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Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

TacomaJD said:
Anybody work for, or know anybody that has worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN? Good place to work?
My uncle has worked there for around 30 years. From the way he talks it seems to be a pretty good place to work.
 
FWIW: I did some contract work there off and on from 2006-2009. When everything tanked in 2008 they shut down production. They did however pay employees to go work in their communities for 3 months if i remember right then after that they laid people off but they did something to make sure they got more money than standard unemployment. Everyone there always seemed happy, no one ever really bitched it seemed. They have a KILLER cafeteria that was stupid cheap for employees (like $2 for a big ass plate breakfast or lunch). If you can get on I would say go for it. What would you be doing?
 
TacomaJD said:
Anybody work for, or know anybody that has worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN? Good place to work?

I do. Been here about 5 years.
Give me a shout or shoot me a text if you have any questions or concerns. Im terrible at checking and posting here.

Jared Sheets
(423)313-4932
 
jeeptj99 said:
FWIW: I did some contract work there off and on from 2006-2009. When everything tanked in 2008 they shut down production. They did however pay employees to go work in their communities for 3 months if i remember right then after that they laid people off but they did something to make sure they got more money than standard unemployment. Everyone there always seemed happy, no one ever really bitched it seemed. They have a KILLER cafeteria that was stupid cheap for employees (like $2 for a big ass plate breakfast or lunch). If you can get on I would say go for it. What would you be doing?

The job title is Procurement Engineer. I just wanted to know a little more about the company before applying, and just because I apply, doesn't mean I will even so much as get an interview. Interesting to hear of a layoff, not cool.

We had our slowest year ever at my current job this past fiscal year, which ended Sept 30th. A few years ago our plant alone lost $3M. They said long as we don't lose more than that, corporate Siemens is going to keep us afloat. Corporate Siemens as a whole business unit is kicking ass. They gave us free shares of Siemens stock last year at the same time we all were worried about our jobs in the power generation sector. Odd situation - "here's free money, but our future doesn't look good". Anyways, last year, we lost $7M!!! A financial black hole can only be overlooked so long by corporate. It's not just us, everyone is hurting in the generator market - GE, Mitsubishi, etc.

Siemens is trying to pull out of a lot of their operations in Germany and move their work here to the US, but they have laws like we used to have prior to NAFTA to where they can't just pack up **** and move business over seas. So, last I heard, they were planning on greatly reducing operations in Germany and bringing a lot of their big work over to us, while still keeping the doors open over there in the form of skeleton crews / fewer locations. Of course, they are closing a steam turbine plant in Iowa I think it is this year, so who knows what's going to happen. There was rumor that we were gonna shut down the whole month of December ( a couple months ago), now they are saying a lot of work is coming next year so they plan on hiring more temporary workers to cover the added workload. Craziest **** I've ever seen here. It's never been like this.

Ultimately, I will have an Associate's degree in Business Management in December, worked at my current job for 13 years come Nov 30th, worked with SAP ERP/MRP software daily for over 10 of those years and know a lot about supply chain type operations. I figure that should be sufficient to land a better job....hopefully. Komatsu uses SAP so 10 years experience with that will look good on a resume/application there. As for my job, I am stuck on 2nd shift. Nobody leaves here because it is such a good job for the area, unless they retire or one or two getting fired every year or so for being total dumbasses. When people retire or get fired, they do away with their jobs, saving money by natural attrition. Office jobs here are about the same. I don't have the connections to get in the office here. Senior office staff get their sons, nephews, neices, old drinking buddies, golf buddies, best friends' kids jobs in there instead of promoting from within. Besides office jobs, there is only 1 pay scale higher than what I make, which is a little over $3 more per hour. Not that big of a bump to have as an ultimate goal. So I do have a great job, but have hit a ceiling and am stuck on 2nd shift. I just have to remember that this is NOT the best job out there and refuse to seek other opportunities. I have time to job search, so I'm not in a desparate need for a new job since we have word of more work coming in now, but I don't want to leave this job unless it is for an equally good or better company with better pay and benefits. Having the time to job search also provides me with a little leverage on salary negotiation as well, since I am not out of work.

pbstar said:
I do. Been here about 5 years.
Give me a shout or shoot me a text if you have any questions or concerns. Im terrible at checking and posting here.

Jared Sheets
(423)313-4932

Awesome, will do. Thanks!
 
