Pros
Good place to get your hands wet in all aspects of the company. You can get additional projects to work on. Free coffee if you are a salary worker.
Cons
Management mindset is 20+ years old; yielding less profit, which then yields below market pay for whole company. Very limited operator training. Action items fall into a black hole after three days. Lack of understanding concerning quality costs, up time, preventive maintenance. Complicated tasks always filter down to subordinates- belittled if there are mistakes. Japanese owned company; key managers are Japanese. Do as I say not as I do mentality; don't question older production methods because we have always done it this way. Very high personnel turnover; why learn someones name- one of us won't be here in three months. Workers have adopted the motto, " Penny wise and pound foolish." in the plant. Top Moments at Ark 1.) Management arguing with Senior owner telling him he can not legally put security cameras in the bathrooms to catch people stacking toilet paper near the toilet. 2.) Senior picks up a spring off of the production floor and throws it into the current lot. Lot is sorted at customer site due to one defective spring. 3.) Engineering group, not quality group - Our current production trial Cpk rate is low, we need to take another 30 piece sample. 4.) Transport cargo van filled with springs catches fire on the interstate because it is overloaded; makes the six o'clock news.