Weblog - Rockwell AutomationArchives - Dec. 31, 2007 and previous
| |
|
Read the original article |
Rockwell Automation in trouble - read the original article. Rockwell Automation is a leading supplier of industrial automation products - Allen-Bradley and Reliance are the major companies in the group. The current management group (CEO Don Davis et al) originated at A-B. These extracts from JimPinto.com eNews trace the news and developments at Rockwell Automation from 2001. |
Send a weblog on this topic.
Return to Weblog Index HomePage
| |
Weblog Comments - Rockwell AutomationWeblog comments will include date of submission, most recent first. |
|
Thursday, November 29, 2007
I am an employee at Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee and it appears that all this week there have been high level meetings in the purchasing organization. From what I can gather Sr. management has requested that 20 of the worst on-time delivery electronic component OEM suppliers come in and explain how they intend to improve their on-time delivery to Rockwell. One thing that does not make sense is, why are the OEM suppliers being questioned about on-time delivery, when Rockwell does not buy direct from the OEM supplier..?? Rockwell buys electronic components from distribution not on a direct basis, and the preferred distributor is Arrow Electronics. So if you’re buying the parts through Arrow wouldn’t Arrow be the company responsible for on-time delivery and stocking the products for Rockwell to reduce component lead times?? Why is Arrow Electronics, not in Milwaukee explaining to Sr. management how they intend to improve their on-time delivery rather than the OEM suppliers? Why is Arrow Electronics not held accountable for their performance since they are the supply chain and logistics partner? That would be like blaming Sony, for Wal-Mart not having LCD televisions on their store shelves….. Wal-Mart is a distributor for Sony right? You don’t go to Sony to buy and LCD television, you go to a distributor Wal-Mart, Best Buys, Circuit City. Just like Arrow is a distributor for these 20 OEM semiconductor suppliers. If Arrow is not going to deliver the parts on time then why pay them the mark up to basically do nothing? Cut Arrow out and save Rockwell money and buy the parts direct from the manufacturer since they are the ones being measured for delivery performance?? Any comments would be greatly appreciated on this topic……. Monday, November 26, 2007 I would agree. Rockwell's products are not "crappy." They are (by my experience as an integrator) reliable and dependable. I also think that they are doing the right thing by staying away from bleeding edge technology. Let someone else deal with the blood bath associated with new technology releases and then companies like Rockwell can acquire them after the techology is tried and true. Speaking of which, ObjectAutomation went through this with their object-based control system in the late 80s / early 90s. I hear they have picked up momentum recently. Rockwell should look into acquiring them. It would be a nice addition to their product portfolio. Sunday, November 25, 2007 Reference the last message. Rockwell Automation may have turned into an evil American Corporation (to it employees). But crappy products?? The individual products may not be the absolute best or at the 'bleeding ' edge of technology, but the way Logix 5000 strings every thing together seamlessly is pretty dam good. I speak as an engineer in an OEM. Yes I'm sure some poxy company did this 40 years ago and nothing is really new blah blah blah, but like Rockwell or not (and I don't like American bullies) they have one of the best integrated packages available at the moment (unless you are a total geek who has too much time to play with bits from different companies, in which case your OEM will not be around much longer!!) Wednesday, November 21, 2007 One of the previous post stated that Rockwell has the best technology. Ok, you can wake up now and stop dreaming. What Rockwell has is great marketing to make crappy products look good. Tuesday, November 20, 2007 According to Yahoo Financial Profile, here are the salaries of key Rockwell Automation officers:
Mr. Theodore D. Crandall , 52, Chief Financial Officer and Sr. VP - $ 863.00K Mr. Douglas M. Hagerman , 46, Sr. VP, Sec. and Gen. Counsel - $ 840.00K Mr. Steven A. Eisenbrown , 54, Sr. VP of Architecture and Software - $ 746.00K Mr. James V. Gelly , 47, Adviser - $ 920.00K This preparation does make it seem that a takeover is likely. Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Well, looks like the head office has been given their golden parachutes. Monday, November 19, 2007
Form 8-K for ROCKWELL AUTOMATION INC, 15-Nov-2007:
Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; On November 9, 2007, the Company entered into change of control agreements with Keith D. Nosbusch, Theodore D. Crandall, Steven A. Eisenbrown and Douglas M. Hagerman (the "Agreements"). The Agreements become effective if there is a change of control of the Company by September 30, 2010. The Agreements provide for continuing employment of the executives for two years after a change of control on conditions no less favorable than those in effect before the change of control. If the executive's employment is terminated during that two year period without cause or if the executive terminates his employment for good reason during that period, the executive is entitled to the following severance benefits: (i) a lump sum payment equal to two times (three times for Mr. Nosbusch) annual compensation, including salary and bonus, (ii) a prorated annual bonus, (iii) continued participation in medical, welfare and other benefit plans and programs and perquisites for two years (three years for Mr. Nosbusch), (iv) outplacement services, and (v) an additional payment, if necessary, to compensate for any excise tax imposed on these change of control payments. In addition, under the Agreements the executives agreed to certain confidentiality provisions. The terms "change of control", "good reason" and "cause" as used above are defined in the Agreements. Friday, November 16, 2007 The sub contracting to one-man-bands without appropriate knowledge comes about because the Rockwell sales channel rewards geographical sales. This may work for commodity items, but does not work for systems which require experience. Rockwell end customers do not get the best suppliers recommended to them - only the ones where the Area Manager gets the best commission. Sure, the products are not perfect, but the same goes for the competition - its the channels to market for the range of products and the actual value the product/solution adds to customers which needs review and managing. This is the era of mass-customisation - one size does not fit all! Thursday, November 15, 2007 I'm not sure I recognise the UK company that people mention here; but then I 've only been around for a short time. Biggest problem - stupid accounting practices enforced by bean counters. Second biggest probelm - get MPS out from under PM's who only inderstand cost saving; and who take responsibility for the completed job. This would stop them contracting out critical parts of the job to one man bands who don't do documentation or support; or fixing the cr** job they were allowed to do in the first place. I came from a DCS company; that was truely in freefall; salesmen leave - engineers leave - this how we get the pay rise we deserve; ALL corporate companes over pay/reward their top management and sales staff and underpay the techies & engineers; society will eventually learn the stupidity of the current business model Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Regarding some of the recent positive comments on Rockwell UK; these are either by "middle management" or field sales people close to the exit door that are relieved that with so many leaving, they will survive another 12 months. Come on guys, about 10 Integrated Architecture sales guys have left in the last 6 months. These sales people are good guys, each with an average of 10 years service and within them a branch manager and former Ted Schaller award winner. The management team needs to wake up and smell the coffee; the UK is in freefall and changing the puppet without changing the puppet master only fixes half the problem. Monday, November 12, 2007 I currently work for EJA and am planning an escape route as soon as possible. The senior management are all being controlled from Chelmsford and have effectively been emasculated since Rockwell took control. Despite the high integrity that safety product needs to be, they are eager to send our products to low cost manufacturing sites and then start to wonder why the quality has started to suffer. Now they are over a year overdue closing the Wigan site, they have unveiled a new ambitious plan to close us by July 2008, despite also looking to role out SAP in the UK over this time (apparently they have learnt everything that they need to know with the US disaster to ensure a smooth transition!). With every announcement about the future of the company, the bleaker the outlook. The more I learn about Rockwell policies and they way they treat their staff, the more it inspires me to leave. Reading this blog it is looking like Rockwell is probably a good company to work for if you are involved in corporate activities, but pretty bad if you are a manufacturer assimilated into the growing empire. Monday, November 12, 2007 - In reply to the "long term field person" - 6 Nov. 07 weblog: I can't believe what I have read. You must be dreaming. Thursday, November 8, 2007 I am a recently unemployed, former hardware design engineer. I worked nearly 20 years at Rockwell, and was tossed aside without a thank you. I would like to share my experience and hopefully some of you remaining engineers will question the system in place, before you to find yourself without a job. I recall working on a cost reduction project. I identified a $100K annual savings on a design, by merely substituting one manufacturer’s part for another. I was shocked to find out, that the cost reduction would not be approved by Strategic Sourcing (SSO), because “It was not an Arrow Electronics supplied OEM device”. It appears that Rockwell is bound by a contract to purchase components from Arrow Electronics, because they are a preferred distributor. I was shocked, and disappointed, and feel that my job loss is directly related to the unhealthy relationship with Arrow Electronics. Is SSO more concerned about Arrow's profits or the profits and cost savings for Rockwell Automation?? Why has no one in upper management ever questioned this “contract” with Arrow? Why would any company sign a contract that forces it to pay more for electronic components, eliminates healthy competition, and halts ingenuity? The heart of any technology company is the engineers, and when you bind the engineer’s minds with “contracts” you’re destined to become obsolete.... Thursday, November 8, 2007 Trust me, many of the comments made on this board are also being talked about with management, HR etc etc. Most of us believe that RA have the best products and services available, that is not the issue, its the fact that we could be achieving so much more with some good leadership and appropriate risk taking. Wednesday, November 7, 2007 I used to be a major Rockwell vendor and I have a suggestion for those who are unhappy with your job situation at Rockwell. You can try to resolve these issues by discussing these problems with your supervisor, HR, the Rockwell ombudsman -- or polish up your resume and find another position with a company you will be happy with. You probably won't change what is happening; so for your sake and the company's, either treat your job as just a way to make money, or head on down the road. Wednesday, November 7, 2007 At last we see some balanced views on this board ... although I'm not sure if the recent posts are provided with a hint of sarcasm or not. All this turmoil ensures that there is always a healthy job opportunity market out there for anyone employed in Sales, which can't be a bad thing. Tuesday, November 6, 2007 A senior Rockwell Software exec is also apparently leaving to join the Wonderware "dream team" as well. I "wonder" what is up there? Tuesday, November 6, 2007 As a longtime Rockwell Automation field person, I could not be happier with the path we are on! The customers love our products and it is a pleasure to be associated with a quality company. The recent aquistions of ICS and Pavilion are excellent choices that will strengthen our postion in the process industries. Keep up the good work and thanks for the opportunity to be part of a this wonderful company. I look forward to the continuation of our quality tradition that will support me in my retirement years. Monday, November 5, 2007 No doubt the Automation labour market in the UK is in a state of flux. But to suggest that it is all one way traffic and that Siemens & ABB are giggling is far from the truth. Siemens have disenfranchised their workforce by removing final salary pension schemes, and by radically changing sales guys job with little consultation i.e. geographic roles to vertical industry roles. 