Interesting to read that. My company is now only using Siemens products in new machines and installs, getting away from Allen Bradley. They're putting me through PLC and drive training this and next week. Lol
 
Where I work we have to build what the customer wants/already has in their facilities, but we are trying to migrate to using Siemens controls. The line we are making now has all Siemens and IFM hardware. But I do have to say Siemens has one of the best HMI screens out there. Hope it works out for you on the choice you make sir!
 
Siemens has many different sectors, all are doing good except for Energy sector. We build generators that go in power plants. If it weren't for the other sectors kicking ass, we would probably have closed up shop, or had a large layoff a couple years ago. They actually let 40 people go at the Charlotte plant, which is like our big brother. Probably 60-70% of what we make ships there for final assembly. But that plant is 3 or 4 times bigger than ours and their employees make a lot more than we do because it's located in Charlotte.

They are saying now that we are going to have enough work coming in in 2019 to have to hire back a crew of temp workers to support the workload, sounds like work they pulled from the German manufacturing plants to give to us. So I'm not sure how long it will last. Since I've had no luck with any of the jobs I've put in for, I may start at Athens State University in Jan and just ride it out while still casually applying for good jobs if I see one open.

Funny story, saw that bullet high speed train deal they are building in Cali? Something like an $88 billion investment (number may be off, can't remember exact number). I was surprised to see Siemens name on the side of the train in the image. I didn't know anything about it


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Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

TacomaJD said:
Siemens has many different sectors, all are doing good except for Energy sector. We build generators that go in power plants. If it weren't for the other sectors kicking ass, we would probably have closed up shop, or had a large layoff a couple years ago. They actually let 40 people go at the Charlotte plant, which is like our big brother. Probably 60-70% of what we make ships there for final assembly. But that plant is 3 or 4 times bigger than ours and their employees make a lot more than we do because it's located in Charlotte.

They are saying now that we are going to have enough work coming in in 2019 to have to hire back a crew of temp workers to support the workload, sounds like work they pulled from the German manufacturing plants to give to us. So I'm not sure how long it will last. Since I've had no luck with any of the jobs I've put in for, I may start at Athens State University in Jan and just ride it out while still casually applying for good jobs if I see one open.

Funny story, saw that bullet high speed train deal they are building in Cali? Something like an $88 billion investment (number may be off, can't remember exact number). I was surprised to see Siemens name on the side of the train in the image. I didn't know anything about it


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I build light rail transit systems and Siemens is huge in this market. They supply DC substations, Overhead Catenary system, Automatic train control equipmemt, train control software, crossing gates and the trains. Siemens is also in the process of merging with a company called Alstom, who now owns a lot of the old GE products.


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Re: Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

Trailabite said:
I build light rail transit systems and Siemens is huge in this market. They supply DC substations, Overhead Catenary system, Automatic train control equipmemt, train control software, crossing gates and the trains. Siemens is also in the process of merging with a company called Alstom, who now owns a lot of the old GE products.


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Very cool. They have their hand in everything new technology. You may go for an mri and the machine might be made by Siemens. I used to have a desk phone made by Siemens.

Not sure if it's still a thing but I always heard they had beer vending machines in their plants in Germany.

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Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

Trailabite said:
I build light rail transit systems and Siemens is huge in this market. They supply DC substations, Overhead Catenary system, Automatic train control equipmemt, train control software, crossing gates and the trains. Siemens is also in the process of merging with a company called Alstom, who now owns a lot of the old GE products.


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Hey Chuck, who do you work for and where do you buy your rail from? :dunno:




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Re: Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

CHASMAN9 said:
Hey Chuck, who do you work for and where do you buy your rail from? :dunno:




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I work for a company called L.K. Comstock and our expertise only deals with the systems side of LRT, which means we do everything that makes the trains run and communicate back to the control room.

But, our sister company is called Railworks Track Service ( class 1) and another called Railworks Track Systems (LRT) handle the civil side. Do you sale rail or are you looking to buy?

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Just curious, I remember you said something to me years ago. My wife is the GM for Birmingham Rail and locomotive who repairs locos, sells overhead crane rail, manufactures spikes for BNSF,CSX and others.




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Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

CHASMAN9 said:
Just curious, I remember you said something to me years ago. My wife is the GM for Birmingham Rail and locomotive who repairs locos, sells overhead crane rail, manufactures spikes for BNSF,CSX and others.




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Gotchya. The railroad business is really hot right now and it's only gonna get hotter.

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Re: Re: Anyone worked for Komatsu in Chattanooga, TN?

Trailabite said:
Gotchya. The railroad business is really hot right now and it's only gonna get hotter.

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Got that right, Warren was not wrong in his decision. :dblthumb:




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