assembler

engineer

application developer

product development engineer

manufacturing engineer

Schaeffler Group

A typical day can vary greatly depending on the phase of the project(s) I am working on. During the prototype phase it involves designing concepts that meet customer requirements while being manufacturable and profitable. This involves working with many different departments to make sure the project is moving forward.

Leading up to production it involves working heavily with manufacturing to ensure the part is being produced as designed so functionality and durability requirements are met. This also involves checking to see if the measurements that do not meet spec are acceptable so money is not spent fixing unnecessary corrections.

While I have learned many engineering skills, arguably the biggest skill set I have learned to is work efficiently with the many different departments a design engineer at LuK communicates with on a daily basis. This includes program management, testing, purchasing, assembly and many more.

The management style of LuK is one where the engineers get a lot of  responsibility and mainly step in when an issue arrives. As the design managers at LuK are in charge of a good amount of people, the engineers are forced to take responsibility for the design and project they are working on. I enjoy this as it really allows an engineer to grow at a fast pace.

As LuK is a very team oriented work place, a lot of time is spent working with co-workers. This allows for a close relationship with co-workers and makes it easy to ask for advice or recommendations on a design.

The hardest part of my job is trying to balance the requests from the different departments. Often on the same part multiple different departments may have one suggestion, while another department wants the same concern done differently. This can be difficult as there is not always an easy answer for which is best if the final product meets the designed specifications. However, managing this responsibility of my job is probably the area I have grown the most as an engineer.

The most enjoyable part of my job is working on new concepts. It allows me to get creative with ideas, and look for ideas that I can submit for a patent to help the company compete. It is also very satisfying to be rewarded a new project, especially if it is a new customer.

Schaeffler Group could be a nice place to work, if Management was 

really concern with the process of getting the work done.  They 

implemented a new system in Oct. 2014  and didn't ensure all the 

employees were trained.  So they started yelling and pointing fingers,

to cover their inability to manage.  Product would come off the 

assembly line, head towards inventory, only to be sent back.  This

was because the supervisors paperwork ( KOMI ) were wrong.  

Problem with production scheduling.

Then you have special individuals who have been given lead positions

and wander around into areas, they don't belong, and try to tell 

employees what to do, causing frustration and lose of product.

I'm speaking of Jackie Sutton.  She did not work in my area. She 

brought over her supervisor and told me to not adjust inventory by 

removing lost items from "stock on hand".  This is not a valid 

instruction.  When i past this on to my counterpart, she inquired 

about it and Jackie was wrong.  Jackie doesn't or ever handled

inventory.  And there's Jimmy Elder or Eller.  He controls watch 

comes out of assembly during the day.  If there is a truck due out

at a fix time, Jimmy can make it late, then blame the shipping 

department for delays.  I once wrote him up for walking into the

shipping office and removing all the "expedite" paperwork for that day

without telling any of the workers why or what he was doing.  These

documents were the original supervisor copies, which weren't 

suppose to leave the shipping office.  There was a copy machine

right there in the shipping office?  We, the shipping team for that 

weekend, were working blindly, on important shipments.  Nothing 

was reportedly done about it.  But if we had missed a shipment, it

would have been our fault.

Relatively bad experience over all. From day 1 they seemed unorganized. I received 3 different start dates for orientation that were spaced a week apart. One for the 7th, then followed up to be the 14th then back tracked again to be the 8th. Couldn’t get a response back to find out the correct date and I luckily showed up on the right day. 

From there my supervisor lied to me about my scheduling. I again got told 3 separate lies on what my hours, days, even shift would be. For my first 2 weeks, everyday I came in,  I had a new change to my already agreed upon schedule. My training length was also something I was lied to about.

Favoritism runs strongly at least in my department. Your Team Leader will allow some to get away with what they’ll crucify others for. 

We are always out of material. Always running behind due to the machines being down, always stuck doing busy work and cleaning bc of failures on managements side. Yet they’ll blame you when they don’t hit the numbers they want to see and pass blame to brown nose their bosses.   

Not to mention the “mentor” or trainer they placed me personally with was utterly useless. I got to clean and refill for my time there. And due to favorites, I was blamed for not being ahead.