3 Siemens guys have joined Rockwell UK in the past 3 months. Seems they're not happy either! No doubt Rockwell, Siemens & ABB are all world class organisations. Perhaps job rotation has just begun to cross company borders. Friday, November 2, 2007 It seems really funny to me that Rockwell constantly state they want to reduce costs. Yet to do this, surely they need to keep the good people and get rid of the wasters. Instead it is the other way round, the good ones are going, whether it be through redundancy or resignation. Come on, you're not telling me that the management can't see this happening. The company is in demise. Too many dead legs, clinging on to nothing and not enough good management that have got the guts to make real decision. I wonder how the "jobsworth's" feel now, knowing that they too are on the redundancy list, with no-one to help them find another job because they've made too many enemies along their way! Tuesday, October 30, 2007 It seems as if all management within Rockwell don't know what they are doing! Here at EJA we have so many secrets going on that it takes a leaked email to tell us we are to be made redundant, to make the management eventually let us know! Are we going to be told on a Friday not to come in on Monday? Is this how they are going to treat their loyal employees? By the state of the Redundancy Package we will receive, and the "resonable reason" as to why we should get a top-up payment from the Rockwell "redundancy fund", I don't have much hope of being here at Christmas. It's rediculous that such a high-profile company is treating its staff like this. My advice: If rockwell is to take over the company you work for, get a Union quick! What's the worst that could happen? They shut it down? Well, they will do that anyway. Tuesday, October 30, 2007 It seems that the Rockwell Automation UK "soap opera" continues with a change of leadership. Taking the Dallas theme a bit further, it seems that Bobby Ewing just got shot when we all know it should have been JR (RJ)! Monday, October 29, 2007 I could certainly post my own grief about the pains of my position in Rockwell. But I wanted instead to send a positive note out to the folks in purchasing and manufacturing. Most of us in the field think the horrific problems we are having with parts is due to poor management, not the skills or dedication of the hands-on workers. I know purchasing has been all over the place in reorg (at the end of the year when we are most busy, what MBA idiot thought that reorg schedule up?) and they are still working as hard as possible to get us parts. Meanwhile management thinks getting us parts in 8 weeks from order is going to let us keep customers from going to other suppliers, just by telling them we are switching to SAP. We have hoped for a couple years that senior management would reshuffle and get rid of the deadweight failures that they took from other corporations; but we're getting tired of waiting. The middle management we work with have their hands tied by those deadweight people who manage by spreadsheet and have never gotten their hands dirty. Anyway, I hope it helps your personal mindsets at least to know that most people in the field do know where the blame lays. Monday, October 29, 2007 Rockwell Automation UK lost two more talented sales guys this week. Not since the cold war has defection been so prominent. Siemens, ABB & Invensys must be having a right good giggle at us now. Senior management really don't seem to want to nip this in the bud. But, why would they? These sales guys didn't share the same ideas as management. Seems I need to update my CV too. Monday, October 29, 2007 Rockwell UK management seem to have come up with a solution regarding the talent that is fast leaving the organisation - they are hiring people that they made redundant from the UK organisation a few years ago! Being here is like being part of a soap opera, but you just could not write this stuff as people would not believe it. Maybe the guy coming back never really left, maybe it was just a dream, like Bobby Ewing and Dallas. Sunday, October 28, 2007 Rockwell Automation in the UK is in freefall. We have lost and continue to lose the best talent we have for all the reasons mentioned in previous blogs: lack of leadership, locally (UK), regionally (EMEA) and Globally. It seems incredible to us that senior management cannot see the issues. Siemens and ABB continue to outgrow us and now they pick up the dis-illusioned employees to fuel that growth. Recently we have won the biggest single order in the Companies history, and yet no-one wants to congratulate the services team because that would be harking back to the team that truly made the UK grow. Get back the leaders who managed to inspire us (if you can ). Or find some new talent fast before it really is too late. The products and services are the best in the business. The current leaders are probably the worst ! Friday, October 26, 2007 So with the VP of Standard Drives moving to global sales, and the man in charge of Drive Systems moving to Cleveland to be the new VP for the Logix group, could the Drives business be up for sale? Friday, October 26, 2007 As a long term employee of Rockwell Automation UK, it saddens me to hear that two more good sales guys have quit this week. Siemens and ABB can take their pick of our better guys and we are seeing people leave almost every week. Nothing seems to be happening to stem the bleeding, so I guess I had better update my CV too. Thursday, October 25, 2007 Rockwell continue to remove cost from their operations without actually having anywhere to go to grow their business. If they really are intent on long term growth they should be investing in creating a culture of trust and honesty throughout the organisation. The CEO is gearing up to collect his pension and share options before he moves on to life on the golf course. His legacy and continued destruction of the company morale is a disgrace to the legacy of the A-B brand. Tuesday, October 23, 2007 Well it seems to me that if Rockwell management wants to build more product in Twinsburg, why don't they take that Arrow in-plant store out and replace it with manufacturing equipment? Is Twinsburg a manufacturing facility, or an electronics parts storage facility? Those Ford execs should know, the in-plant store concept was introduced in the early 1900's by Henry Ford himself. Why is Rockwell using a concept that is over 100 years old today, when we are supposed to be so high tech? You mean we have men standing in a cage to fetch parts so we can build product? Why are we always line-down if the Arrow store has all the parts we need? It does not make any sense. What are all these black belts doing? Do they not understand "supply chain"? Why build a plant in Mexico when we have manufacturing space in Twinsburg being used to house our suppliers inventory of parts? Tuesday, October 23, 2007 We feel for our brothers & sisters in England. No matter where you are, or what language you speak, we all share the same hopes and dreams...to provide for ourselves and our families, to hopfully give a better life to our children. It seems so unfair that the rich get richer off of our backs and out of our pockets. Our fellow employees in Twinsburg, Mequon, the DR and Dublin will all experience what you are feeling, and that is the plant closing and moving to cheap labor in third world countries. We will also be handed less than acceptable severance packages. But the stock holders will be happy. To all of you stock analyst blood-suckers out there, keep your eyes on this web site, you'll make a fortune. Monday, October 22, 2007 Hey...Jim Pinto ...why have you not commented on any of this?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - Referring to the 12 October comments: Rockwell should be shot for what they've done to EJA Engineering in England. EJA was a thriving business, with employees that were completely committed to seeing it do well. Then Rockwell took over and told us that everything was going to be OK; and why should they change a company that works well and is making profit? It was written into the buyout contract that it wasn't to be touched for 5 years after purchase. They did leave us alone, but as soon as the 5 years was up - wham! bam! The axe fell, and they began stipping the place of anything good - sucked out the lifeblood. They left employees feeling deflated and wanting to leave. And now this - we all expected it eventually, but Rockwell has left me with a sour taste in my mouth, bitter about the way they treat people, whilst smiling when they're face to face with you. Like someone else has already said - shaking your hand whilst holding a knife in the other. Friday, October 12, 2007 Rockwell factory at EJA in England is closing and production moving to DR and Poland. The employees, some of who have been here over 25 years are being treated shamefully. Rockwell is actually paying them £1 ($2) over the Government minimum of £310 ($620) for every year worked. Just shows what a very rich international company thinks about their workers who have built the company up. Never mind, you may be next. Thursday, October 11, 2007 Why build in Mexico? Because it will cost Rockwell much less to build it there, that's why. We charge the customer the same price (if not more), we pay the labor $6 an hour vs the $10 to $12 they are paying you. The Mexican workers will not get any kind of pention plan or benefits equaling what you get...more cost savings...even higher profits for Rockwell, which translates into big revenues for the stock holders. You just don't get it, do you? The new management is not there to make your lives better in Twinsburg, they are there to clean house. They will do what ever is necessary to optimize operations then move it out of town, to warmer places Mexico, and the shareholders will be thrilled. Start looking for a new job now. The Ford fellows will move on, you will need to do the same. Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Well it seems to me that if Rockwell management wants to build more product in Twinsburg, why don't they take that Arrow in-plant store out and replace it with manufacturing equipment. What a joke. Is Twinsburg a manufacturing facility, or an electronics parts storage facility? Those Ford execs should know, the in plant store concept was introduced in the early 1900's by Henry Ford himself. Why is Rockwell using a concept that is over 100 years old today, when we are supposed to be so high tech? You mean we have men standing in a cage to fetch parts so we can build product? Why are we always line down if the Arrow store has all the parts we need? It does not make any sense. What are all these black belts doing? Do they not understand "supply chain"? Why build a plan in Mexico when we have usable space in Twinsburg being used to house our suppliers inventory? Tuesday, October 9, 2007 As a new blogger here (from the UK) I share some of the views expressed by current and ex Rockwell Automation employees. The biggest problem is one of management by fear and of compliance. Non-compliance will not be tolerated and recent management placements throughout the company reflect this. All the leaders have gone. I knew it was time to leave when a manager said to me that you have to learn to live with giving messages to the employees that you don't agree with yourself! Best thing that can happen to Rockwell is that they finally get acquired for their PLC business and Allen Bradley brand - nothing else they have is worth anything. Sunday, October 7, 2007 Westerville and Eden Prairie facilities are closing while opening new manufacturing in Mexico. The new management in Twinsburg continues to push "customer satisfaction" by getting less than average quality products in their hands faster, they make no mention about manufacturing staying in Twinsburg. Oh sure, they may claim the investment of capital equipment as showing their commitment to Twinsburg, but machines along with people can be moved out the door. Has anyone noticed all of the salary-laden black belts focusing all of their attention to PCB through-put? The volumes of boards they are pushing now have A LOT of hidden cost due to rework and repair, but you don’t see them trying to stop any of that; and the Ford boys know it. The only thing that matters now is making the throughput numbers high, so that they can sell us off. Top management should be ashamed to show their face to the people who they stabbing in the back. You have three hands: one shaking mine, one with a knife, and the other in your very fat bank account. How do you sleep at night? Saturday, October 6, 2007 All Rockwell manufacturing will be done in low cost countries in a few years. Start looking for a new job people. Monday, October 1, 2007 I have heard some industry "rumblings" regarding possible changes in sales force responsibilities for Rockwell's people namely, dividing sales responsibility between systems-only and components-only individuals, similar to others in the industry - could be good for Rockwell in the long run - anyone else hear of such changes and what they are comprised of? Tuesday, September 25, 2007 From a Society of Manufacturing Engineers release, June 8, 2005: "Plant Tour - Ford Motor Company's Cleveland Engine Plant #2 in Brook Park, Ohio is one of the most successful and enduring examples of lean manufacturing in the United States." Odd isn't it? They claim it was successful and enduring. Yet two years later it and the others are closed. This inspiring leader is now is charge of 3 of Rockwell's facilities. Well, make that 2. They've already announced the closing of one of them. Hmmm. Maybe "lean" means fewer, by elimination? Thursday, September 20, 2007 Seems like everything is changing, except for the purchasing practices at Rockwell. Our component supplier can be late and shut down production, time after time, but yet they are not held accountable. Who ever heard of having a supplier put their products in your facility like Arrow does?? What about a true Kan Ban supply chain system, are these Ford guys not looking at that aspect of the business or does all the pressure fall on us production guys? Purchasing management gets the perks! What ever happend to ETHICS? Seems like a lot of back scratching going on between purchasing management and the suppliers. Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Don't kid yourself...Steve was not there to thank any of the hard working people who have been putting in twevle hours day, six days a week. He was there to give the "Ford" boys a pat on the back for doing such a good job. Twinsburg had the largest number of shipments ever. It did not matter that poor quality is at an all time high, it only matters that we had the largest production "numbers" posted. How nice it will be for the Ford boys...they will be getting a nice bonus for getting those numbers up while quality goes down. The people who are being forced to post those numbers will not receive any bonus this year as the CSMIP stands at a negative number. Only a few months ago the CSMIP was up around 3; now its not, I wonder who is doing the creative financing? We have the largest through-put ever but the bonus for the factory workers is in the negative....hmmm. It should be noted that other departments like human resources will enjoy a nice big fat bonus as their CSMIP stands over 5....more creative financing. What ever happened to ethics & Sarbanes Oxely? Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Steve Eisenbrown paid Twinsburg a visit. Could have been a regularly scheduled one, or it could be in response to all the complaints that have been going on. Not sure. But he went around thanking employees for their dedication and all the overtime they have been putting in lately. However, if anyone would have wanted to voice their opinion on anything, it would have been very difficult to do considering the fact that he had the New Plant manager on his heels along with our New Director of Operations along side as well. I would imagine they were there in case someone would have said anything derogatory against them, considering they are the ones everyone has been complaining about - the "Ford" guys coming in and disrupting the whole business. Oh, by the way, Westerville is closing - hence, another "Ford" plant being shut down by the same guy that was involved in 4 Ford plant closings. Now he's making his mark at Rockwell. Friday, September 14, 2007 This is becoming a place for people to rant, and that truly is a sad state of affairs. Regardless of the need for change, global mindsets, shifting economies, competitive landscapes, blah blah blah, the bottom line is that Rockwell have very poor senior management. The factors previously mentioned are prevalent in any business; it is management's job to figure out how to navigate them in a way that inspires employees and gets the best return on that human capital. Rockwell continue's to fool themselves on how well they are doing. Sure, look at the growth in Europe, but check out the European manufacturing economy and how Siemens and Schneider are doing (Much better than RA actually). What about those fantastic acquistitions they have made that have virtually dissapeared, their revenues dimished significantly, or struggling with integration into Rockwell culture? What about the Industry focus that has virtually been dismantled as it failed? This is a Company that is chasing the need for continued share price performance by concentrating on operational improvements and a wafer-thin veneer of spin marketing. For the sake of a very loyal workforce, PLEASE:
