Textron to cut more jobs

[Not greg b]

10 hours ago, Palu49 said:

I’m not sure isn’t argos facility in thief the old BM building and fairly small? Cat would be a good acquisition for Argo because more people at Argo know the workings of the catalyst than people at textron/cat do.

It is. It’s not very big. About the size of a Best Buy building if I remember right. I haven’t been to trf in probably 8 years now. The black magic sign was still up last time I was there 

[Crnr2Crnr]

Argo should bring Scorpion back.  

[Not greg b]

13 hours ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

Argo should bring Scorpion back.  

Red line. 

[p51mstg]

 

On 4/25/2024 at 9:23 PM, racinfarmer said:

Wish they'd just sell to Argo, take the L on the books, and put us all out of this misery.  

Me, too.

On 4/26/2024 at 6:26 PM, krom said:

last I knew was a couple of years ago, they are re-branding chinese ATVs

I'm pretty sure I heard that, as recently as last fall.  Maybe the 6-8 wheel contraptions are made in Canada, but I'm pretty sure you're right about the ATV's.

On 4/27/2024 at 9:16 PM, Not greg b said:

It is. It’s not very big. About the size of a Best Buy building if I remember right. I haven’t been to trf in probably 8 years now. The black magic sign was still up last time I was there 

What is the TRF facility for, anyway?  Is it R&D?  It's too bad they have all the snowmobile talent there and using that to their advantage.

On 4/29/2024 at 6:15 AM, Crnr2Crnr said:

Argo should bring Scorpion back.  

Someone must "own" Scorpion, don't they?  I think Polaris either owns it or I'm thinking of John Deere.

Last winter, I found an article on Scorpion history, about how back in the late-60's/early-70's, the next year's model would be designed over the summer, and then put into production in the fall.  No wonder, quality was so bad in those years if the entire development cycle spanned a couple of months, engines were basically 2-smoke lawn mower engines and consumers were the first "test riders".

[p51mstg]

Not referring to anyone in particular, but rather as a reaction to a general observation across every forum and social media group I'm a part of:  The one thing that absolutely boggles my mind is how few people have experience working for large corporations.  People love to complain about Textron, and I'm not saying the corporate culture there doesn't suck, but work for any similarly-sized organization and you'll see exactly the same environment.  There's nothing unique about them.

I have serious concerns about the survival of the brand, but I really don't expect that in the short term, I think we're looking at 5 years out for any concern over its survival, probably closer to 10.  Textron saved Arctic Cat and made them profitable.  However, there's only one thing Textron cares about - same as thousands of other corporations - and that's money.

Corporations are generally only loyal to their employees when it makes financial sense.  They gladly let people go, even when they're planning to grow and expand, because they need to show a profit.  It doesn't matter who they let go, either - often the most experienced people cost the most money and it's easier to show a short term profit even at the expense of quality.  That's how it is.

IBM learned a long time ago how to avoid the subject of layoffs while simultaneously riffing people on a large scale at fairly regular intervals.  They do it three ways:  1-A high percentage of "employees" are contractors and don't count, 2-If you get laid off, you have to promise not to say how you left the company in order to get any benefits, and 3-All official spokespeople deny it ever happened.  IBM is publicly held, but do a search for layoffs and the story gets vague and unverifiable.  I'm surprised Textron doesn't do that.

[Bontz]

49 minutes ago, p51mstg said:

The one thing that absolutely boggles my mind is how few people have experience working for large corporations.  People love to complain about Textron, and I'm not saying the corporate culture there doesn't suck, but work for any similarly-sized organization and you'll see exactly the same environment.  There's nothing unique about them.

Well said, and 100% accurate.  Large corporations care about two things ... the high level executives getting their bonuses, and making sure stock is profitable for shareholders.  

[Tripleflipper]

5 hours ago, p51mstg said:

Not referring to anyone in particular, but rather as a reaction to a general observation across every forum and social media group I'm a part of:  The one thing that absolutely boggles my mind is how few people have experience working for large corporations.  People love to complain about Textron, and I'm not saying the corporate culture there doesn't suck, but work for any similarly-sized organization and you'll see exactly the same environment.  There's nothing unique about them.

I have serious concerns about the survival of the brand, but I really don't expect that in the short term, I think we're looking at 5 years out for any concern over its survival, probably closer to 10.  Textron saved Arctic Cat and made them profitable.  However, there's only one thing Textron cares about - same as thousands of other corporations - and that's money.

Corporations are generally only loyal to their employees when it makes financial sense.  They gladly let people go, even when they're planning to grow and expand, because they need to show a profit.  It doesn't matter who they let go, either - often the most experienced people cost the most money and it's easier to show a short term profit even at the expense of quality.  That's how it is.

IBM learned a long time ago how to avoid the subject of layoffs while simultaneously riffing people on a large scale at fairly regular intervals.  They do it three ways:  1-A high percentage of "employees" are contractors and don't count, 2-If you get laid off, you have to promise not to say how you left the company in order to get any benefits, and 3-All official spokespeople deny it ever happened.  IBM is publicly held, but do a search for layoffs and the story gets vague and unverifiable.  I'm surprised Textron doesn't do that.

Worked for a large Japanese Consumer/Industrial Electronics company. One of the largest in Japan. Had a senior management role. As South Korea, Malaysia and China started building shit cheaper some of the product the company manufactured got sourced to these and other countries. It was all about cutting cost and maximizing profit for shareholders. I had to replace full time employees with offshore workers (India). It was never enough, every year I had to cut more people. Then my turn came, just a number. I was one of 50,000 employees let go over a 2 year span. Zero thanks for my 27 years of service.

