Steel with wire work is first followed by tool steel that doesn't get wire-work.
5) Material starts coming in. Material is supposed to be squared up and with only .010" per side extra stock. PROBLEM IS...
The material that comes in is either for another die that has a much later delivery date than the one we had been working on.
6) So.....we work and work to try and program these details. PROBLEM IS...these details haven't been designed yet!
7) Then we find out there have been engineering changes to the details we had already programmed and we have to reprogram them AGAIN!
8) Then the material finally comes in and it is a different size than what we programmed for because corporate has ordered the wrong size material! 
9) This miscommunication occurred the entire 3 years I worked for Hatch!!!

We have gone over 6 weeks with nothing to do!!! I would sit in my office and try and train myself on design and programming software just to stay busy.

We were told my 2nd year Hatch was getting a new programming software. We were currently using a 2014 version of SurfCam which we all liked and were familiar with. The new software was to be the newest MasterCam software. We waited and waited. I was told I was going to Detroit to train on the new software. Again, corporate drug their feet and it never happened. I started doing MasterCam University...ON MY OWN to train on the new software when or if it ever came in so that when it did I would be somewhat ready for it. I completed the 2017 MasterCam training and received my certificate. STILL NO WORK...so I started training on the 2018 MasterCam software. I liked taking ONLY one more test to receive my certificate of training and Hatch let the school run out. I tried for a full week to take that last test but I could because they had let an apprentice, who isn't even a programmer take the Security Key home with him to PLAY WITH!!! I NEVER GOT THE KEY and the training ran out with just one test to go!!!

Then Hatch decides they were going to use Visi software. I trained on this software for weeks and weeks while waiting for work. I might add that of the combined shifts, I was the ONLY one to train and complete the software training.

In 3 years that I worked there:

1st year: 5 dies total...done were right and all were still being constantly worked on when I left 3 years later!

2nd year: Maybe 12 dies...worked on them all year! 4 of those dies were pulled by the customer because we could get the right!

3rd year: still working on what dies were still in the shop. few dies come in and what happens then is that Hatch decides to farm the work out to other shops just to get them completed on time (which NEVER happened) The kicker is that the details they release we have already programmed ahead for while waiting for material to come in!

TOTALLY SCREWED UP COMPANY!!! If corporate would have stayed out of our business and let us run the shop the way it ran for years and years before Hatch bought it it would have thrived!!!

...and corporate can't understand why their die shop up north failed! The total definition of an idiot! Instead of letting the company build dies the tried and true way they had been building them for over 20 years, they implemented the very same practices they used up north with the die shop that went under!

Long story short...the eliminated everyone on 2nd shift except the press operators and hired a new tool maker for 2nd shift die maintenance support.

I was let go...for lack of performance!!! Give me a break!!!

Everyone in management was scared of their job and placed all the blame on everyone else. We went thru 3 plant managers in less than a year!!!

Where do I even begin? The first thing they did was make an offer a third less than what I had asked for, and when told that this was a very low offer for that position, they simply responded "I know". The owner's kids are in very high positions within the company and have done nothing to earn those spots. One of them in particular knows nothing about the day-to-day operations of his employees, and yet tries to micromanage them, so what ends up happening is employees get confused because they are told to do things that had already been done days ago or are completely irrelevant. Turnover is out of this world. There were only two people that I know of in the entire building, besides upper management, that had been there more than a year or two. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Hatch sent out a memo urging employees to stay home if sick, and to arrange with your supervisor if you can work from home. I got sick, worked from home with my supervisor's approval, and was fired anyway for poor attendance. I should also note that this happened without my supervisor's knowledge, he only found out I was fired when I called him. Nepotism reigns supreme, and due to upper management refusing to clean house, the attitudes there were shockingly sexist because management feels invincible. I don't like listening to my boss talk about how hot other employees or employees from other companies are. The nepotism also leads to a ton of "One rule for me, another for thee" around there, and the few policies that the unbelievably unprofessional HR department has are sporadically enforced. In short, avoid working for Hatch at all costs. The culture is toxic, the benefits lackluster, and the management backwards and ignorant of the situation. The biggest takeaway I got from this is that if a company has a super high turnover- there IS a reason.

Equipment and machinery varies significantly your gonna need a fair amount of experience in pretty much all industrial maintenance including controls, electrical, stamping presses, automation, robotics, hydraulics, facilities etc. Preventative maintenance and root cause analysis are gonna be the two things that are gonna make or break these two facilities. Your gonna need to really push hard to gain any ground on continous improvement. Its a sink or swim type job with a high turnover rate. Good job for someone that enjoys pushing the limits of what they are capable of under pressure, stress and almost impossible time constraints. Within 6 years had 3 instances of vacation time denials causing Points system issues. Good fit for experienced, independent multi-craft, self starting engineers that can  implement only the most critical, bare bones, high priority and essential aspects of preventative maintenence and root cause analysis on the fly and alone to stay out of repeat faults and unsatisfactory OEE.  Definitely not for everyone.  

