Good Old Days? A story . . . I was at Parker-Hannifin Fluid Power for a bit over 4-years. Due to the economic slowdown in 1982, they let me go. I was replaced by someone out of sales. The explanation? His wanting to learn about manufacturing hydraulic and air cylinders. It was obvious he was losing his job in Sales. My boss came out of Sales and knew little about production planning and control. Over 4 years I made him look good by cutting inventory costs and improving distribution. So, there was no late orders and inventory was low. He started a conversation with me one time where I disagreed with what he was saying to do. Being me and knowing the job, I asked a question and he agreed with me, asked another and he agreed also, and asked one last
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Angry Bear considers the following as important: Good Old Days, history, Hot Topics, US EConomics
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Good Old Days? A story . . . I was at Parker-Hannifin Fluid Power for a bit over 4-years. Due to the economic slowdown in 1982, they let me go. I was replaced by someone out of sales. The explanation? His wanting to learn about manufacturing hydraulic and air cylinders. It was obvious he was losing his job in Sales. My boss came out of Sales and knew little about production planning and control. Over 4 years I made him look good by cutting inventory costs and improving distribution. So, there was no late orders and inventory was low.
He started a conversation with me one time where I disagreed with what he was saying to do. Being me and knowing the job, I asked a question and he agreed with me, asked another and he agreed also, and asked one last question and he agreed. The last question took him back to what he wanted me to do. It showed he was wrong. I smiled and he got a look on his face of embarrassment and a bit of astonishment and some anger. He proved himself to be an idiot.
When the recession hit, I told my group to start cutting orders if there was no demand. They did. Purchasing canceled their orders. The Division Accounting Director asked me how I was doing it. I explained to him that MRP gives us a look forward at demand. If there is no demand, we either reduce orders, moved them out, or cancel them. Our efforts kept the company at break even or at minimal profitability for 14 months. In the end, it did not matter.
Turtles Run has a Comment on Joel’s commentary Job continuity in America. I am curious, did the good old days ever exist. Turtles Run . . .
“In the old days, employers felt a sense of loyalty to their employees. They had company events where whole families were involved. Today, you are easily disposed of if the quarterly statements are below budget. Others fail to advance workers or will bring in outside talent to fill high-profile roles. Employees have realized this and have become more mercenary in their approach to employment. There is no sense of loyalty to an employer with no loyalty to its employees.”
I am not sure there ever was a good-old-days. The company always had the upper hand. My power was in my knowledge of planning and control of resources. I knew what would work because I had done it before. My boss was a desk jockey. Labor is such a small part of the cost of manufacturing. The big one is materials, and the next was manufacturing input. It is better to keep raw material rather than finished goods on hand. And also know your throughput . . .
We had the same events, Christmas dinner with my boss, bonuses, etc. Dinners, bonuses, etc. were not much compared to what you did adding value. I do not think it changed much and Reagan broke unions backs. In the end, you are expendable. Hopefully. you have a good educational background and experience where you can use it to move on to the next opportunity or so they call it such. I was always paid more in the new venture.
I do not think it has changed much after Reagan broke the backs of unions. This worsened it for everyone. In the end, you were always expendable. Reagan just made it very clear for all of labor. That is except for bankers, they need to be rescued from themselves.