Thursday, September 13, 2007 - comments on previous blog - "impressed by Rockwell focus on performance, customers, employees, etc.": Which Rockwell are you talking about. It's is not the same one. Commitment to customers means giving them a high quality product, which does not come out of Twinsburg. Commitment to their employees cannot mean keeping them on 12 hour shifts until they get sick or quit - like over a dozen have done so far. If you have "little or no connection with any manufacturing divisions in Rockwell" then please don't comment at all, especially about manufacturing operations which you obviously know nothing about. But if you were from Ford (and not Siemens) that would make you an expert. What you saw was "very professional leadership, respect and acknowledgement for human and intellectual capital and a desire to be a global leader". What?? What Rockwell management wants is to be leaders of the universe, not leaders of people. They have NO RESPECT for their “human capital” (spoken like a true Ford manager). Their idea of respect is having me get my kids out of bed at 2am, get them to a sitter that I have to pay extra now for their 'inconvenience', then get to work by 3am. When I get home after a 12 hour day, I see my children looking like zombies because they are not able to sleep a whole night through. They are tired, their school is calling me to say they are not turning in assignments or paying attention in class. These were good students at one time; so what happened? Ford happened, that's what - and our senior VP is allowing it. I should also mention that I was going to school while I worked full time as getting my degree was important to me, but not to our management. I was told I had to make a choice between work or school. So I chose work because my "human capital" kids had to eat. You continue, "Remember, as we get more global and as the world gets more competitive, we are all faced with a very different set of realities, etc." Wow, what a load of crap! Once again, spoken like a true idiot manager who was told to say something like that by the higher-ups. Change is not easy? Really? NO KIDDING! What about changing the way you address your "human capital"? How about lifting their spirits and rally the team with true vision instead of an insincere handshake and a slice of pizza? Change also means acknowledging that you made a mistake and are willing to fix some of the bad decisions you made. "Professional" leadership would do that. Thursday, September 13, 2007 Question to person who posted previous blog: You came from Siemens to Rockwell. Why did you leave after 2 years? Thursday, September 13, 2007 Hi folks - this is my first time here and after reading the responses on this blog I thought of sharing my two cents. I joined Rockwell from Siemens and was with them for two years. During this time, I saw of lot of Rockwell and was impressed. Impressed by their focus on performance, focus and committment to their customers and employees. I will confess that I had little to no connection with any manufacturing divisions in Rockwell and so cannot comment on that. What I saw was, very professional leadership, respect and acknowledgement for human and intellectual capital and a desire to be a global leader. I left the company for another opportunity but sometimes still wonder... I am sure there are negatives too, as so many of you cannot be wrong, but I did want to let you all know of some of the positives that I saw during my two years with Rockwell. Also, what you might see in Rockwell on the manufacturing front may not be any different from any other large manufacturing operations. Remember, as we get more global and as the world gets more competitive, we are all faced with a very different set of realities and challenges and thus changes are imperative. I would urge you all to keep that in mind. Change is never easy, but is necessary for continued viability and growth of the company. Wednesday, September 12, 2007 On a nice summer's day, when purchasing in Twinsburg is stressing and working under great pressure to bring SAP up live in the Twinsburg plant, our Director of Global purchasing and Director of Strategic sourcing are on the golf course all day, with Arrow and the OEM reps winning big prizes, eating steak dinners, and winning expensive gifts. How fair is that to the rest of us employees (in purchasing) who are down in the trenches, working hard to make Rockwell successful? What ever happend to ethics? Big Biz = Big Favors it seems. Any gifts for us little guys at the bottom? Tuesday, September 11, 2007 A good business decision to close the Westerville plant? Gee. Didn't they say it was a good business decision when they moved some product lines down to Westerville from Twinsburg last year. Hmmmm...maybe it's a better business decision to move it all back to Twinsburg now. Aha! That's it! It's one of Ford's better ideas! Tuesday, September 11, 2007 It was announced on Monday that the Westerville facility will be closing its doors by 2008. Products manufactured and repaired there will be moving back into the Twinsburg facility. They called this a "good business decision", but the employees in Westerville who are losing their jobs would beg to difffer. Stay tuned........ Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Oh No! Do you mean that there are other companies are like Rockwell? Gosh, I am just a pinhead who works in the factory and thought the grass was greener somewhere else. How silly of me. Brand labeling, what is that?? Gosh, now that is the first time I have heard of that in the 20+ years I've worked here. R&D? Wow, have we been cutting that back too? And what is Offshore? Gee, us factoreee folk ain't as smarter as you un's trin' to figger' out BIG biznez.... Sunday, September 9, 2007 The comment about setting up another blog was not meant to upset anyone but I really believe you will get more "hits" have a specific site just for that...just my opinion. Again, It's terrible when companies do not treat their employees well. However, do you really believe things are that different at many other companies, including the automation competitors to A-B/Rockwell? I can answer that, they are not. Most are outsourcing everything or moving production to offshore facilities...it's just the way big business is these days. The big difference I see from Rockwell is that they are giving up on their R&D to a large extent in some of their key areas and instead just brand labelling products. Saturday, September 8, 2007 The word Quality on the AB logo should just be changed to Quantity. It would be a subtle change and Quantity would reflect the current vision and goals of management. It could really be a boon for tech support as well. "I'm sorry your controller doesn't work sir, but have you read our logo lately?" ;) Saturday, September 8, 2007 - To the person that wrote, "I feel badly for all of the people who work for Rockwell in the manufacturing side of things.I would like to get people's opinion on the actual automation business.": You want an opinion on the automation business? What do you think will happen to the Rockwell business if the largest manufacturing facility (which is also their biggest money maker) closes down? Do you not realize that you are getting inside information from these people that you are telling to "go write a blog?" Do you now, or have you ever, worked at Ford because you certainly sound liked that. Thursday, September 6, 2007 - In response to the Sept. 5th posting: Newsflash…without the manufacturing plant in Twinsburg the “business” of delivering products to customers (as it stands today) would seriously impact the “business” you mention. You want discussion to go a different way? You want opinions? Well here are a few: Customers who are unhappy due to the lack of the quality they expect OR timely receipt of the product promised will go elsewhere to buy. Should the Twinsburg facility continue on the path it is on today, the “business” will suffer as customers shop elsewhere for “innovation”. How long can Twinsburg stay this course? Who knows…at the moment they are focused on pushing as much product out the door as they can, quality is taking a back seat. The new leadership proclaims they want both quantity & quality but their actions speak to quantity only as they seek to cut every corner possible while hoping to stay under the radar of customer dissatisfaction. Ford & Chrysler suffered the same problems…poor quality & lack of innovation. By the way, some of the new leadership in Twinsburg that came from Ford closed down several of their facilities before coming to Rockwell Automation. Perhaps history will repeat itself as they drive away their experienced employees and customers. They continue to move more products manufactured in Twinsburg and Dublin to the Singapore facility. Much of the AB brand products are manufactured and brand labeled by other smaller companies. Should Rockwell turn into a software company only…God help us all. I deal with their software everyday, and everyday I am looking for a patch to help me do my job. The Twinsburg manufacturing facility is partially automated with AB products & software. How ironic that an automation company has what they call a “World Class” manufacturing operation but they cannot fully implement it in their largest manufacturing plant. Why? Because it is too costly to purchase and maintain. Like many of the other blogs posted here, I am an “internal” employee and we have started a blog….HERE. Pay attention to the “thread” being communicated here. The “direction” of the “business” winds blowing through Twinsburg at the moment will impact the rumors of ABB, GE, & XYZ as management drags us down the drain. Thursday, September 6, 2007 Actually, Rockwell also owns the market in Australia and New Zealand. I work for a company that supplies components to both Rockwell and Siemens Energy and Automation and I have a understanding of both companies. Siemens customer base in North America usually tends to be the big OEM machine builders who sell to customers globally. The reason being is that Siemens tends to have more sales and technical support offices around the world- which equals better support globally overall for the customer. Also Rockwell tends to be more of a "brand labeling" company than Siemens. They brand quite a bit of their core and non core products. Siemens tends to take the attitude that they make every thing from the micro chip to the dishwasher, thus large scales of economies when it comes to being able to draw upon different technologies and resources. Wednesday, September 5, 2007 I feel badly for all of the people who work for Rockwell in the manufacturing side of things. It seems that there are two parts to this thread: one about the business side of Rockwell and another about internal manufacturing issues. I would suggest one of the internal employees should start a blog... I would like to get people's opinion on the actual automation business:
Thursday, August 30, 2007 As a Twinsburg employee that has been there for over 10 years, I have seen the rise and fall of the AB logo and what it stood for. I have witnessed several elders get "cut due to financial status of the company" within two years of retiring. I have seen too many good workers - hard workers who believed in their job - finally give up and find a better job elsewhere. Worse yet, I am currently seeing people who are struggling to make it financially, physically and mentally for themselves and their families while trying to walk the Twinsburg red line. I feel like the Jews waiting their turn to be slaughtered. It's just a matter of time before I look at someone wrong, take too long in the bathroom, say the wrong thing, or - god forbid - don't address the upper management with the utmost respect and glory that they feel is deserved and not earned in their possition. What is sad is that my family depends on this job and they know it, and hold no reverence back about throwing in our faces about how many Ford employees are just chomping at the bit to get my job. I am tired of the arrogant, self rightious, self centerred, overbearing, and over all ignorant Ford boys. They walk in and openly demand "order and respect" like they are on God's front steps. They still dont have an idea of what we do here, or the full process. On top of all of that, you have a head HR rep that uses personal opinion to make her final judgement call over whether or not your excuse for not doing mandatory overtime is acceptable or not. And let me add that all the people that I know of that have gone to this HR person have been flat out without further reason been given a "no" for legitimate reasons that should not be passed by. So much for the family oriented company that AB originally stood for. How many people are going to leave before Rockwell International realizes that this was a big mistake? How many children are going to school or getting home from school with out their parents or grandparents to greet them, because of mandatory overtime with no notice? How many of them are going to be forced to go to a sitter that the parents aren't comfortable about leaving them with, but have to? And how many elderly parents are going to be forced to be with a sitter that they don't know, or god forbid, have to go into a home? My final question is how much of these children and elders are going to experience abuses that could have been avoided with an ounce of compassion from Rockwell? I'm glad that I dont have to face your self-rightious God at the end of this day. How about you? Wednesday, August 