machine operator

senior machine operator

assembler

material handler

maintenance technician

I worked directly for the General Manager, who was the highest ranking person in our office. I supervised two full-time employees (our switchboard operator, and our shipping clerk). Both were very valuable employees to our company and we all worked together to get the job done. I prepared sales presentations, generated spreadsheets, typed letters and reports. I was responsible for the office to run smoothly.

I worked in a facility where there were both office and manufacturing on-site, so I was exposed to different types of people. Some wore suits to work, and other's got their hands dirty. This helped reinforce my belief that it takes everyone to work together to get the job done. I enjoyed watching the entire process from manufacturing the product, to selling the product, to shipping it out the door.  

The workplace culture was that you worked hard, but you also played hard. They rewarded their employees with trips and training opportunities. They stood behind their products and employees and I liked seeing that.

The hardest part of the job was working with people that had many years with the company before I started. They were strong-minded, set in their ways, and were not very accepting to newcomers. I took over a position that was vacant for quite a while and inherited a mess that I had to clean up. I was thankful to have that opportunity to be able to prove myself and earn their respect.

I appreciated being included in the hiring process, and firing process. I was able to sit in on their initial interviews and had an input on the employees that we hired to represent our company. I loved working together as a group, and all pitching in to get the job accomplished.

I was also tasked with updating the companies phone system - something that I knew nothing about. We had multiple buildings in the area so they all needed to be connected. I enjoyed the challenge of learning about our multiple phone lines and the deficiencies of our current system, collecting the data on past usage, and interviewing companies that wanted to provide us with new product. We spent a lot of money for the upgrade, but it proved to be more efficient, cost effective down the road, a change that everyone dreaded, but proved to be well accepted.

Overall it’s not the worst place to work on paper. Positions are constantly opening and if you’re willing to learn you can climb up the ladder somewhat quick. Yearly raises and occasional adjustments every 2-3 years to account for comparative rates at other companies. Three weeks vacation and five sick days to start along with a dozen or so paid holidays. But none of it is worth it unfortunately due to the disconnect between management, HR, the safety team, and employees. Policies/procedure will change without informing the effected people, coworkers are miserable and constantly trying to get each other in trouble for negligent things because it’s being rewarded with monthly gift cards, and problematic people are never reprimanded or fired unless HR sees it as potential legal trouble. Management doesn’t listen to their employees or follow up with any concerns unless being reminded for months at a time. With the amount of meetings they have you think they would figure out a way to fix some of these simple things. In these past few months alone at the location in Solon there have been two fires (which could have been prevented by telling employees correct procedures after the first), a false fire, someone lost a finger, someone dropped a ton of cancer causing chemicals, employees don’t stop machines to work on them, maintenance is always sitting on their phones in their work area and are reluctant to help, drama is nonstop for immature coworkers and the amount of times i’ve heard racist/homophobic/transphobic or just simply jaw dropping statements from people here is insane. To summarize: HR is too relaxed, the safety team is a mess, communication is horrible, and management is always preoccupied by meetings or their cell phones to do anything actually useful for their employees or company. The most messy establishment I’ve ever worked at and worst/most stressful job i’ve ever had the misfortune to have. 

The aspect I enjoy the most is working with customers to resolve their questions on equipment failures.  I enjoy explaining to them at a level they understand what the probable causes may be.  I initiate changes to processes to better serve our customers and develop service bulletins and work instructions to ensure our company goals of support are met.  
A snap shot of my typical day is: I field several troubleshooting and customer inquires.  I also answer many emails for support, I am the first line contact for my company.  I have to determine what department would best resolve their problem if I can not do so.  I handle stress well and because of my knowledge of our product I was hand picked by management to field all calls coming into the company and troubleshoot and or determine how to quickly keep the customer satisfied. I enjoy working with customers and I know always how important it is for me to be at my post for them.

I enjoy working with my co-workers, I get along with them great.  I feel that I need to be challenged more with all my training and past work experience.  I would like to see that the company is moving faster in the right direction to keep customers satisfied with our product.  The work environment is stressful to others, and people complain but I try and encourage them that things will get better.  I am use to working in a high paced environment where I can multi-task several things every day.

Like any company, ITW cooking division wants to produce as much as possible for its customer base at the least cost possible.  However, in my opinion the upper management team in place at time I was there were completely clueless what it really meant from real engineering prospective how that should have been done.  Communication was not great.  Upper plant management seemed to be afraid of corporate management and would do everything they could to not be fully honest with the corporate team.  This to some degree handcuffed middle management because of the "don't tell bad news to management" philosophy.   Management in the cooking division were not engineers and had no clue about actual basic engineering practices.  If ideas were presented that were not in there scope of knowledge, they labeled you a arrogant person.  Training meetings were very poorly communicated to the point no know knew they were even scheduled.  As an engineer, you are requested to do more than one thing at a time, but when you present that you are and can do more than one project at a time, you are told you are doing to much.  It is a very difficult work environment to succeed in.

