Hamilton Sundstrand – “It use to be better/ it could be again”

Pros

UTC's education benefits are excellent. If you are not using them, then get another job that pays better.

Good people working hard. One is always challenged by the work, it can be both very technical and rewarding.

Cons

Pay is acceptable but raises are few and far between, even in good times. To move beyond inflation rate you need to continually change job positions.

Work load was more manageable when aerospace was booming. With a lot of layoffs recently, the work still needs to be done, but now by fewer people so lots of it does not get completed or is not completed very well.

UTC cannot figure out how to implement its process improvement strategy ACE (Lean/6Sigma to the rest of the world). They keep trying, but with little success, creating huge losses in productivity along the way while employees are creating efficiency projects which don't improve efficiency.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Try reading "Lean Thinking" by Womack & Jones. Its only a little over 300 pages and It has step by step instructions on how to implement Lean, I mean ACE.

2. There is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns when it comes to cutting employee head counts. At our plant you passed it about 50 people ago. Can we hire them back, so we can go back to creating a good product again?

3. The industry is in a down cycle. The UTC share holders are going to understand if the stock only goes up 10% this year instead of 15%. The day traders already dumped the stock a year ago anyway.