29, 2007 In response to the Aug. 27th (Twinsburg) weblog...you forgot to mention the great improvements made by the "Quality" department...smocks. Many years back everyone had to wear a smock that didn't do anything except cause safety concerns so they got rid of them and it was probably a great cost savings too. Each employee had to have 3, and there were approximatly 400 employees. Enter stage left the latest, greatest quality idea, hey lets get smocks again! The new quality guru they hired for big bucks made his first executive decision. Not sure if the Ford fellows were just kowtowing or they just didn't know any better when they should have stood up and said NO! They won't add any value to the product but we'll look really good for when tours come through. I wonder how much these things will cost the company? Enough to give one executive a nice raise and bonus. The concept of quality does not exist in Twinsburg, only a dog and pony show. While they cut costs by taking away employee benefits, they do not reinvest it in their people or their product. The word "Quality" that appears under the AB logo is a joke and will soon pass into history. Tuesday, August 28, 2007 It is true that Keith Noshbush has basically put us on the map as far as Industrial Automation is concerned. But the latest step he has taken as far as hiring an ex-Ford plant manager to be his Director of Operations for his manufacturing facilities was a dire mistake. This man has been a part of 4 Ford plant closings. He has come into Rockwell swinging, but only to cause a lot of tension, anger and animosity among the employees. Several good employees have left due to his flurry of changes. Without any regard for his employees or their families, he institued mandatory overtime (changing daily), brought in other ex-Ford employees from failed facilities, and basically has his cronies give off this personna that: "if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you in the ass. We ARE NOT A UNION FACILITY, so we can treat you how we wish." They basically change the rules on a daily basis. They have thrown people onto shifts that they have no desire to be on, have taken away money from these people and expect them to smile and take the beating. Keith, if you want to save your facilities and reap the rewards that you have been gaining for the past few year, I suggest you get your butt down to Twinsburg and see what's really going on. Talk to the PEOPLE whose lives are being turned upside down. You've lost a lot of good people with your poor decisions of late. If you want to keep seeing your stock rise and customers knocking down the doors, you need to nip this in the butt before it's too late. Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - Referring to the weblog below (Twinsburg facility unrest): I worked for a UK facility and all the same things are happening there. Our production people tried to bring in the unions, only to be told by Rockwell that they would close us down if they didn't "stop this nonsense". If we'd have know then what we know now, we would have realised that it didn't make a scrap of difference, as the facility will be closed shortly anyway. Maybe we would have come out with a better redundancy package? Ah, the redundancy package. I was a long-serving employee there a long time before Rockwell got their grubby little mits on the place and sucked all the life blood out of it over the last 5 - 6 years. A lot of the experience has gone - redundant - and all that is left are a bunch of idiots who have no clue as to what they're doing. It makes me sick to see a good company go to waste. Temps training temps, people constantly coming and going under suspicious circumstances, managers who are thick and bully their employees into doing things that aren't ETHICALLY correct, and that's just from the top of my head. I couldn't wait to get out in the end but I wasn't leaving without the money, however. Why I waited, I don't know - the package was an abolute insult. Monday, August 27, 2007 Thank you for this weblog. You are correct when you say that this blog may be the only place to safely vent. I too am a long time employee in the Twinsburg facility that has been beaten down in spirit as we witness the "necessary" changes taking place. The changes listed in previous weblogs are all true. Keith Nosbusch should start by giving the"lowest" level employees a raise. We stand on our feet for 12 hours a day and it would go a long way to compensate us. We realize that we are the "employee" and must take orders from management, but what the heck do you think FORD is doing? Come now. Do you think we are really motivated when we are told to "do it, or there's the door"...or..."we can replace you"? Eight employees have quit in the last two weeks...good employees...people that were trainined. It is so productive when your "full time" employees quit and are replaced with untrained temps that will save the day. Good, skilled machine operators need many months of training to be productive, but they don't care. We'll just keep going as we have been, temps start training other temps in just a few days! QUALITY! Our outgoing quality has been steadily getting worse for the past four years, but I can see with FORD's most recent demands on us, it will greatly improve. How unfortunate for this country as a whole as we follow in the footsteps of other companies like ENRON. The greedy SOB's at the top...while you keep cutting costs on the lower levels, you continue to hire upper level managers...and black belts. Did I hear someone mention "UNION" lately? Twinsburg brings in 60% profit on the automation side of the business, but for how long? Why should management care...their stock options will keep them fat and happy for a lllllong time. I may not have money, but at least I have a clear conscience. Management may laugh at this, but remember...what goes around comes around. I hope they can buy a lot of happiness with all of the money they save. UNION...Now there's that word again.... Tuesday, August 21, 2007 The simple fact is that Rockwell is a good company but it has very very poor management. The people that had the vision have gone, either hounded out or they just gave up trying to conform. This is now a place that to succeed you have to salute and do what is expected without question. Cost cutting is NOT the issue its the fact that this is taking place without consultation and with poor leadership. Bottom line is this is a one trick pony, the Company has tried many times to diversify but it always gives up whenever the PLC business may be impacted, the result is a culture of fear and conformatism. New leadership is required and calculated risks need to be taken and this Company can be great. Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Rockwell Automation is known as "COCKWELL" among the employees at the Twinsburg, Ohio Facility. Why? They have been screwed so many time in the last ten years by the money grubbers. The question isn't when will they do it again - it's what will they do next? The benefits cuts have been many, from pay raises to insurance and EVERYTHING in between. The long term employees see 0-1% raises. Why? So new hires can catch up. I have spent 28 years with this company and had to earn insurance (Vision, Dental, Health, Mental, Drug Abuse, Short Term and Long Term Leave, to name some), vacation, call-in absence privileges. Now new hires get benefits handed to them after 90 days. Long Term employees have seen cuts of Vision, Dental, a weeks vacation was lost, pay raises, harassment to get back to work during medical leave. Twinsburg has a doctor on retainer who will sign a return-to-work slip when he/she has never seen the patient or spoke to the person's own doctor. That person returns or loses their job. Why haven't I left this organization? Because of my age. I pray that the younger people get the hell out while they are young enough to find better working conditions. Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 13:07:15 - Responding to the weblog Tuesday, July 31, 2007, "In light of the predominantly negative views on this blog, let me add a different perspective." I have no idea who this person might be but they do not work in the manufacturing area. They are probably a part of the sales force that enjoys doughnuts and coffee delivered to them every day for free while others are working their mandatory 7 day weeks. This person also thinks that Keith is doing a great job. Well, I don't. He has allowed mid management to hire a couple of people who ran the Ford plants they were in charge of into the ground and put them in charge here in Ohio. In my opinion, I think the 19% raise that Keith got last year is entirely out of line with his performance, especially since the rest of us got 2%. I've heard people say that they are glad they didn't work here when it was Allen Bradley because they would have hated to see the decline of Allen Bradly as it morphed into Rockwell Automation. Stolen pensions, "performance" raises that don't keep up with inflation, and shabby treatment of employees are only parts of the problem. The mandatory overtime was implemented as kids were getting out of school for the summer. Family vacations had to be cancelled but management's response was, get another job. It's as if their grand plan is to demand mandatory overtime which will lead to a drop in quality due to fatigue and then they will have the excuse that American workers just can't cut it anymore, let's move it to Singapore. Keith and the boys will all be fat cats by then if they aren't already and won't care at all. And the little salesman who wanted to give a different perspective back in July will one day wonder why there aren't as many cars in the parking lot. Maybe he'll ask some one over his morning cup of coffee,and find out the manufacturing facility went the way of the Ford plant and closed. Tuesday, August 14, 2007 If you feel a strong breeze or hear a loud whirrling noise, it is Allen and Bradley spinning in their graves. Rockwell Automation has destroyed the great company they started. Our management today has jerked us around since they came over(former Ford executives at a now closed down facility). They have inmplemented MANDATORY 7 day weeks with less than 24 hours notice. A few weeks later they eliminated 3rd shift and created a 4th shift (2 shifts worked 4 ten hour days and 2 shifts worked 3 12 hour days. Now they are forcing the 4 tens to be 4 twelves and to have to cover for the understaffed weekend shifts. We have had numerous SKILLED machine operators quit,and a number of others ready to quit. These people have NO concern for the people who had made Allen Bradley what it was. They stole a years vacation from us a few years back, and recently stole the retirement benefits promised to us many years ago. After giving over 25 years of dedicated service to a company, and then have them pull what you had worked all those years toward, was totally insensitive and shows the respect that they have for their employees. To have to increase your bottom line by screwing the people that have made you what you are is WRONG. I have received an EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS on my review for the last eight years and have NOT received a raise in this time period. Lump sum compensation in lieu of a raise doesn't cut it. I will ride this coaster until the doors close and our equipment is sent to SINGAPORE, like our sister facility in Dublin, Georgia is doing at this time. Unfortunately for me, I have spent my life and carrer working for a company now being decimated by management. At my age, I have no choice but to ride it out. Thursday, August 2, 2007 - from Rockwell recent Ex-Employee: I am a very recent ex-employee of RA. I was located in the NE Ohio region. I had a decade of service with RA. What I have experienced is a management staff fixated on "the numbers". They have slowly lost touch (and more rapidly now) with their greatest asset other then Brand recognition - their People. The drain of top performers has been enormous. The rate I documented from my division was one person leaving every 1.5 weeks for one year. A Management staff of blind followers is too afraid to speak out, and those that do are soon no longer around. The result? Inferior quality and unresolved product and service issues. I was very angry and sad to leave, but now I once again have a future. Tuesday, July 31, 2007 In light of the predominantly negative views on this blog, let me add a different perspective. I've been in this space for several decades, and have had the privilege of working for or closely with RA, Siemens, GE Fanuc as well as some other smaller software startups (I'm currently employed by RA). The transformation/leaning-out that Rockwell has been muddling its way through for the past 4 - 6 years has not by-passed their competitors. In fact, most of their competitors started from a 'leaner' place and are currently resourced at a FAR lower level than RA still is. Change is tough, particularly when you see or experience those 'cuts' first-hand, but in the context of the larger automation world we live in, RA is still a good place to work. Our share performance is strong, and whether through luck or skill, Keith continues to balance the rabid requirements of Wall Street on one hand - with a large contingent of employees that want to go to work every day, enjoy what they do and see a great American company succeed. I wish him all the best! Monday, July 30, 2007 Things seem to be changing at Rockwell in other regions as well. In South Africa where some good people have recently “retired” or seen a dim light in the future. It will be interesting to see what happens with the new regime that seems to be taking over. YES it was a great place to work. But times are changing and only time will tell what the future will bring - maybe with ABB. Saturday, July 28, 2007 Rockwell Automation has been playing "how much can we take away and still have you work here" with their professional staff for at least 5 years with changes to commission, bonus and health plan. The health plan changes every 2 years with increases of 20-60%. On top of that most raises are low single digit supported with threats of moving entire business groups to Asia. Most are finding their compensation is flat or declining. On top of that, the only people getting promoted are the blind followers. We all know the type--probably ADHD and typically ethically challenged. They are needed to do the dirty work, like reducing the population of older employees or moving the unwanted to groups soon to be closed or moved. So much for ethics. Young professionals take note! Friday, June 15, 2007 In reading this post it seems everyone hates Rockwell and wants to see them go down in flames, why is that?