[racinfarmer]

54 minutes ago, Tripleflipper said:

Worked for a large Japanese Consumer/Industrial Electronics company. One of the largest in Japan. Had a senior management role. As South Korea, Malaysia and China started building shit cheaper some of the product the company manufactured got sourced to these and other countries. It was all about cutting cost and maximizing profit for shareholders. I had to replace full time employees with offshore workers (India). It was never enough, every year I had to cut more people. Then my turn came, just a number. I was one of 50,000 employees let go over a 2 year span. Zero thanks for my 27 years of service.

I'm just a employee number to my HR and a line on an analyst's spreadsheet that costs too much and needs to be outsourced to a best cost manufacturing site.  

I'm pretty burned out of the big corporate life, and to be frank, I'm holding my employer hostage for every last cent I can squeeze out of them before they "release me from employment."  My job has been posted for 2 years and they can't keep anyone in it for more then a month or two. 

No worries, they are just getting me some help for my workload.  

Thursday I was told I had to cut 3% of the workforce on my site, but 2/3rd of those cuts come from departments that report to me, and we don't have the heads to cut.  We are struggling as it is.

Oh well.  40 hour work weeks and when 4 hits, I'm done.  No more late night or early morning Webex's, no more working meetings while I shovel a quick meal down the gullet.

And corporate America wonders why moral is at an all time low...

The last job didn't turn out much different in the end.

[Doug]

On 5/6/2024 at 12:13 PM, Bontz said:

Well said, and 100% accurate.  Large corporations care about two things ... the high level executives getting their bonuses, and making sure stock is profitable for shareholders.  

2 years before I retired there was decision to vend out a job and it was not an easy weldment to get right to begin with.  We sent out our fixtures, documented procedures and weld procedures and had a good backlog of parts to cover production during their startup. 

What happened is they were late on startup with major quality issues.  We had to make temporary tooling to supply parts to the assemble line so they won't be shutdown.  Also setup a rework area to inspect and rework the outsourced parts before they could be sent to the line.  In the end we had more guys inspecting and reworking the parts than we did producing the parts when we made them in-house.

Went to a company meeting and during the presentation and was told how smooth the transition of this weldment was and the cost savings that the company was seeing.  WTF!  Somebodies blowing smoke up someone's ass.   

How can you pay a 3rd party to produce the weldment.  Have more people internally inspecting and reworking the parts than you had making them complete in-house and the company is saving money.  NFW!     

 

[krom]

Letters went out to a bunch of folks in TRF "offering" early retirement

[racinfarmer]

1 hour ago, krom said:

Letters went out to a bunch of folks in TRF "offering" early retirement

A lot of places have done that since fall of last year.

We have had 2 rounds of early retirement.  

The first round was Dec 31st was your last day whether you are ready or not, and when only 1 person took it, the corporate dickheads suddenly became a little more flexible when the retirees were asking for March 1st or April 1st.

[mnstang]

I wish I'd get an early retirement letter.  Oh the horror! 🤣 

[ICG]

On 4/29/2024 at 7:15 AM, Crnr2Crnr said:

Argo should bring Scorpion back.  

There was chatter years back that Scorpion was being reintroduced.....

Just like redline, Excelsior Henderson....things don't always materialize 

[Not greg b]

3 hours ago, ICG said:

There was chatter years back that Scorpion was being reintroduced.....

Just like redline, Excelsior Henderson....things don't always materialize 

I think they built a couple. It was the same time as blade and red line if I remember right. Blade was the only one that was successful. 

[Not greg b]

Here it is 

 

https://snowgoer.com/latest-news/dream-sled-part-2-what-happened-to-the-srp-scorpion-tkx/15922/

 

 

[racinfarmer]

29 minutes ago, Not greg b said:

I think they built a couple. It was the same time as blade and red line if I remember right. Blade was the only one that was successful. 

Anyone here ever seen a Blade out on the trails?  

We ran across a few of them 10-12 years ago in Bowlus. 

A couple and another guy rode them down from Duluth for lunch.

One was a darker blue with light gold painted a-arms and whatnot.  Never seen another one like it.

Passed up on buying a black one many years ago for $1500.  Should have bought that sled.

Edited May 9 by racinfarmer

[Not greg b]

14 minutes ago, racinfarmer said:

Anyone here ever seen a Blade out on the trails?  

We ran across a few of them 10-12 years ago in Bowlus. 

A couple and another guy rode them down from Duluth for lunch.

One was a darker blue with light gold painted a-arms and whatnot.  Never seen another one like it.

Passed up on buying a black one many years ago for $1500.  Should have bought that sled.

I have once or twice. I have been told you can still buy a new one and they will custom build it. They use etechs in them now instead of Polaris engines. 

[Doug]

17 hours ago, racinfarmer said:

Anyone here ever seen a Blade out on the trails?  

We ran across a few of them 10-12 years ago in Bowlus. 

A couple and another guy rode them down from Duluth for lunch.

One was a darker blue with light gold painted a-arms and whatnot.  Never seen another one like it.

Passed up on buying a black one many years ago for $1500.  Should have bought that sled.

Guy in our club has one.  Neat in it's day.

[Bontz]

18 hours ago, racinfarmer said:

Anyone here ever seen a Blade out on the trails?  

It's been 20 years I bet, but we did come across one up by Moquah (WI).  It caught the attention of our crew, that's for sure.