Identifying key accounts in the region and developing action plans to gain maximum exposure and penetration into those businesses  Visiting, and maintaining constant contact with customers and prospective customers to ensure accurate understanding of their needs and wants to preferably standard ITW Commercial Construction North America offerings 
 
General account development, managing activities and converting all opportunities to closure  

Acting as the expert in the application and fundamentals of operation of all ITW CCNA products, including demonstrating confidence in the use of all product offerings 

Execute consultative sales activities to customers with focus on ITW’s added value differentiators of legacy, company, performance, durability, features and benefits 

Actively manage all distribution channels delivering our product to market in an efficient, profitable, and timely matter  Plan processes to develop realistic and achievable growth goals for the region for ITW CCNA products and services, and take ownership in delivering those same goals and other agreed objectives throughout the year remaining cognizant of prospecting, quoting and booking levels demonstrating proactive response to adverse trends

The company goal is to satisfy the customer. Depending on the supervisor, there may be some manipulation to insist for an employee to extend their working hours. I learned that the employee is only a means for a goal, but not always valued for their worth. The culture is to continue high turnover, with many temporary employees and not focus on needed training. Either you got the skill and you remain employed or you are out of luck with few training opportunities and you are fired. The hardest part is the 10 hr to 12 hr shifts that I had to endure, during the times my location had one shift. Even having to come in a few hours early to make up for a newly created shift that was inexperienced to production goals. Lack of sleep was an issue. The management lack employee appreciation and with minimal satisfying gestures. I enjoyed the individual that was my manager, which later management lowered his position to a supervisor. He worked above what he shall have done. Took his personal time to ensure production was completed. Listened more than the rotation of supervisors and team leaders that did not last long. I admired him, even though the pressure was placed upon the operators on the assembly line.

ITW overall is an impressive company. 17 billion in revenue, thousands of brands (zip pack, Instron, Hobart, Miller Welding, Paslode, RainX...the list goes on). This company focuses heavily on innovation and seeking out the top players who can bring value-added results to both the company and the stakeholders.

I've been with ITW for 2.5 years, and have managed to be the main inventor on two patents. Learned tremendously not only engineering disciplines but business strategy, project management, global innovations development, emerging market business growth strategy. In addition, due to its global footprint in more than 60 countries, I have journeyed across Asia and Europe multiple times for production launch, quality troubleshoot and overall engineering support.

Management structure at ITW can be a little tricky and hard to navigate around. This is due to the shear size of the company accompanied by its decentralized business philosophy.

Focusing on being as lean as possible, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming from multiple projects stacked up.

I work night shift so I not sure about days. The work is not really that hard. It is mostly watching your plates, listening to your press to make sure nothing goes wrong and making adjustments to the press when needed or getting maintenance. I also tend to be someone that does a lot of odd jobs and will quite often help in the office or out on the floor when needed and gets me away from running a press once in a while. 
  Our supervisor has run presses, worked in steel handling and bays before so he knows what kinds of problems can occur and knows when he needs to give someone some slack for not running well due to problems or when he needs to discipline for playing around and not doing their job. I like this fact because you can explain to him what happened to prevent you from running and he will know what you are talking about and might be able to help fix the problem.
  Most of the people on night shift tend to get along and joke around but they know when to buckle down and get to work.

A typical day for me is to  come in get all molding components of 8 machines, get 2 final parts of both assembly lines, do multiple test, weights and measurements, weld test, leak and flow test. All of this is dont to assure that the part are ok. If not then I shut the line/machine down until the problem is resolved. We do this check every 2 hours. Also I print labels for the final parts along with the molding, pring shipping labels and inventory lables. Have to get my own pallets, boxes and totes. If any operators has a quality issue they come to me first, if I cant resolve it I then go to my supervisor. 

My supervisor is great, he gives me overtime when I ask, because I do a percentage of his job also like scheduling and handling call offs making sure shifts are covered. 

There is no hard part at this job, everything is easy once you learn it, can be challenging to keep up at times but it just makes you work even harder. And hard work pays off. 

I can honestly say this is one job that i look foward to going to everyday!

Manage all Logistic aspects both International and domestic for 3 divisions now that we have merged 3 division under one name. I have learned all aspects of transportation both foreign and domestic including being responsible for creating all export paperwork including hazmat. I also manage making sure that for all imports that ISF is properly filed and the HTS database is up to date with working with our engineering department. I work closely with all vendors and maintain multiple spreadsheets that show the progress of our shipments. I am also part of a logistic council that consist of 7 other divisions and negotiate contracts with LTL carriers. The hardest part of my job is that I am the only person throughout the 3 divisions after the merger that has any knowledge of logistics. Because of this reason it is very difficult for me to take any time off and have no back ups. My co-workers that are left from the merger are the most enjoyable part of my job. Since we are a very close group we are always there to help one another since we are all wearing so many hats now. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 3 salaries reported	$18.46 per hour
Senior machine operator 5 salaries reported	$19.60 per hour
Assembler 11 salaries reported	$17.07 per hour
Material handler 8 salaries reported	$19.31 per hour
Maintenance technician 1 salary reported	$22.50 per hour

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