Perhaps because the people who want to speak have no other way to make themselves heard within Rockwell. I have invited Rockwell people to post positive responses. No response..... Thursday, May 24, 2007 The ICS acquisition by Rockwell is the final act in the long running ICS saga. Alchemy purchased troubled ICS in 2000, and didn't do too bad a job (British understatement) bearing in mind that they paid just £1.7M for the whole lot including Transmitton (sold to Siemens last year) and Max Controls (sold to Metso a month after they bought it) in September 2000. Certainly seems like "alchemy".... Thursday, May 24, 2007 Rockwell Automation To Acquire ICS Triplex (extract from Rockwell press release: Rockwell Automation will acquire ICS Triplex for £110M ($220M) in cash. ICS Triplex annual revenues are projected to be approximately £70M ($ 140M) for fiscal year ended May 31, 2007. Rockwell Automation expects the transaction to be slightly dilutive to earnings per share in the first full fiscal year and accretive thereafter. Tuesday, April 17, 2007 I had predicted the departure of Gelly a year ago. There is only so much you can cut to show good numbers quarter after quarter. Unfortunatelly, the cutting has been done right into the bone. It will be hard to lift the top line sales when there is no capable sales team or leadership left. For those who think that Gelly was pushed out, I have news for you. He is smarter than that he is leaving before the boat sinks! Monday, April 9, 2007 Regarding the weblog comment, "anyone who thinks Rockwell would shell out $20 million for an SI is living is dreamland" - this person must have a short memory...remember Interwave? Friday, April 6, 2007 I think Gelly has done all he can do. There is only so much you can do with book to bill ratios, inventories, cash flows, tax credits etc. before you need top line sales to make any further progress. Thats where ROK is today - weak capex, due to the automotive situation, its customer production moving overseas, competition from Siemens and others is crimping sales. Thursday, April 5, 2007 The Rockwell stock message board is going crazy. Some predicting a fall of below 45. Others predicting a climb over 90. What is going on?? Thursday, April 5, 2007 Did you hear the cheers from all the Rockwell Automation locations around the world? Keith Nosbush finally got around to doing something he should have done at least a year ago. James Gelly is gone and they can start cleaning up the mess he left behind. Besides being know for not "playing well with others", many of Gelly's initiatives were poorly implemented and short sighted. Now the company will be able to work to build long term shareholder value, not short term bull to make the stock manipulators happy. I own the stock as a long term investment, not as a day trader, or someone who makes money getting people to pay commisions on stock trades. This is good news! Thursday, April 5, 2007 James Gelly has resigned from his position as the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer 'to pursue new challenges and opportunities'. Gelly is the latest "outsider" to be pushed out. Another example of the old guard's immune system kicking out the new blood. The problem here is while his manner and ideas may not have been liked, they were effective at driving profit and keep Wall St happy. Hold tight for a downward stock slide folks. Thursday, March 29, 2007 Interesting previous post on Rockwell Automation going through change and lacking leadership. From the inside I can tell you that the changes reffered to simply have NOT been succesfull. If they had then maybe RA would be seeing stronger growth. The reality is down to the last posters comments about leadership. the exec management of the Company have been around for a long time and grown up in the Company together where PLC hardware sales via distribution was a succesfull formula. They see the need for change but when they embark upon a path of change and it gets difficult they try and revert to to formula they know and feel safe with. the result is a stagnant Company. Sure there is growth but compare that growth with that of their major competitors and you will see that they are NOT beating the competition and winning market share. Thats why the funnctional programs (cost cutting / lean etc) will continue in order to drive earnings up in a dissapointing revenue environment. RA has become risk averse, the guys they had who could challenge have gone, either pushed out because they opposed the regime, or gone because they were fed up of banging their heads against the wall. This is a good solid Company that could be great with some Entrepreneurial leadership Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Interesting to read the comments over the past 2-3 years...ROK is a firm that being re-shaped by competitive and global forces. It seems to be changing in multiple dimnesions: from product orientation to market orientation; from business unit structure to functional structure; from regional to global; from layered to flat; and most notably, from hardware & manufacturing to software & services. This is a lot of change for a company - no wonder that employees struggle to see a vision for the future. Heck, I don't think that executive staff can see (or accept) what is happening. They're preoccupied with protecting their turf in the midst of change. Rockwell has a lot going for it, but either they are going to pull off the transformation, or die trying. It would help to have ANY leadership from the CEO. In the absence of leadership, execs spend all their time negotiating with eachother while competition steals share. I expect a second quarter of very disappointing top-line results; could be evidence of a trend. Maybe if there is enough bad news, a depressed stock will invite a change of ownership - and leadership. Thursday, March 22, 2007 Seems like many issues being covered, although interrelated. Didn't hear any feedback from my earlier blog regarding possible reasons for Jim Smith's departure from ANORAD and what it means to future of ANORAD and of course the backing of ANORAD Israel. Rockwell seems to spend more on coffee than the revenue generated. Is it time for a change? Thursday, March 15, 2007 Any clown who believes that Rockwell would shell out $20m on a systems-integrator is living in dreamland. Think about it - if you buy a SI, you buy the order book (12 months work and the losses?) and the resources. Why buy expensive resources when they are available in abundance at a fraction the rate elsewhere? SI's like Proscon, ONG, SIM etc have no I.P. or products, and are generally living from hand to mouth, project to project. It would be far cheaper to headhunt the resources and setup an RA office. Scratch the surface a bit and the real reason for the so called purchase might become more apparent. Looks like the Murphia are out spinning for themselves again - next we'll have to listen about how high they can piss. How many SI's will survive a downturn in the economy when they have to compete with the larger global players? Tuesday, March 13, 2007 In response to the post on +MMI, I was around when this product was developed. After millions of dollars and years of development, the original design was scraped in about 2002. An outside vendor was paid handsomely to re-do everything and deliver within 12 months. The reason things are still no better is that the same leadership is in place. Tuesday, March 13, 2007 Rockwell is making yet another 'focus' and 'go-to-market' change! Will their partners win by taking the lead on sales & implementation of products? Or not? Saturday, March 10, 2007 What is going on with Rockwell? It used to be a company with great culture. It seems that management more and more does not value the people that made Rockwell what it is today. Just look at functional excellence and the way it was and still being handled. This is not coming from a disgruntled employee. It is from one who left on his own after 10 years and still holds Rockwell near and dear to his heart. Tuesday, March 6, 2007 Heard Jim Smith, President of Anorad left a few weeks ago. Have consitently heard rumors about them being on the block for sale, given the the recent departures of Chris Stohlberger. Any ideas of what's going on here? Monday, February 26, 2007 I cannot find any strategic or monetary reason in any press release or document on why Rockwell Automation would buy Proscon? Was it a friend-of-a-friend purchase? Or does the leadership of Rockwell need an excuse to play golf in Ireland to go with their buyback of inflated stock options? Friday, February 9, 2007 Rockwell products are good. and I have been appreciating the quality - till the launch of + series MMIs. All automation companies are equally hard to work with for the endusers, unless reqular business is being given. We are supplying the RA products to a global pharma major where the globle standardisation is on some other make. It is the support that matters most in this kind of business. I think RA needs to orient the products and the prices to satisfy the market needs and not dictate the terms as the word is closer and more knowledgeable. Friday, February 2, 2007 - regarding Rockwell acquisition of Proscon: Proscon are a good company and I am sure this is a great move by the Proscon owners. Acquisitions of System Integrators are rarely succesfull. The best Independant Integrators are succesfull because of their independance, otherwise an end user would choose to use the manufacturer. Once the Proscon backlog is eaten up, the bulk of the revenues based on non-Rockwell platforms In the case of Proscon predominantly Emerson) will diminish quite rapidly and it will encumbent on Rockwell sales force and the integrated Proscon team to find Rockwell based work. My guess is the backlog and current opportunity pipeline will probably see the acquisition well into a two year earn out period, then once the guys who pushed it forward have taken their glory, the revenues will erode. This smacks of an acquisition for glory rather than business logic. Thursday, February 1, 2007 - from Eoin Ó Riain [readout@iol.ie]: Proscon is a systems integrator headquartered in Cork, Ireland, with an office in Dublin. As of 31st January 2007, Proscon are now a part of Rockwell. A source mentioned that they had heard a figure of 20m (Euros or Sterling or Dollars?). I think that a number of noses will be tweaked by this - Emerson who used to be represented by Proscon years ago; Hanley Controls who represent Allan Bradley and who have quite an active relationship with Rockwell - the Rockwell University show which came here last year waas largely organised with Hanley; Siemens who recently supplied Proscon with a large order for Pfizers and ONG Automation who may have a problem as they have been in close co-operation with Rockwell too. Those who will be happy will include companies like Zenith and Project Management which maintain their "independence" - whatever that means! Thursday, February 1, 2007 Has anyone any comments on the new management team at Rockwell for the Package Controls Product division (PCP)? What about the functionally excellent Materials group? It seems steam rolling over long term employees and managers is the new competency for this team. Thursday, December 7, 2006 If the news (ABB buys AB) becomes true, will the new name for this new company be: ABBAB? :) Thursday, December 7, 2006 The background story here is that while Siemens, GE ABB etc. have a large enough global presence to take advantage of the markets in Asia and Latin America. Rockwell never really had a foothold anywhere else in the World. Its core customers are moving their manufacturing out of North America. Monday, December 4, 2006 Anyone heard the news floating around that ABB is eyeing AB (Allen-Bradley)? Thursday, November 23, 2006 The layoffs and "functional excellence" initiatves are said to generate funding for additional general and vertical selling resources. They started this in Europe over a year ago. Has it worked? Have we seen stellar growth in the vertical industries? have we grown our market share in the largest market for automation products? When will the poor management of these areas be addressed. It is long long overdue ! Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - Item (extract) from JimPinto.com eNews: My predictions that Rockwell Automation was ailing and would be acquired have long since proved wrong. Under Chairman and CEO Keith Nosbusch, the company is moving ahead strongly. Revenues for FY2006 (Sept 06) were up 11% at $5.5B, and operating earnings were $1B, up 19%. Clearly Rockwell is focusing on high-tech control products and software. The clear sign of this shift is that Rockwell recently sold off its Reliance power systems division to Baldor Electric for $1.75B in cash and about $50 million in stock.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 I'm surprised that there are no comments from former MPS employees who were laid-off on November 9. I heard that there were 150 in total. Count me as one of them. Fortunately, there seems to be interest in an ex-RA person in the SI world. Maybe the experence "inside" RA is worth something. I'll probably be off until the first of the year and then with a much smaller firm (about 600 people). Doubt I'll ever work for a BIG company again, there are just too many things that impact you that you have no control over. I am concerned that my colleagues are going to be in my boat in the next year or two. RA just can't be competitive against smaller firms that have lower overheads. Thursday, November 9, 2006 - from an ex-temp-employee: I was working at the West Allis location until I found out yesterday that I was laid off. It would have been nice if Rockwell cared enough about human beings to give us a little bit of notice. It was just reported that Rockwell was making record profits. I don't think it would have hurt to give the temps a little bit of preparation time. Struggling to survive on $9/hour is hard enough. Now I have to figure out how I am going to pay rent. Thanks a lot! At least I would have given you 2 weeks notice if I was looking for a new position. I thought you would have been considerate enough to do the same. They sent us home and told me that they "just found out". Yeah right! Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - from Baldor website - http://baldor.com :
