Detroit Diesel Reviews in Detroit, MI Area

Pros

Given the chance to take on as much responsibility as one can handle and learn many different aspects of engineering in a short period of time. Great place for an engineer to start out since one can gain a lot of experience in a very short time. Definitely a plus.

Cons

Lack of focus from management and an inability to see and communicate short, middle and long term goals. Very difficult for management to assess accurate performance of engineers if there are no steady metrics of success defined beforehand. Not recommended as a company for the long term. Very hard to know what is expected from an individual for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay on target. Plans change so often that it is difficult to even call it a plan. Look at what other companies are doing in terms of process implementation and make a serious effort to implement. Set clear metrics for success for engineers.

Pros

Clean and temprature controlled industruial envirorment

There is a New investment in the HDEP product and capital equipment

Never had a problem spending excessive amounts of money

Impressive high end engines being produced there

Buisness is mostly assemlby, which is better than machining etc etc.

Cons

I'm sorry to say that the downsides to working at Detroit Diesel are plentiful.

Nepotism is common.

There is little room for position improvement or for high achievers because the higher level positions are taken by Germans.

It is common to find Union employees sleeping while on the job and smoking even though it was banned by Wayne county. There are a good deal of problems generated by union employees to create down time. Sometimes security and management cannot handel union employee disputes and the police are called in to the plant. Sometimes union employees scream and bang tooling on equipment to make noise. It is common to see union employees talk on their phones, read the news paper, listen to headphones while working.

The top level German management team is poor.

Last but certainly not the least the morale at Detroit Diesel is poor.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no way to fix Detroit Diesel, move your motor manufacturing buisness to a lower cost country.

Good job on implmenting global daimler standardization mechanisims for purchasing, benifits, position level and reviews.