The only positive thing I can say about this place is that the benefits are relatively cheap and good. And the pay is relatively good however you will earn every single penny. Somehow they get away with giving their employees no break? The only break you’ll get is at lunch but at least it is paid lunch. They’ll work you like a dog. Non-stop 7 days a week. If you are looking for a quick buck, its worth it, if you’re looking for a career, go to college before you apply otherwise get ready to stay stuck at the bottom. Good luck to anyone who makes the mistake of working here. 

Typical work day...
Come in early enough to receive good turn over from previous shift....Check employees present ...check schedule of which parts are needed to meet costumer demands...Adjust if some one is out  .
check with operators insure correct jobs are being filled.with Quality work...
Make rounds through out each departments following flow of materials are being processed accordingly
Document any down time through detailed shift notes reporting to all three shift supervisors and managers...
Hardest part of job is not being fully staffed at all times and needing more operators in place to meet demands..

Time edits ....making adjustments for employees vacations, absentees, and tardineess
Administer discipline write ups and recommendations..
Audits,,, Safety meetings
Learned to be efficient with time in a fast paced enviroment ...
Process from beginning to end by being involved in entire process of material;;;
Multi task ...Machinery functions in all departments...
Management skills with employees and upper management.
Management do not want excuses but results...
Most enjoyable part of my job.
Culture is up to supervisor to help motivate employees ..
Helping out employees and letting them see you are as dedicated to the job as they are , and seeing my crew prove themselves to the best in what we do...
Management allow and treat employees to Holiday Dinners and allow us to do the same through rewards when we do very well by setting new records or achieve our goals.

A typical day at Luk USA would consist of reporting to the assembly line five minutes early. In those five minutes I would talk to the previous shift about problems that may have occured and view which part my line would be assembling that day. I also, look to see how many pieces are in the order. If it is a small order and it isn't necessary for the assembly line to run that part all day, i would then prepare and inform the rest of the workers on the line for a "changeover" (change tooling and components for a new part to assemble) and an estimated time the changeover would happen. At Luk I've learned to use tools, change tooling, change and operate greenard presses, work at very fast paces and endure extremely hot temperatures. Management at Luk as far as the people is phenomenal. The only downfall about management is it changes frequently. Luk is a large factory so managers/supervisors seem to be constantly changing departments; sending the most skilled managers to the departments that are most in need at the time. The coworkers I have at Luk are not only amazing workers, but amazing people outside of work as well. The only negative thing is that people do not seem to stay at Luk for long periods of time. So there are constantly new workers and people to train. Difficulties at Luk really only consist of working in the hot temperatures and constantly training new employees. What I enjoy most at Luk is entering my number into the computer system at night ans realizing that my team and myself made rate for the night and were over the number of parts that were expected of us to make.

Two sisters run HR in Connecticut, frankly they are sinking that ship. They watch the security cameras all day and run out to chew you out or try to write you up if they don’t think you’re working. They look the other way for many employees clearly effected by narcotic drugs because of seniority and chase anyone new with half a brain out the door. Extremely slimy. Forget about advancing, if your boss asks you to complete a task outside of running your machine HR will freak out on both you and your boss. Everyone’s boss is HR, the engineers, supervisors, plant managers, hourly employees all hate and fear HR. Nothing can be done however, their boss (plant manager for both segments) is a family friend for many years. The corruption runs deep at Schaeffler. HR will make clearly bogus claims just to get employees worked up and remind them that they’re being watched, regardless of how much evidence to the contrary or how impossible their claims may be they will come at you with a nasty attitude and stick to it. Regularly threaten to take things like break room microwaves away, removes things like plastic forks from break room, watches for breaks to be ended on the minute by all employees except HRs daughter and her boyfriend(a team lead w/total freedom). Forget about bringing a doctors note here, you’ll still get points. Hourly people are treated like trash and paid like it as well. Going from a temp to an employee takes 6+ months.  One minute HR is nice and bubbly(probably plotting) the next they’re on a rampage, segment employees highly suspicious of drug use. Stay away. There is plenty of manufacturing in the area, save yourself by working somewhere else.

I work in the Wooster location so I can only speak for that plant.

In my opinion Schaeffler is a great company with good benefits but just like with any other company it depends where you work and who you work for.

