Working at A.O. Smith EPC — Reviews by Employees

There are a lot of office politics. That's why I rated it a negative 5 for "work environment". My first two weeks there, they expected me to memorize facts and trivia about the company, while I was still trying to learn the ropes of my new job. Also, if you are basically a nice person, you will not fit in here.

I have worked for this company for 10 years and have watched the company decline in its day-to-day operations. The company motto has switched from "expect something special" to "Cheaper, Faster, Better".

A.O. Smith Electrical Products Company is a large company in which over the past 7 years has decided to outsource most of their hourly workers and products. At one time A.O. Smith was focused towards acheiving excellence, but during their reconstruction and elimination of plant workers across the US, the sole focus is on obtaining $2 Billion dollars in yearly gross sales.

Due to the latest fad of e-commerce sourcing for component suppliers, and the lack of communcation between marketing and the design engineering staff--AO has been subject to various quality issues. Most of the outsourced plants do not implore many (if any) ISO quality control standards. One doesn't have to go far in their research to be in contact with any consumer or distributor to find the high number of field returns from the electrical motor division. Again this is due to the production process not having true ISO QC standards that are adhered. While the Tipp City Ohio prototype sample lab has various UL and NVLAP (ISO 17025) accredidations, the acutal non-USA production plants have not shared the same policies or guidlines to date.

During all this, the CEO has yet to address the real problems internally, and has always used the terms as "soft market, hedge funds, increasing copper and steel prices" as the sole contributors to the ever rising long term debt and the loss of profits. While using the latest matrix, Kaizen, and LEAN processes, AO still strives to lower their operating costs, but sometimes these cost cutting policies are not associated with good ethical policies that keep integrity and quality in tact.

The pay is substantially below the average for the various engineering fields in comparison to local companies of the same field. The benfits are slightly above average in regards to insurance; however, retirement and profit sharing have been nearly eliminated in 2007. The EBIT earnings have never reached the 6% that was typical before 1999 due to the transistions of mergers, aquisitions, and the long term debt has gone above what the company could recover in profit margins for a 5 year term.

The employees are great and share the same sentiments and concerns as I, but are unable to convince the upper managment of these concerns internally. This is mostly because the company share holders dictate the focus and train of thought. Conducting simple research, you will find that the manager, engineer, turn-over rate is extremely high in the Juarez manufacturing facility as well with the Tipp City Ohio division.