Baldor To Acquire the Power Systems Business of Rockwell Automation Baldor Electric Company markets, designs, and manufactures industrial electric motors, drives and generators and is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Today Baldor announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Reliance Electric Company and certain of its affiliated companies (the Power Systems business ) of Rockwell Automation. Baldor will purchase 100% of the equity interest in the Power Systems business for $1.8 billion, comprised of $1.75 billion in cash and approximately 1.6 million shares of Baldor common stock, with a market value of $50 million. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2007 and is subject to customary closing conditions and necessary regulatory approvals. Saturday, November 4, 2006 FactoryTalk, RSView SE 3, awful. FactoryTalk, RSView SE 4, better. The future? Saturday, November 4, 2006 Any comments on the stability issues with RSSQL? Why no redundancy after all these years? Friday, October 27, 2006 - Re - Questions on Datasweep: Looks like just 11 months after the acquisition Rockwell Software has both increased the user base of the product by 3,000 new users and integrated the product into the FactoryTalk Suite. The new integrated reolease was announced and demonstrated at Automation Fair as FactoryTalk Production Centre. It looks like they are getting the Plant Wide Information Suite built out and are being very successful with the acquisition. Thursday, October 19, 2006 Any news on the closure of the Dublin Georgia plant and the move of small controllers and distributed I/O to Singapore? Tuesday, October 10, 2006 GMS was effectively killed off last October; they put Software into the ACIG Group and Customer Support (CSM) and Engineering Projects (MPS) into sales. Now a year later they are taking CSM and MPS away from sales and putting them into CPAG. Seems they dont know what to do. Or, maybe I'm being cynical but, perhaps they want to hide poor MPS numbers under a wider CPAG business unit. If they really dont know what they are doing then I would be worried about the future of MPS. If they are hiding bad numbers then maybe they are giving MPS more time to make a profit Monday, October 9, 2006: What happened to GMS? I am working for MPS(Manufacturing and Process Solutions). The offical news is that MPS and CSM will join(Merge) with CPAG, so the GMS will die; how about the future of MPS? Sunday, October 8, 2006 Well it appears that Rockwell is not only trying to shed there Powersystems business but they may also be trying to trim their workforce. Word has it that after making sure all employees participated in overtime to close the fiscal year books, their reward was letters threatening termination for one charge or another. Tuesday, October 3, 2006 Interesting stuff going on here. Rockwell is sheding the Power Systems business (Reliance and Dodge) and not transfering equity to a new entity like they did with Meritor, etc. to create additional shareholder value. Like GE, that is also trying to shed their motor business, they must feel that the long-term growth and return-on-investment potential in these market arenas must not be significant enough. Potenial buyers? Timken, Reliance and Dodge are both customers and there is a Timken representative on the Rockwell board. Plus Timken needs some insulation from their large automotive segment. ABB is another, fills a gap and leverages the strong Reliance/Dodge distribution channel. Of course, there's Regal Beloit, the scavengers of motor brands (i.e., Lincoln, Marathon, etc.). And out there in the wings are the Japanese drive manufacturers without a strong motor line and distribution channels. Remember, the Reliance drive business isn't a part of the package. I wonder about the end game here. Rockwell has not invested in a significant new product, nor made an important new business purchase in years (the one they did, Reliance Electric, they totally screwed it up). Focus has been on cost-cutting and shedding low margin business to make the bottom line look good. Could GE and Rockwell have something in mind together? Time will tell. Sunday, September 24, 2006 Who are the possible buyers of Power Systems? Any new ideas? Can it be ABB or Siemens? Friday, September 22, 2006 Can anyone fill us in on what the effect of the "Functional Excellence" program is going to be? What departments or areas are going to be hit with the layoffs that are coming next week? Doesn't Rockwell realize how difficult it is to go to work everyday and put in your best effort when you're under the stress of working for a company that is always cutting heads? We should be growing the company in a fiscally responsible way that doesn't send so many of our good employee's jobs overseas. We would appreciate any insight into what departments will be hardest hit next week. Thursday, September 21, 2006 - regarding Rockwell Powersystems: 8 companies are placing bids for Powersystems. These companies have until October the 16 to place their final bids. Then Rockwell will decide who they will sell to (if any of the bids are what they want). The transition should be complete by January the 1st 2007. Friday, September 1, 2006 Nobody seems to either know the answers or want to answer the Datasweep queries. Isn't that a bit strange? Wanna bet that if we asked a question about A-B quality or delivery, we would get some form of response? Or is this blog dead? Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Does anyone have any further input on what has happened with Datasweep? Is Rockwell finally doing something right? Wednesday, July 26, 2006 I think Rockwell is trying to expand both their business and technology. Does anyone with news on the most recently aquisition on Datasweep, the No 1 (maybe No 2 or 3) MES player. What will happen to datasweep market share next? Hope Rockwell will do a good job on this. Tuesday, July 25, 2006 Is Rockwell still purchasing smaller companies for growth potential and or technology expansion? Are they looking to dump any of there aquisitions that have not give the returns expected from years ago? (i.e. Anorad. A Long Island NY company that has been bleeding for years even with their new facility and "Lean" initiatives???) Saturday, July 15, 2006 - pending sale of Power Systems: The rumors are increasing as employee's keep hearing of any companies looking at Power Systems. They are keeping this one under wraps. What about Emerson and Roth? Anyone with news? Tuesday, July 11, 2006 There are a couple of internal rumors going around. One is that ABB is the buyer, another is that Parker Hannifin is the buyer, and last but not least is that Joe Swann (current president of the division being sold) is going to attempt a leveraged buy out. I assume from the way that it was presented to the employees that there was already a buyer when it was announced. We where told that "the transition will be complete by January 1st"....Anyone know anything further? Thursday, July 6, 2006 Rockwell's intended sale of the Power Systems business could have been seen coming a mile off! This is a company that is concentrating on its high margin businesses and simply cannot tolerate any broadening of the portfolio. Show me a single acquisition of even internal initiative to broaden the scope that has succeeded? RA is a great company if you are a shareholder, but not so great if you are a customer or employee. The reality is if you measure market share, I bet they are not showing improvement anywhere. Its going to be real interesting to see what happens when the competitors launch their new and probably better products. What is in the RA pipeline I wonder? Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Rockwell is after a buyer for their Reliance and Dodge units. This is at a time when Siemens have merged with Flender. Any comments? Friday, June 23, 2006 To put this into context I just went to RSTechEd last week. This is the training for Rockwell Software’s sales force and distributors. It also includes a few lucky system integrators like me and some lucky customers. It is very advanced training and not for newbie’s. It had just under 2,000 attendees. The Network is the Computer. The Network is the Computer. The Network is the Computer. This is the mantra for Sun Computer by its founder Scott McNealy. For Rockwell Software is could be: The Network is the PLC. The Network is the PLC. The Network is the PLC. An interesting thing about mantras and chants is after you say it enough times you really start to believe it. This is one reason they have been popular with religions for 1000s of years. This chant was started by RA sales years ago. As a customer it had little meaning beyond the smoke and mirrors of marketing. I was so tired of hearing it that I mentally shut down every time I heard it again. Still after awhile when RS and RA project managers were sleeping at night they started to dream about it and pushed their troops the next day. The programmers in different projects at 3AM sucking down Jolt Colas all hung up in the idea even talked to other programmers in different projects to make it work. Maybe I am a dense customer or an inherent skeptic but to me this year things really came into focus. One of RA’s strengths has always been communications. This year communications strengths with a cohesive systems model was more apparent than any other. All the pieces are there or very very close to being there. A few things are a little rough but are getting there. The next 2 years should be especially exciting. I am not sure when it happened but FactoryTalk is REAL. There will be some product name changes and you may be forced to chant it also. I started to chant FactoryTalk this year without being forced. FactoryTalk. FactoryTalk. FactoryTalk. Wednesday, May 10, 2006 Rockwell has yet to make a dent outside of North America. With the world getting smaller, OEM's like my company self are shipping more and more machines overseas. There, endusers say "Rockwell who? We want Siemens." Rockwell will always be on the defensive, and larger manufacturers like Siemens will continue to chip away their business. Just check out the Rockwell; finanacials - they are down year after year. Saturday, May 6, 2006 When considering cost you must look at much more that just what you pay the vendor. First there this cost of acquisition. This includes ease of ordering threw a distributor, credit terms, delivery time, expediting, and shipping cost. I find RA (Rockwell Automation) and my distributor do a superior job of holding down these costs. After the purchase price there is cost of ownership. This includes development time, support, and reliability. Recently I have been doing mostly custom high end systems and no one is even close to keeping the development costs as low as RA. For support RA is better than most but not as good as some. Low end products are easer to support than high end so again you must consider market segment. Low end products are often supported by the distributor and this varies greatly. High end support is more direct from the manufacturer. Overall the quality of RA support has noticeably declined but still it is better than most. For reliability I find very little difference. Almost all hardware uses the same modern technologies and QC methods and suffer the same problems. Software quality varies more than hardware. There are some very, very poor programming packages but most are about the same. For software there is an inverse relationship between features and reliability. RA or maybe I should say Rockwell Software by far has the largest feature set and is still able to keep there quality at the same level and sometimes higher than lesser products. Thursday, April 27, 2006 We have changed from Rockwell to Siemens due to their software and support, and their worldwide exceptance. I was tired of Rockwell nickel and diming my company for everything. End-users would really be better off checking out the competition to save money, get better support and ease of use. Wednesday, April 26, 2006 We too have changed from the Rockwell platform. As an OEM we always need to put quality first, price second. Although we had zero issues with Rockwell's quality the pricing was becoming out of hand We decided to do a very thurough test of various manufacturers products. We tested Fanuc, Siemens, Omron, Toshiba and Idec. In the end we went with Idec. Although our systems are small (100 i/o and under) we still needed something that we felt we could support in-house 99% of the time. The Idec software had some bugs but the support we recieved was fantastic. Another reason for the move to Idec was that their local SE gave us a "sneak peak" at their new PLC and software. The platform is amazingly easy on the software side and the hardware is, to say the least, amazing... very forward thinking and very fast. The analog and ethernet connectivity on the new platform is what sold us. Monday, April 24, 2006 We have also found out the same moving from GE to AB. We have now moved to Siemens do to the superior technology and great local support. Rockwell's loss is Siemens gain. Sunday, April 23, 2006 We were long time GE Fanuc users, and only the deterioration of their technical support drove us to look for alternatives. We went with A-B, figuring we'd get increased customer acceptance by going with the market leader. But, we don't find their products technically superior at all. Plus the prices are much higher and always going higher. So what other manufacturers are you considering? Friday, April 14, 2006 The shutdown of the Tech Forums is just another way of Rockwell to suck more money away from their customers which they already gouge beyond belief. Customers are no longer going to take it anymore. We have already started to convert away from Rockwell since their sales personnel are not able to sell against the competition and are order takers only, hence useless SE's. By converting to the competition we will be able to save alot. Only we as cusotmers are able to push the end customers to move away from Rockwell, due to all their charges for every little phone call or question. Apparently Rockwell has no clue what is going on in the market place. Thursday, April 13, 2006 There are two very good forums at www.plc's.net and www.mrplc.com . These forums are quicker for replies and have good moderators who have good AB experience. Tuesday, April 11, 2006 I am also disappointed by the removal of the forum. The Logix platform has been the core of Rockwell's product for a number of years and has continued to develop to a point where it must have many thousands of loyal and dedicated users many of whom need to know the answer to something application specific and detailed. These answers are often not known by Tech Support people (they can't be expected to know everything) and are more often answered in forums by developers or users. Sunday, April 9, 2006 I too was disappointed to find that Rockwell has shut down their discussion forums. I think most manufacturers benefit from these forums. Typically, they're frequented by knowledgable users who give lots of free, sound guidance to users with questions. Sure, there is some bad-mouthing of the manufacturer sometimes, but I think the good far outweighs the bad. Maybe Rockwell's intent was not so much to silence the bad-mouthing, but to silence the free support, thus increasing paid support revenues... So has the RA discussion forum community found a home somewhere else? Tuesday, April 4, 2006 Rockwell Tech Support is in trouble. They are losing good people left and right. It has become so bad that 20-30 minute hold times are not unheard of. Furthermore, they had to institue a 90-120 day holding period for those who want to move to another part of the organization. That policy has caused people to start looking outside of RA for employment. Other departments will not even consider support employees for hire due to the opressive wait. Saturday, April 1, 2006 As an engineer that has done motion control for more than 7 years, I would not touch it with a 10 ft pole until the bugs (which more than likely are there) are worked out of it. Does anyone want to be the test bed for it? Sounds like employment suicide. Saturday, April 1, 2006 Are there any thought regarding the recently announced new "Motion Control Business"? Thursday, March 30, 2006 I am confused by the comment from the Denver office. Rockwell has an ombudsman process which can be used if the situation is serious. Thursday, March 30, 2006 In some parts of Rockwell Automation, management is allowed to treat employees without any respect. And if they have a medical situation, they treat them even worse. There are great people in the Denver office, but there is no process of an open door policy, to stop harassment. Monday, March 27, 2006 I've noticed others mentioning this issue, but am curious to know if anyone out there thinks it strange that RA stock prices continue such unrealistic steady growth. I feel we are getting over inflated and that a correction could cause stock prices to drop suddenly. Monday, March 27, 2006 - from Michael Barb - Rockwell Software forums canceled: The ultimate method of censorship has struck. Rockwell Software has cancelled their forums. It looks like they want to kill the free flow of information between customers. But, there is another way. Go to Control.com. In some ways it would not be so bad if the search engine for the knowledge base worked well. I often used their forum just to find a knowledge-base article. Tuesday, February 28, 2006 A lot of noise down at the ARC forum in Orlando last week about Rockwell Automations's Industry initiatives. The reality is they have chopped the old Global Accounts program into segments and added some new VPs and more sales folks. No sign of any significant industry domain knowledge or real industry applications yet. I just cannot believe that the customers are drinking the coolade on this program. It will be interesting to see what happens when the revenues dont meet the expectations. On the European posts and Mark Hardy's situation. Good luck to him. From what I have heard of the guy, RA will