They pay well but you'll work hard for your money. Most of the factory is very hot (about 10 degrees hotter than the temperature outside, so in the summer it gets up to 80+ degrees). 

You'll also work a lot of overtime. Some departments have been working 6-7 days a week for YEARS and it's not voluntary. If you want a weekend off you have to use up your vacation days. You can only use personal time once per quarter and it comes right out of your vacation.

You get 80 hours of vacation immediately after your 90 days, which can be taken in 2 hour increments. Every month that you have perfect attendance you gain 2 hours of ETO. You can build this time up or taking it when you get it.

The company can't keep employees and can't hire any new employees because of the overtime. They have a $5,000 sign-on bonus right now and still can't get anyone to apply. They have roughly 150-200 available jobs in the Wooster location alone listed on their website at any given time.

Production Leaders come and go. They are on call 24/7 and deal with a lot of stress so your department will most likely get a new boss every year. I've been at Schaeffler for 3 years and my department has had 3 different Production Leaders.

Schaeffler has high starting pay for engineers because they can't get anyone to stay any other way. The corporate culture is so demanding and yet so clueless that while they try to push production forward, they have little to no knowledge of the problems existing in each plant. There are several machines over 40 years old held together with duct tape and a prayer, and zero plans to replace them. For a company that prides itself on being advanced, this is remarkably regressive.

PTO is a joke, and no sick time. I had more PTO working in retail. The thing that drew me in was the high pay, but I often found myself bored and without things to do. Lots of waiting for things to come through. 

The group engineer program was not adequately explained at time of interview and hire, and is definitely a misnomer. In my case, it was a track program to be a production leader, a job that doesn't need an engineering degree and most definitely can be done better by those with actual production floor experience.

The shining light from my time at Schaeffler was the people working in the plants under the corporate level. These are people for the most part who worked for the companies prior to Schaeffler's acquisition. These people have seen their companies go from active and well known in the community to barely having any footprint. One of the higherups told the segment leaders that we were going to work the production floor 7 days a week until we met production, regardless. People deserve better than the inadequate and uncaring leadership that they are receiving.

People only know Schaeffler for their pay. There is no communication between higher ups and employees. They give excuses instead of giving raises. They will take advantage of you, have you doing multiple jobs when they don't even pay you for  what your job title is. They will approve your vacation days, only to tell you that you cannot have it off right before. I was never fully trained on my machine,  then recieved a write up for not knowing something about it. They do not care if you have a family emergency or need time off for family. You won't get your schedule until the end of the week, when it's too late to make plans IF you even get a day off. They have their picks who get away with anything.  TEAM LEADERS have came to work drunk, got caught sleeping in the bathroom,  and go missing for HOURS on night shift. Only to get a slap on the wrist. Production Leaders have no respect for the employees they rely on geing their parts out. I went 2 weeks without a paycheck only to be told it was my fault that my badge quit working (he was informed when it quit working).  If you love your family, and want to see your children grow up, and have a happy relationship with anyone, do not work here. If all you care about is money,  and can take the disrespect go for it. 

On the bright side I have met people who have became life long friends. Some of the Team Leaders are great to work for. Good management breeds good employees. 

It’s stressful at first but over time it becomes boring and easy. The Human Resources are very helpful though so that’s good. So many people come and go and the leads get tired of training people so expect that. There are different areas you can get sorted in such as Tejas, Alamo, Rodeo, Roadrunner, mission (are you getting the theme lol) and pack. I work in Tejas and I would say this is the most “fast paced” area because we have rates to meet and it’s not that serious if you don’t meet them just try to hit it once or twice a night lol. No it’s not hard to hit either and once you’ve been there a while it can be done without you trying so hard. The other areas I only know a limited experience about just that they are slower moving than Tejas. Anyways this job can be depressing if you are someone who wonders about purpose and callings in life. It can be sad thinking that this is what your life has come to but it’s okay. We all got to start somewhere and don’t worry, there are plenty of opportunities to move up if you really really want to. They always need techs and will even train you but you got to ask them. FINALLY, the pay……it’s mid, with inflation going up so should the pay but currently it’s 16.50 for day shifts and 17.50 for night shifts. Also the pay is bi weekly. In conclusion, thank you for reading to the end lol and I did this review so I can have access to newer reviews for a job I’m looking at lol. Have a good day. 

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