Chrysler Reviews in Detroit, MI Area

Pros

The engineering is still enjoyable and worthwhile.
Job scope and responsibility can be significantly higher than at competitors.

Cons

Lower senior management is process rather than product oriented. Promotions in the past 10 years (the Daimler years) were more priented to preferential treatment (race, sex, etc) and process. As such Chrysler lacks product leaders and has a follower mentality.

Advice to Senior Management

Make product decisions!
Quit advancing those who are undeserving and incapable and are advanced only because of their status.

Pros

Small company gives an overall access to many functional areas with transparency, nice people,innovative products, and excellent engineers

Cons

Poor direction to developing new products and knowing what the market wants. Does not respect the expertise that well.

Advice to Senior Management

Identify the expertise quickly and develop a strong career path. Invest in people, people and people..and listen to the market. The success will follow.

Pros

Chrysler is a large company with many opportunities. You can work for 30 years and never get bored.

Cons

Chrysler does a very poor job of understanding employees' performance. Too many employees are allowed to under perform. I believe this mostly due HR policies and the work required. Meaning if a manager gives one of his employees a poor ebaluarion, he will not only have to have fill justification but also have to provide extra training and mentoring. On many cases the manager is considered at fault if he has a employee that received a poor evaluation.

Advice to Senior Management

Evaluate, set goals and requirements, and conduct reviews of performance. Real reviews. Also stop letting HR dictate who you can and can't hire and fire. So many times I have seen the manager's first choice get rejected, due to paper requirements.

Pros

I loved the products at Chrysler. The people I had the opportunity to work with were wonderful.

Cons

Disconnect between the Executive Leadership team and lower level employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate forced-distribution performance feedback scoring.

Pros

Although not as wonderful as perhaps 10 years ago, the comradery and building are tops in the opinion of most people. I've worked at all of the Big 3, and Chrysler treats their contract employees best; you don't know unless you look at the badge. I've never known anyone having an issue with time off. Some of my managers have been exceptional for granting time off for special circumstances. I cannot say enough about the improvement in morale and positive outlook brought about by FIAT taking over. The difference between them and Daimler is just night-and-day. We most definitely have a partner now.

Cons

The concept of "system engineering" seems to be lost on most. Many old Daimler bad habits still exist. Many engineers focus soley on their part (and it's cost) with little or no regard as to how it affects the vehicle as a whole. Couple that with a drive by some to further their career, at all costs, and you have a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, many of those people are in positions which grant them the power to make decisions which affect the product. Another astounding observation made by many is that anecdotal evidence trumps physics and data. Countless times has exhaustive research, testing, or analysis been wiped-out by statements like "I don't believe that" or "That was tried before and it didn't work, so it won't work now." No proof or data to back up these assertions, but they deal a fatal blow nonetheless. Organization and common procedures are nowhere to be found. We are in the 21st century and our ability to share and organize information within the company is beyond horrible. We still have many sharp and bright people at Chrysler. However, if there is no coduit or mechanism to channel that intellect, we'll go nowhere fast.

Advice to Senior Management

When you want to get rid of weeds you need to make sure you eliminate the roots too. Management changes at the top are fine. Keep in mind, however, those managers brought up like-minded people behind them. Those people are still in place and there exists a giant chasm separating our CEO from the common folk, like myself. The majors and colonels are telling the general that everything is fine and we're winning the war! However, in the trenches, the only thing preventing us from shooting each other is we can't get our guns to work!

Pros

Nice office building in Auburn Hills

Cons

Compensation has been stagnant for so long that it is no longer competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to stop treating lower level professional employee compensation as fixed burden that should be cut to the minimum. Employees are assets, not liabilities. They are investments that will payoff if developed as such.

Pros

definitely a lean organization with a much improved product strategy that will launch innovative, head-turning products in the near future. Adequate pay and benefits.

Cons

Due to financial turmoil in the not so distant past, comany has very thin resources and new management approach is company-first, dedication with no regard to work/life balance if you want to move ahead.

Advice to Senior Management

Flattening of the organization was poorly done (hopefully more senior leadership is still to be removed). Although the bottom ranks were further demoted, the top ranks were mostly spared. Review personnel more closely to identify and provide opportunities for the high potentials.

Pros

+Eight hour days
+People are nice
+Lots of Amenities (Gym, Food, Haircut, etc)
+Low Stress
+Good discounts at nearby establishments

Cons

-After two years of working there I still have not learned very much
-Many people content with doing the bare minimum
-I work on a very narrow piece of an overall project, and have no outside exposure
-People are hard to get a hold of, you must walk around the building searching for people after they do not answer there phone, return your calls, or answer their Lotus sametime messages

Advice to Senior Management

The company is huge and slow. Lazy people hide within the numbers because they know they can. Management fights engineers over petty things such as a decent sized monitor. Management doesn't realize how much more productive people can be if they have a monitor larger than a 15" CRT.

Pros

There are not enough specialists with hard, in plant experience with statistical process control and mechanical ability. So if you have this type of experience, you can excel in Suppier Quality. The available training is excellent and the corporate push for Six Sigma, Black Belt, Lean Manufacturing is strong. The headquarters is very nice and the company is poised for growth and strong sales due to unique designs, plus, the ownership by Fiat can only be a positive factor.

Cons

Employee attitudes are suffering due to many years of layoffs, low sales, and financial struggles. The lower eschelon of management is not populated with people who have leadership skills as much as they have a penchant for "telling others what to do" and having a lot of meetings. Managers get comfortable in their cubicles and aren't as involved as they should be in understanding issues. There are some bright stars however. It is just luck if you get to work for them.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire people from outside the auto industry who have component design experience so that Chrysler has the best brakes, seats, paint, etc. Quality suffers, in my humble opinion, because cheap materials are preferred over robust mechanical designs and proper material selection. Toyota and Honda quality is due to design! This makes the job of Quality, very easy with Japanese carmakers. Historically, Chrysler has tried to solve quality problems in the process instead of in the design.

Give production workers and management a monetary bonus based on J.D. Powers reviews, not the number of vehicles pushed out the door that day.

Pros

Good set of employees, empowerment

Cons

More transparency with promotions, Sr mgmt lacks vision, strategy....more involved in operations rather than leadership

Advice to Senior Management

support promotion through meritocracy rather than the old boy network if you want the company to make progress.