miss him more than he will miss RA. Monday, February 27, 2006 - View from a "Past" Manager: Whilst RA stock is "doing great", there is a clear problem in the one area that the company has identified as their Growth potential over the next 5 years: i.e., Europe. Whilst Mark (Hardy) doesn't want to be a topic for a weblog, unfortunately when Senior Directors of his experience, drive and forward thinking leave the Company people are bound to ask why. Mark's departure (in answer to the weblog on the 17th Feb) was not sudden, and has been on the cards for the last 6 months. He has effectively been working his notice. The bottom line is that unless you subscribe and agree to the current European Strategy, you move on! Without this sounding too much like an Obituary, Mark was a Leader who created a very strong Team who were empowered to grow their businesses (unlike the current incumbent at the top in Europe). The fact that key players in the Management Team from the Services Group and also a number of Senior Sales Managers have recently left Rockwell in the UK says a lot about the current morale across the pond. Monday, February 27, 2006 I can't believe what i'm reading here. I understand that the dead are always "saints", but please have some shame. The fact that Mark Hardy was with the Company for 10 years doesn't make him automatically a "great (or even decent) manager". In my opinion this is one of the "volunteered exits" that not many believes in. By the way, it's NOT sudden. It's very interesting that it looks like a forced, but smooth, transition out. Not many rumors; quiet; what companies like for top managers layoffs. About the Global vision of the Company: It's just another game to show, internally and perhaps to specific customers, that Rockwell Automation is a Global supplier. Just a politically needed step. The European organization has received a very bad hit with the reorganization last fall. It will be very hard to recover trust from the operational people. I don't know how many people accept the fact that we sell only when the final product has to be shipped. It's sad and may also make you not feel skilled enough (if you are living life everyday in front of the customer). But it's the truth and we have to live with it. Monday, February 20, 2006 - From someone considering a position at Rockwell: Having designed systems using Rockwell, Schneider, and Siemens PLC backbones, I can't figure out why anyone would specify Schneider or Siemens over Rockwell (at least in the USA). On what basis are Schneider and Siemens growing in North America? They cerainly don't have better products - at least not from a programmers perspective. Monday, February 20, 2006 - from Mark Hardy [mhardy@ra.rockwell.com]: I would really rather not be a topic for this weblog. If anybody within RA has any questions related to my situation please just pick up the phone and give me a call. Thanks. Saturday, February 18, 2006 - from: "a humbe person working at RA for the last 9 years": Where is the diversity in Rockwell? They say it's a global company, but it's sad to see hardly any Asians and Latin Americns in the Corporate Rockwell. Often times, I feel RA is talking global, but still thinking local. It's quite frustrating and stressfull to associate with people who have no clue on the culture/behaviour and values of people from other regions. They need to go a long way to think and act like a true global company. Except Keith Nosbusch's frequent visits to India, personally I have not seen any Sr VP's or VP's visiting Asia, particulary to China and India. Friday, February 17, 2006 I don’t think Mark Hardy's departure is "sudden" at all. Europe is in a mess right now, with multiple initiatives all taking place at once. Hardy is probably the most charismatic and well respected leader at a European level, but he has been notably absent from some recent key events / meetings. This has inevitably gottten the rumor mill working. The formal announcement about his departure was probably initiated to try and kill off speculation. In any case the announcement was awful and it has probably caused more rumblings. Incidentally it is also interesting (and probably not co-incidental) to note that one of Mark Hardy’s key management team has also announced that he will be leaving. Seems kind of strange to be losing some of the best management talent just when it’s needed the most. Thursday, February 16, 2006 Well another Rockwell manager "Bites the dust." Rockwell is trying to enter the European market where Siemens and Schneider are strong - it's like "fighting superman with a whoopie cushion". Rockwell now knows how hard it is to sell their product when it is not specified, like it is in the US. All of the European manufacturers are growing worldwide, why not Rockwell? Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Mark Hardy - previously a senior leader within the solutions (GMS) business in Europe, has now decided to part ways with Rockwell Automation. Is this because the Global strategy for Services is less appealing or less relavent ? Is it due a different view regaridng how the European business should grow? Or is it simply that Rockwell no longer values the Services development in the same way as it did in the heyday of Ron Wichter et-al ? Why would someone who has been there for ~10years and in a seriously well paid role suddenly (and it is sudden) decide to go? Sunday, February 12, 2006 Although Rockwell Automation may or may not doing well, they continue to lose good talent. For instance losing their sales manager from Indianapolis to Siemens. Still sounds like a steady exodus continues. Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Rockwell continues to be successful. Maybe the description of this weblog should change to reflect that. Jim Pinto note: You're right. It's been changed. Tuesday, January 31, 2006 I find it very interesting that there have not been any posts regarding RA in light of their rapid stock increase. Any thoughts? Sunday, November 27, 2005 With Siemens and Telemechanique (Schneider) competition knocking at there door and taking business away on a daily basis, Rockwell has found no other choice other than expand overseas. All of the larger global players did this years ago. It's a little late for Rockwell. This move will not expand their business overseas, because no one knows who Rockwell is - other than in the US and Canada. This is a move to increase profits, since sales year after year are getting eaten into by the bIG TWO (Siemens and Schneider). Stock holders will not tolerate lack of profits anymore. This looks like a move to bring up profits and possibly find a buyer for Rockwell again. Rockwell will always have a strong base of business in the USA; globally they have little chance to expand their business. This is mainly due to their lack of international marketing, and not being diverse enough of a company. Friday, November 4, 2005 Recent announcement below from Rockwell on the move of US businesses to Singapore should raise a lot of questions within our industry. Looks like a cost move to increase profits and less to do with developing new products. Also says "initially" so sounds like more may be in consideration. It's one thing to say that you are adding global regional development and manufacturing facilities to complement your US business, but to gut the US teams sends a different message. Would be interesting to hear peoples opinions on this significant move. The Center will initially be comprised of several business segments that are in demand in Asia, and highly strategic to the company's global growth. They include: Small PLC Platforms, Distributed Input/Output, Component Operator Displays and Component Drives. In addition, a product development center will be established there along with coordination of associated design and manufacturing partners. Thursday, October 6, 2005 Actually, the only thing that has been outsourced is internal IT support. The email addresses are RA email addresses, but include CONTRACT in them to differentiate them from actualy employees. Customers/Distributors would have no reason to contact them anyways since it is internal to RA only. Friday, August 26, 2005 Interesting news for the Support Organization, it appears that the fears of outsourcing technical support is becoming to be a reality. Since the re-organization of the technical support process that is being effected later on this year, it seems that the management has decided to give the support center another cause for concern. Apperently Compucom of Austin Texas is now been contracted as a 3rd party to perform support on Rockwell Products, replacing the normal spport channel. Their employees even have RA email addresses so as to be transperent to the customers. It will be interseting to see where this goes. Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - re: weblog about GMS being "dead": That's probably not a bad thing given the reality that GMS was competing more & more with A-B's own SI's and creating division where none existed before. There have been cases where the GMS effort pushed those same SI's to align with competitive solutions that in a few select cases resulted in A-B losing out not only the integration work but also the hardware biz. Having them fall under sales should allow them to prosper on service related opportunities when it doesn't compromise selling hardware which at the end of the day is the core competency for ROK that can't be overlooked. Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Big announcements last week. GMS is dead. Services now report to Sales - just like the old days of CSC again! I guess the old adage of 'what goes around comes around' rings true again. Wednesday, May 25, 2005 It's highly unlikely that Rockwell Automation truly has the drive, people, or innovation ability to be "great". They will deliver "good" financial performance for a few more years, but will be assaulted on many fronts by Siemens and GE Fanuc, chipping away at their previously impenetrable position atop the leaderboard in North America. After the dust settles, RA will be what it has always been - a hardware company, and will suffer the pain of the margins associated with that business after global competition has truly arrived to North America. Friday, May 20, 2005 MPS had a webcast yesterday showing a re-organization with a few less managers, hopefully actually implementing a flater organization. This places a proposal group with sales on one side with a Project Managment execution group on the other. Of course, the devil is in the details but it seems to be responding to the needed improvment in PM execution and higher proposal costs than is expected for a company this size. The phrase is "Good to Great" making the company the best rather than simply good enough to be a player. I've got at least 10 more years before retirement (probably more like 20) and believe it or not, I would like it to be all with RA. That is a tall order in today's business climate but this may be a way to have that happen. I wait with interest to see how this will play out. Thursday, May 19, 2005 - Roy Harry [roy@mediaii.com]: Like Bob (previous weblog), I'm amazed by the comments on this blog and others. When a company is going through tough times, everyone seems to want to pile on and vent about management. But, when times are good, silence. Look at the number of recent comments when the economy is ruinnin' on all eight versus the ones since 2001. Also look at Rockwell's sales, earnings, dividends, plus those of the spin-offs over time. Rockwell has been managed very well for each and every shareholder over the long haul which is the name of the game unless you're a day trader. It has weathered tough economic times and has had to make tough decisons to survive. Yes, employees were let go and costs cut.I'm a vendor, I saw the latter. But, I would really like to see someone out there give some credit for what management has provided: a good return for long-term shareholders, good compensation and benefits for employees, a safe work environment, fair practices for vendors, and good corporate citizenship. How about some good news for a change instead of all the bitchin' and moaning? Dedicated employees at Rockwell and the other companies on this site are working their butts off to do good work. All of the negativity on these pages with scant few suggestions does a disservice to their had work. Sure their are problems, it's part of growth, you learn and go on. My vote is for a new awareness. Valuable constructive comments, not crabbing and celebrating accomplishments. Saturday, March 05, 2005 - From Bob McIntyre [MHOUHUABOB@aol.com] a former Rockwell Field service Engineer: I am always baffled by most of the blogs here. I started with Reliance Electric and in the "Old Days" we did everything from HMI's to Drives to Advanced Automation during a StartUp. The Controls Engineers did an excellent job most of the time delivering what the Customer contracted but they always want more for less money. That is where we excelled. We always gave more for less. Presently, as a private consultant, let me give you the current perspective from my customers' point of view. WonderWare is the best HMI for small to large scale projects bar none because it has most of the products that they want and are the easiest to learn and deploy even to the Technicians level. Rockwell's RSView in the ME and SE editions is a mess and their own service people can't work with it very well. The Drives Area is wide open although GE has been doing some interesting work with Toshiba and their Innovation/PAC system to achieve a novel approach to bring Drive Systems into the Controller. The Controlller area will get a lot more interesting in the next few years. It will become like Computers about connectivity and ease of use. That is when Proprietary Systems like ControlLogix will die. In the Automax days we only required ONE software package to do Drives and Automation. ControlLogix requires 2,3,4 different software systems or more depending on how many Networks or kinds of Drives you want or need!! The Customer's don't stand a chance of making personal changes to THEIR system. I can tell you that a lot of Customers/Integrators for many years have been fed up with Rockwell's strongarm tactics of telling them who they have to buy product from and at what price. Most of them have been using tricks to buy product out of state and in some cases out of country to get the best price and Rockwell be damned. But that still doesn't help them much when it comes to someone to make it work. They still need a guy. Rockwell and a lot of other companies and customers operate from the standpoint that "He's a Drives Guy, or He's an HMI guy, or He's an Automation guy". They are all without a clue. A System is an Entity. If you want it to work as seamless as possible you don't need a Vendor whose products are attempted to be designed to all work together. This will never happen. What you need is a Startup Professional who has been through the Product Wars and knows how to tie the Best Products from various Vendors together. Without battle hardened Field Service personnel a Company's Startup Group like LDS or GDS or whatever they choose to call themselves nowadays will never get the really MAJOR projects/startups beacause NO ONE will take a chance on a bunch of amateurs. Friday, February 25, 2005 - extracts from JimPinto.com eNews #175: Several people have asked why we have not made too many comments about Rockwell Automation recently. I had indeed predicted that the company would be acquired sooner or later. But now, with their stock trading up near $60, more than 4x what it was when they spun off Rockwell Collins, they seem to be doing fairly well. Rockwell Automation went through a long string of debilitating reductions and re-structuring over the past couple of years, and now seems to have emerged from that turmoil. Now, under Keith Nosbusch, the company seems to be doing well. With their stock at $60, this gives the company a market-cap of $11 billion, which makes them almost impossible to acquire - unless someone wants them really badly. I compliment CEO Keith Nosbusch and Rockwell Automation on the progress. I admit that I was wrong about the company being acquired.
