Takata Reviews

Pros

Takata is a place with a lot of business, and I never ever had to worry about lack of work. A lot of knowledgeable people work there. The benefits are really good.

Cons

Too much work! There are only so many programs you can track. At one point I had 3 programs (commodities) with 2 customers.

 It takes10 years of working to get 3 weeks of vacation (most companies it's 5). The compensation is very below average, but even with a lot of people leaving there are no raises- I'm not sure HR gets it Of course you should probably ask people why they left and that might help too. There is also a non-compete agreement you are required to sign, but it is really not enforceable and is not enforced.

Lots of turnover (about 35% of the people in my old group of have left in the past year), and new hires. Hiring people out of college is OK (I don't think Takata offers enough to attract the top talent), but as a more experienced person you have no time to help them out and teach them real engineering .

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people- but you have to ask them first! Pay the people who work so hard for you competitively and fairly or they will find a place that will.

Pros

People are generally nice to work with. Very young crowd.

Cons

Management and HR are blind to the obvious and blame eachother for not being able to do more for employees. Employees are severely overworked, underpaid and leaving at a rapid rate.

If employees ask for help or state that they have too much work, or are not fairly compensated, they are told not to complain. Management has the mentality "if you don't like it, you can leave--you are replaceable".

Management doesn't ask for or employee feedback. If provided with concerns they act afraid to seek approval from upper management to ask for more staff or properly reward good employees and therefore spit out rampant excuses as to why nothing can be done.

The bottom line is Engineers and customers are suffering.
Since employee costs are down due to the many recent departures, and training of new hires falls on existing engineers, management is literally unaffected by the major issues at this place so they easily turn a blind eye and let their teams hold the bag.

This situation promotes the other main problem at Takata: Inadequate Management.
Since the team is left holding the bag, they take care of the issues and deal with the painful workload so in many cases management is not involved and doesnt know what is going on. This makes them less beneficial to their team and essentially useless. There are many management people at Takata that take pride in doing as little as possible by "delegating to their team". These people are cowards that don't have the skills to do the job they need to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop ignoring your employees. They are your most valuable resources and are vital to the longevity of the company.
Stop promoting people that arent capable of benefitting the company and the teams they work with.
If you don't start changing your ways, your competition will take your best people and kick your ass.

Pros

Nice people that truly care about their job performance and the overall impact they have on the company.
401k match.

Cons

Employee morale is extremely low.

Too many chiefs and not enough indians... There are managers working for Senior managers working for directors working for Senior directors in many departments...Yes. Really.

Workload is always large with zero downtime. Many employees are forced to work on multiple programs dealing with multiple customers. Overtime becomes inevitable in order to stay a float. Many employees say they are stressed out and do not have a good work-life balance. Every department needs more people.

Merit system for raises is level and does not reward top performers any better than poor performers.
Top performers leave for better opportunity. In many cases, workers that leave aren't replaced, so the work falls on other overburdened workers.....and they eventually leave....and the cycle continues....

Compensation (pay and vacation) is MUCH less than industry standards. It takes 10+ years to attain 3 weeks of vacation.

Advice to Senior Management

If you aren't actively correcting the problems, you are cultivating their existence. Period.
Did you ever see the management rowing race powerpoint? Google it.

Pros

Pay and benefits are above average (kept 401k match when all competitors did away with thiers). Most managers are flexible on doctors appointments, child-care issues, etc...Good comraderie amongst co-workers. Low turnover rate, so not constantly training new people...

Cons

Automotive is a very 'old-school' environment, and Takata is no different. Many policies/procedures are old, and should be evaluated (just recently implemented flex-time). Japanese owned, so communication sometimes suffers; although, compared to other Japanese owned companies, Takata is very much an American-run company. Sometimes evaluates new ideas to death, and then no action is taken because of 1 possible negative outcome.

Advice to Senior Management

Most VPs have been there a long time...this sometimes results in "getting stuck in a rut." Need to break out of the old-school automotive mentality. On a positive note, they are #1 seat belt producer in the world, so must be doing something right!

Pros

Ability to work independently with not much supervisions

Cons

Inexperiance of upper management and directors who have never work anywhere else

Advice to Senior Management

hire more outside people for "fresh" ideas

Pros

-they provide a paycheck that covers the mortgage
-company match on 401k
-somewhat loose work environment

Cons

-Lack of sound technical direction and vision
-Biased treatment of employees
-No where to go (career wise)
-Job security is questionable... would not be surprised if the place closed due to lack of output

Advice to Senior Management

Hire leaders who have the knowledge, experience and vision to provide you with technically competent support and guidance, along with the confidence and guts to tell you like it is and give it to you straight.

Pros

It was a great experience learning how a manufacturing industry is operated. We were able to watch t.v on our breaks. That's about it for the pros.

Cons

Just a few....You must be very careful what you say to other co-workers, as most will inform superiors. Nobody looks out for one another, it's all about "how can I make myself look better by making someone else look bad?" Beauracracy plays a major role in this company. Management and supervisors will blme operators for their imcompetance. Soley because operators are viewed as inferior, and therefore are an easy target. Oh yeah, and you can forget about talking to HR. They are just as bad.

Advice to Senior Management

It doesn't really matter because things won't change. Maybe, get away from the classical style of management. Introduce some new and creative changes/ideas. Remember, employee moral is very important. If there is no incentive for an operator to do a good job besides losing there job, then you will lose and have lost many valuable employees.

Pros

If you are incompetent, but good at ass kissing this is the place for you. Any type of merit based performance or review is completely unknown to management at Takata. Good politicians will do well.

Cons

Management is incompetent and unethical. Completely. No exceptions. They all sport advanced degrees from mail order places like Kennedy Western University (credit for "life experience"). They willingly fabricate or change data (test results, etc.) to hide problems with airbag products.

High turnover as competent engineers leave as soon as they are able.

Senior management lacks the necessary skills to understand and make intelligent product decisions.

Advice to Senior Management

Layoff for two weeks then quit for good.

Pros

If takata is your first job right out of school, it is worth to try it out. Is a good place to learn everything you saw at school and you will be suprised of how much info is avilable and if you visit many manufacturing plants you will learn a lot about the different products. As you progress you will find that this is not the perfect company to work on a long term. In mexico the best reason to work is the vacations, you will have a month of vacations and you will always spend christmas and new years eve with your family.

Cons

As you meet new people and you start to get information and gossips of people, you will find out that this is not the place to work for in long term. Managers does not have the necessary Skills and School Background to be good at their jobs, they do not even care how six sigma works or what does the six sigma tools mean. Grown is limited to certain people with relatives on management positions, you will not be changed to other position, there is high skilled people that has over 6 years doing the same work as an engineer. Raises are very low each year, and the motivation to do a good job and get rewared is a myth. Feedback is very limited and coordinators does not want to commit with problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Go to school, study an MBA, or a master degree in manufacturing and leadership, hire managers with leadership with a degree from an important school. Move the people with many years of expirience to other area. Feedback to the worker.

Pros

They used to have unlimited tuition reimbursement, they no longer do. So really, there are no good reasons to work there!

Cons

Company information is rarely shared.
Raises are low, if at all, even upon receipt of an above average performance review.
Management is incapable of providing the necessary guidance for the company to succeed.

Advice to Senior Management

None, they cannot be helped.