Dematic Reviews

Pros

Professional organization that emphasis satisfaction of both employees and customers

Cons

Complicated product and service offering. Often viewed as pricey product and services but being in the industry from long time I would say bids are extremely fair and rarely if ever run over. IT/WCS not seamless across products.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to simplify WCS and software

Pros

Good people in general - also Good Challanges

Cons

Pay, Ability for Promotion, Amount of Work, Stress, Disrespect

Advice to Senior Management

Work on trying to make your employees feel appreciated and respected - take some classes on how to avoid corporate bullying

Pros

Not much other than a paycheck and some experience so you can find a new job later on. Thats about it.

Cons

The worst company I have ever worked for. Starting from day one I got speeches from my managers on why I shouldnt quit so that raised some red flags. Pay was almost insulting compared to the national average for engineers especially considering what they expect of you. There is no regard for employees or their personal lives. Management works people like dogs and there is very little recognition for all of that work. If you work for dematic you are basiclly giving them your life. It is a revolving door of new employees who are worked until they cant take it anymore and then replaced. The core group of older employees clearly are dissatisfied yet they just put up with it and it is reflected in their attitudes. I would never recommend this company to anybody especially if you have hopes of having a life or family.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop just trying to squeeze every dollar you can out of your emloyees and treat them like human beings. Dematic wastes time and money in epic proportions. Engineers will sit out in the field for weeks waiting for installation to finish while the company pays for them to be out there and the engineer has to be away from home instead of just letting them go home untik it is ready. Yet despite all of this you will get in trouble for not getting a compact car when all of this money is being wasted elsewhere. Totally backwards.

Pros

-benefits
-wide array of tools
-stable paycheck

Cons

-mighty dollar trumps everything else

Advice to Senior Management

Respect your customers and your employees

Pros

- Still many competent people left
- Perfect place if you want to make money through overtime traveling to job sites
- Industry is doing OK

Cons

- Current owners (private equity) are quick to push cost reduction (= layoffs)
- Management lacks true long term industry vision

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back visionary, smart leaders the company was once known for

Pros

It is a very challenging work environment.

Cons

The company is not transparent.

Advice to Senior Management

Be up to date with latest technology.

Pros

The company offers good pay in comparison with other companies in the surrounding area.
More stable than the auto industry.

Cons

The most talented people are not necessarily promoted. It seems to depend more on how well you can rub elbows with management.

Advice to Senior Management

Give company wide bonus based on % of profit. Project profits should be distributed to all employees to incentivize excellence.

Pros

The distribution industry will always be vibrant. Folks may be able to buy on-line rather than through brick and mortor retail, but they still need their stuff physically delivered (either to their door, or to the store). Dematic has one of the best reputations and presence in the material handling industry, with world class products and track record of positive results for our customers.

Cons

Difficult to get noticed with the frequency of senior management and ownership change over the last 6 years. Too much faith in process compliance rather than functional proficiency.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management/board focusses too much on the short term bottom line. This business is about long-term relationship building. More like an annuity that pays over time. Little personal interaction between senior management and the foot soldiers creates distrust and rumor mills. Their heart is in the right place, but the leadership style leaves a little to be desired.

Pros

Dematic has a decent benefits package. Depending on the area of the company you are in, taking vacation and personal days is pretty flexible. Overall, the employees do a good job of trying to creating a good atmosphere to work. The employee base is good at arranging and gathering donations for charities or holding events to raise money for charities. Around the holidays, employees will often bring in food or treats for potlucks.
The company uses a good system for performance reviews that get you to sitdown with your manager at least 3 or 4 times a year to talk about your work/performance. This way you get good communication with your manager and the company does a good job of making sure this is a two way conversation.
Dematic is a good place to work if you like to go to work your 8 hours then go home. They don't ask you to work much beyond your 80 hours in a payperiod.

Cons

There is next to no communication from upper management. Most imformation you receive is in the form of rumors, and it is pretty much up to you to determine what is real. On the rare occasion management does communicate information to the company, it seems that the minimum amount of information is given. While the company is good about granting vacation, there is a very structured work day and time keeping is very strict. You are asked to account for every minute of your work day which can be very tedious. Putting in extra hours does not seem to be recognized by management so pretty much nobody does it. If you are lucky and have a manager that takes an interest in advancing your career, that is good, but overall, there does not seem to be a company effort to advance your career.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate with the company. Keep everyone informed of what is going on. Don't treat the employees like children as they are adults that are more than capable of managing their work day.