Thursday, February 24, 2005 - Regarding the previous comment on Rockwell's revenue-per-head ratio: It doesn't matter a bit. What matters is *profitability* and margin. If GE has more "hard goods" content and less human content, it will naturally have a higher ratio. That has nothing at all to do with profitability or economic performance. Rockwell posted very impressive numbers in 2004 and seems on track to continue this performance into 2005. GE runs a tight ship, no doubt, but blanket comparisons of two VERY different businesses are meaningless. Monday, February 14, 2005 - re-previous weblog on GE-Fanuc: Does the previous weblog writer actually think GE is doing anything creative or innovative these days? Hardly. Rebundling the "same old same old" with the same name isn't innovation. Look at the destruction that they've done to their channel, as well. And ultimately, this may backfire when they realize they've lost customer relationships as a result. GE is succeeding in terms of bottom line performance, but only by slashing costs, stopping new investment and reaching into channel margin. Most of the components of the Proficy One "suite" are far from "leaders" in their categories. Bundling and creating a "perception" of integration was the only option. Do not count Siemens out. Doing so would be a big mistake. Friday, February 11, 2005 - commentary on the Software business: I notice no mention whatsoever of Invensys/Wonderware in this weblog analysis. Rightfully so. As a former Irvinian, I became embarassed by what Wonderware had become. Career industrial politicians, software jocks with no understand at all of manufacturing, and a rehire/retreading of the most useless sales and marketing people in history - they all convinced me enough was enough. Now I watch as the most envied brand in industrial software is reduced to almost nothing. Archestra. Puhleeze. The emperor's (Haythornthwaite's) new clothes. Now the company has become a conflagration of yes-men, do-nothings, and technophiles. That's a long distance from the Dennis Morin and Phil days of glory. Then you look at what GE has done to Intellution. Slapped the meatball on the brand and got sauce all over the place. No product strategy other than a common name. Dysfunctional channel looking for a way out. Drive cost out, margin up. Siemens is a mysterious lady. Hard to figure her out. Just when you think she's a businesslike frau from Deutschland, she peels off her faux skin and becomes a jet setter from Cali intent on software world domination. Don't bet against that kind of size and power. Rockwell, however, is as consistent as the sun rising. Making money, owning their key markets, and a strong hardware solution set. Always work from a position of strength, and theirs is the stratospherically high pile of PLC 5's out there. Siemens has the full court press on to try to dunk over the head of Nosbusch at the Bradley Center. North America is on their radar and they're prepared to use a blitzkrieg if needed. My bet would be on Rockwell to rule North America, split the rest of the Americas, Siemens to advance in Western Europe, and a fair fight in Rest-of-World. The winner on the software side will be the one that makes a step change/disruptive move like WonderWare did in the 80's. Most of these guys are fighting a 21st century war with muskets. They need to make like Taco Bell and think outside the bun. Tuesday, February 8, 2005 If you think that 3 or 4 folks leaving a GE business constitutes a mass exodus, think again. I personally know 8 or 9 people that left Rockwell to go to GE. Not Kevin Roach's level, but certainly the rest are comparable. I agree with one of the previous weblog comments - I don't think that talent from within either GE or Siemens or Rockwell can take any of these organizations where they need to go. It will take a revolution to transform businesses that began as HMI/SCADA software vendors into successful Production Management software vendors. The kind of knowledge required to pull that off doesn't reside inside those companies. At least I see GE going outside to look for that talent. Why do you think Rich Ryan didn't succeed in pulling it off? Why did Kevin not succeed at GE? Why is Siemens struggling in this space? And why does anyone think that Kevin would succeed at Rockwell when, aside from his charisma, the only thing he can point to as success is acquiring an HMI/SCADA company that had a pseudo-MES product inextricably tied to it? I'm afraid the only point to be made here is simply that he left GE and joined Rockwell for the same reason that most of us do similar things - a better title and more money. Period. Rockwell's challenges lie in 2 areas - they don't have a channel to market that can sell Production Management software, and they don't have a product portfolio that the right channel would require to develop a viable, profitable business model. It's almost a catch-22. Of course, they could go out and acquire more products (which is what put them in this mess in the first place) but that would further exacerbate their current problems. Kevin's got his work cut out for him. There are no silver bullets that will guarantee success. It will always be about having a clear understanding of what customers need and are willing to buy - which, when combined with the right vision, the right domain expertise, and the balls to execute - not to mention a lot of hard work - will result in success. Those with any clue in this business will know that we all - GE, Rockwell and Siemens, anklebiters, etc. - need to succeed so we can collectively create the value in this marketplace. Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - responding to the previous weblog: Rockwell continues to cut jobs because their ratio of topline revenue to people is way too high. In other words, GE's sales revenue-per-person is almost 2 times higher. The analysts have been pounding Rockwell on this for a couple of years now, and Rockwell has been slow to respond. Look for more of the same for years to come. Monday, February 7, 2005 Rockwell Automation 2005 first quarter earnings are out. Rockwell is showing growth. Business is looking good, says Keith Nosbusch. But then, why are they still cutting jobs? More people have been added to the layoff list. Monday, January 17, 2005 Actually, Rich Ryan is a very smart and politically saavy guy. He would be a good person for Kevin Roach to ally with, to learn how to get things done at Rockwell Automation. Thursday, December 23, 2004 Kevin Roach is NOT off to the right start at Rockwell. He is associating with the RSI "old guard" including the likes of Rich Ryan, and is perhaps listening for guidance too much to the techies, who have an interest in preserving the status quo. We have what amounts to a couple good products, a couple iffy ones, and a couple losers, but a loyal customer base, good financials, and a fairly capable implementation organization. Kevin Roach should be sizing up the current team members and should shoot at least half them that are responsible for the current mess in the software side. Be brave and bold, Mr. Roach! Saturday, December 18, 2004 I find it interesting that there's as much (if not more) about GE Fanuc than Rockwell on the Rockwell blog! It proves 1) how screwed up GE Fanuc is and 2) the mass-defection that is taking place from GE Fanuc to Rockwell. Ultimate success is determined by the people in the positions that develop the products and sell the solutions. Looks like Rockwell is loading up on both fronts. If they can execute, they have a chance. At least the Rockwell group has a somewhat satisfied hardware customer base to sell software into. GE Fanuc simply lacks when it comes to being innovative and creative. Finally, to the earlier comment regarding the 'gentlemen's rule about going to the competitor,' GE Fanuc brought it on themselves for the best and brightest to break that rule. Anyone involved with GE Fanuc right now knows the house of cards is falling in.
This weblog is a "self-inflicted" job. I have not started a GE-Fanuc weblog simply because there has not (yet) been enough input. If the need does arise, you'll see a separate GE-Fanuc weblog. Thursday, December 2, 2004 It's official now - Nosbusch is the boss man. Now let's see if he can do something bold.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 GE certainly screwed up Intellution, Mountain Systems, and their channel strategy. The "one box fits all" product strategy is laughable. They are all "me-too" or 2nd tier solutions, bundled together. A few sucker customers are buying the spiel, and those responsible will be polishing their resumes a year from now. Thursday, November 25, 2004 After working with GE Fanuc Automation for over 8 years, in my opinion they really have made a mess with their distribution channel and reps. With the aquisition of Intellution I thought they would take advantage in keeping things separate, software channel does good software solutions and the same for the hardware channel. In my opinion GE Fanuc has confused their customers, distribution and representatives and in the end have lost alot of good people. Now they don't even have a leader for the company... Friday, November 5, 2004 I must disagree with the disgruntled ex-GE person's assessment of Kevin Roach. Kevin is a very capable guy who inherited a difficult product rationalization challenge at GE Fanuc "post Intellution". He received bad advice from some of his direct reports whom he trusted a bit too much (marketing and technical advisors). The whole "Proficy One" thing is a complete farce, but was really the only viable option. None of those products fit together well at all. Plus, there has been a massive "brain drain" since the GE-fication of Intellution. Also, Kevin came to GE from TCP, of which SensorPulse was but one component. If he gets some good people around him at Rockwell (which may require him to go outside Rockwell Software), he can pull it off. He has a good vision of the market opportunity; but now it will come down to how much latitude he has to execute on that vision. I wish him the best. Wednesday, November 4, 2004 - from a former GE Fanuc employee on Kevin Roach: Kevin Roach started at GE Fanuc about 6 years ago, when GE Fanuc bought his tiny company Sensor-Pulse. GE Fanuc never did anything with that product. Kevin took the vacancy to promote Cimplicity (HMI), that was boosted by his successors. He had one dream, and that was to become No. 1 in the Software business. After he had convinced his management to split the company between Hardware and Software, he then tried to split the company in such a way that all the software business would be managed by him. Emerson offered GE Intellution iFix. For Kevin, it was all about ego and not about a smart move for GE Fanuc. Customer asked what HMI product was the one for the future, and Kevin promised that Cimplicity and iFix would merge. Kevin Roach is running away for the issues he created. Anyhow, a lot of people are very disappointed in him. Within GE we have always had an unwritten and unspoken gentleman-guideline: "You never move to the direct competition!" Kevin only wants to be No. 1, and forgets about all the people that helped him to build his position. Sunday, October 31, 2004 This change is really good for Rockwell Software. About time. The mood at Automation Fair was very very positive on this change. It also says a lot about how messed up GE Fanuc is. The talent exodus from Intellution is almost complete. A year from now, Rockwell Software will have better products, focus, and profitability. Thursday, October 28, 2004 Big changes at Rockwell Software! Kevin Roach, VP at GE Fanuc has left to take over Rockwell Software and GMS! Monday, October 18, 2004 Rockwell is riding a brief blip i |
Rockwell sells Reliance, focus on computers/software
Rockwell Automation doing well under Keith Nosbusch