Remember however low you are in your life, you and your family deserve better!
Indiscriminately will lie to you and fire you stating sales are low and then post your job a few weeks later!
If you are considered "support staff" your day will be as follows:
Walk through the entrance and immediately begin to "sort" below par product from poorly managed equipment for various customers! You will often skip lunch to sort parts just to make the days truck order. 
Regardless of safety and quality, parts will be sent just to make an order.
Customer service is ZERO and this is reflected in the constant calls you will receive from ALL customers and OEM's.
Safety and quality are not on the priority list of the management team!
Remember, you and your family deserve much better than a job at Hatch Stamping and it is only a matter of time before customers begin to pull equipment out of the facility! 
You will be much better filing unemployment than taking an offer with no chance of career enhancement or security in your job / role



Ive been at hatch stamping for just over 2 years. My starting wage in 2016 was 10.00 an hour. Two years later im up to 13.00 an hour. Whats my gripe? New hires now hire in at 12.50 and after their 90 day review go up to 13.00 or more. How is this even plausable? Well basically because one person pretty much decides who gets pay increases and how much, along with pretty much most of the decisions on how the company is ran. Well hes pretty much running the company in the ground but either so many other people are blind or just plain to scared to challenge his decisions. Its a shame too because hatch really could be a top automotive supplier with the right leadership. But when a large percentage of employees know that managemets biggest concern is numbers not the quality of the parts we make, then why even bother to do your best. And they wonder why we keep getting bad parts back that made it to a customer. People need to wake up and stand up for what is right before were all punching the time clock goodbye.

It was a terrible work experience.  I was constantly brow beaten over work not being done that I had completed.  And then, praised for being ahead of other locations.  I was also brow beaten over the materials I had to do my job, but I was strictly forbidden to make any improvements.  Any suggestions were immediately discounted.  I had three bosses who didn't get along with each other.  One would give me a task and another one would get angry and give me more work to prevent me from completing anything.  I was forced to perform duties that I knew were wrong.  Instructions and materials to do the job were decades old or for operations not performed at the location where I was working, and you didn't dare point it out.  Don't ask any questions either.  Never one question asked to HR was ever answered.  There is one manager that is cruel to employees and it was really hard to watch.  When I would try to do my job, management or supervision would stop me.  Shop floor employees were great and I enjoyed working with them.

WORST MANAGEMENT EVER!!! I saw people come and go everyday.
   It can get up to 120 degrees in the factory and they wont give you anything... maybe a Gatorade.. if you are lucky... yes the paid break is nice but its 5 hours into your 8 hour shift, and only like 20 minutes long, so working in that heat is very exhausting and mentally straining. It gets so hot people pass out sometimes... they don't care. its about numbers there, quantity over quality, but god forbid you send out a bad part even though the push you to go as fast as you can.... when you arent working "hard enough" the supervisor will clap his hands at you and yell GO GO GO. I waited months for a 90 day review and still never got one. I hate going outside in the summer now because the heat gives me ptsd from basically killing myself in that Hot unbearable place. In the 8 months I worked there I passed out twice there and nobody cares about the health of the employees Awful place to work. Wouldnt with that on enemies. PEOPLE ARE ONLY ABOUT DRAMA. Management sucks.

Salary employees work well over the 45-50hrs.  Management hires experts in their fields but then micromanages them to the point of where they get frustrated and leave which is why I left.  Training is lacking.  Safety procedures are in place but no one follows them.  One employee was constantly working on machines and has a lock but has never signed off on lock out tag out.  High turnover, lots of dissatisfied employees, tons of customer rejects coming back but all management wants is parts out the door even if they are out of spec.  The people who want to do the right thing are hamstringed by management because doing it right takes too much time.  Corporate lets site management get away with anything because on paper things look great but that’s because site management manipulated the numbers to make it look good.

I am appreciative of the tremendous opportunity and knowledge obtained throughout my employment at Hatch Stamping of Chattanooga. My position required interactions with a broad spectrum of personnel, ranging from corporate to hourly production workers. I will not say my job was always pleasant because work IS work (hence the reason it is not called fun); however, the majority was extremely pleasant due to the aforementioned and their support (everyone contributed in their own way and based on their job requirements). Additionally, Hatch has great vacation/ insurance benefits that are obtained quickly for new hires and get better throughout the years of accumulated employment. 

My goal would have been to retire from Hatch; although I was allowed to have a schedule that suited my circumstances, the job was too distant from my place of residence and I had to find employment closer to home.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Forklift operator 13 salaries reported	$18.04 per hour
Production supervisor 8 salaries reported	$65,500 per year
Manufacturing associate 4 salaries reported	$17.69 per hour
Maintenance technician 3 salaries reported	$23.50 per hour
Truck driver 3 salaries reported	$29.25 per hour

Working at Hatch Stamping Company: Company Overview and Reviews

Hatch Stamping Company

Hatch Stamping Company Ratings

Popular jobs at Hatch Stamping Company

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected