Name the "best" engr'g companies that are gone... 3

[poetix99]

I'll claim that this is "Looking ahead by looking back", so as to justify a post here, rather than the Engr. History forum (besides there are 3x as many members of this one):

Last night, while at a jazz club in Boston, I noticed across the river the building housing the (former) HQ of Polaroid. This got me to thinking about various things along the lines of "technical innovation does not insure commercial success, etc."; not as if it was a flash of insight, but I lamented, in theory, the demise of what I understood to have been a great technical, creative environment to work.

So, spurred by that meditation, I invite readers to nominate "GREAT ENGINEERING & SCIENCE WORKPLACES - THAT AREN'T HERE ANYMORE":

- Entire companies or distinct entities within a larger company (or a govt. organization)

- Places you've worked, or simply know of by one means or another

- Why were they "great" as you understand it (or imagine it)?

- Why are they gone? (as you understand it, or imagine it).

In fact, let's allow that some of these great places might not be gone, but now are so different as to be "gone" as a great place to work.

I would like to see our different ideas about great places to work, and consider for myself what can I as an individual contribute to my workplace to make it "great".

******

As a few of my own candidates, I offer:

POLAROID
BELL LABS
LOCKHEED'S "SKUNK WORKS"

Why are they gone?
competition
anti-trust suit
defense spending cutbacks(?), competition and/or mergers

I think that the image of technical innovation is what stands out for me, when thinking of these as (what must have been) great engr'g & science workplaces. In fact, I think that Bell Labs and the Skunk Works have practically lengendary status. This is without a lot of my own value judgement about military development, etc., but please measure your nominations (or others') with your own yardstick.

Thanks in advance.

 

[etch]

Good Post.

I can name several high profile world leading companies that have went to the wall

Beardmore -

Dalmarnock Iron Works - Forth Road and Rail Bridges, the second Tay Rail Bridge, London's notable Tower Bridge and the Humber Bridge were fabricated.

Napier's Camlachie Foundry was a leader in the development of marine engineering

Beardsmore - A world leader in forging, particulary for naval shipping, including gun barrels etc, intrestingly Sir Ernest) Shackleton (1874-1922), not long after the latter's return from the Antarctic where he had taken part as a junior officer in the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901 to 1904. In 1906 Shackleton entered Beardmore's employment at Parkhead, Glasgow.

Anderson Strathclyde - World leaders in mining equipment

Barr and Stroud - Leaders in Optics (they are still open in some sense but not in the same capacity, the company of old had a full size periscope on it roof, allegedly take from on eof the bond films. It used to have its own foundry and sladdlery dept (for making binocular cases)

Ravenscraig steel works - World leader in steel making and innovative steel processes

Clydesdale works - Producers of seamless pipes for oil industry. This was an amazing sight seeing a solid block of heated steel 1m long getting rolled into a pipe with no weld.

This makes sad reading beacuse i could go on for another page, but all these companies are probably within a 20 mile radius, Heavy industry is a dying trade. in 10 years it will be like blacksmiths.

 

[Qshake]

Alright. I'll add to this list.

Sverdrup (St. Louis, MO)- Formerly Sverdrup and Parcel founded in 1928 and bought out by Jacobs in 1998.

Sverdrup was a visonary who with the capable assistance of Professor Parcel designed many bridges across many rivers but spanned the Missouri and Mississippi several times along the length of each. During the WWII, Sverdrup left the company in the hands of Pacel et al and went to work to aide the USCOE with the efforts of building and sustaining an infrastructure to support the troops in the pacific theater of operations. In particular, Sverdrup designed and constructed numerous airfields and other related facilities and became the Chief Engineer or at least acting Chief for that region. Essentially he was advisor to Gen. MacAuthor. Back at home, Sverdrup broadened to include development of wind tunnels and operated a technological elite division known as the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, TN. In addition, Sverdrup was instrumental in many world class civil transportation projects and due to the favor by the USCOE, Sverdrup designed many locks and dams for the Corp.

Now, with the flash of a pen, the company, the name and reputation have been relegated to remain only on bookselves in the dusty technical section of University Libraries.

 

[mloew]

Etch,

What is replacing the products that these companies made? Are they dead doe to advances in technology or competition?

Just wondering.

Best regards,

Matthew Ian Loew

 

[etch]

Its the same old story, most of the closures are political, this is not the forum for discusiing politics, but the steel works that closed particulary Ravenscraig, broke every production record set.

Clydesdale works was different, they made seamless pipes for the offshore industry, with the introduction robotic welding and more trust being put into the welding, it was an obsolete process, despite Bp and shell both saying they would rather have seamless pipes.

Barr and Stroud - Dunno, failed to move forward with times i guess,

Beardmore - Lack of orders i would imagine in the defense sector.


In addition i have remembered a few more within a 20 mile radius of glasgow, Caterpiller, Shut to keep an american plant open - the last bulldozer they built they named Pink Panther, and painted it pink, i wonder where it went.

many car factories, leyland, volvo, hillman,
many shipyards

I guess part is due to the nature of evolution, another is the distance to market, another is the history of militant shop stewards within the place and again political. with a country of 5 million, and 50 million in england it dosent take much to figure out where politicians are going to concentrate their vote winning policies.

In recent times, other that have gone are Motorola, NEC, Kymata, Sun,

 

[MASSEY]

In reading these posts I am reminded of the great engineers, and accomplishments, of the heroes of the classic novel: Atlas Shrugged. Written by Ayn Rand.

Have any of you ever read it? I always recommend it to engineers, sadly though, few seem to read classics - at least the ones I know.

I hope you don't mind this post in this thread. I realize it does not directly apply to your intent (I think) but at least please read the novel if you haven't done so yet. No one will regret it.

It was first recommended to me by my Economics Professor in college.

Thanks.

 

[steve58]

Here are a few others to consider:

Bethlehem Steel - a shell of its former self and dying. A victim of obsolete technologies and overseas competition.

Westinghouse - Sold off in parts. The great power generation division is now part of Siemens. Became an afterthought in the CBS empire and was swallowed up by Siemens, leaving only one major US manufacturer of large power generation equipment.

 

[dbaird]

Don't have the facts.....but isn't it true American Television manufacturing and I suppose other electronic appliances disappear to the Japanese or did just brand names change?
David Baird
mrbaird@hotmail.com

Sr Controls Engineer

EET degree.

Journeyman Electrician.

 

[ConsultUS]

Let me share this,
On the enginnering companies, CHEMICO, PANAMERICAN CONSULTING,

On the US Equipment suppliers for the Pulp and paper Mill Industry, Sandy Hill, Manchester Machine Co, Black Clawson , Beloit, etc There are only 2 Companies in The world , One German , Voit and One Finish , Metso.

On the automotive , several japannese are in truble, MG and Rolls Roice and even the Mercdes is in big trouble.

On the computers companies, you will have a list a mile long

I think is Glovalization, Competition and technology .

On this lines same thing will happen to countries, they will disapear, look at the Euro currency succsess, Nafta , etc.

I am Planning to go to live to another Planet

 

[GregLocock]

Please remind me - exactly what was the link between MG and "Best Engineering Company"?

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[poetix99]

"GregLocock" - Perhaps the link is that when driving in your MG, bring your toolbox and "your best engineer for company"

 

[owg]

GregLocock, remember the Lucas Electric Company Motto. "Home before dark".

 

[PJGD]

Messrs Norris, Henty & Gardner, aka Gardner Engines of Patricroft (Manchester) would be a good candidate. Their diesel engines, from before the 1st World War until recently, were absolutely exquisite in design, detail, appearance, and performance in terms of durability and low fuel consumption. They were the standard bus engine, widely used in trucks, and the first choice for life-boats etc.

Although owned by Perkins for a while in the early '90's, I think they are gone because only very well capitalised companies can afford to develop product and homologate engines to meet the current and future emission regulations.

PJGD

 

[Revelation19]

Another company that no longer exists is RCA. Completely swallowed up or parceled off by GE. Which also is no longer the place it used to be to work.

Another way companies are no longer great places to work is the trend toward automation in design. We are losing the creative aspect of the design function and being turned into computer program users.

Regards,

 

[mloew]

Revelation19,

I do not completely agree with your assessment on the lack of creativity and design automation. I think this is a topic worthy of further discussion.

I have started a new thread (thread730-41311) on this topic and welcome your further input. Best regards,

Matthew Ian Loew

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[NickelMet]

I'll submit one:

International Nickel Company (INCO) - Sterling Forest & Huntington (WV) R&D facility

This is where a lot of the nickel alloys and other things were developed (including MONEL, INCONEL 625, etc). Sterling Forest is gone. The personnel either retired or somewhere else. The Huntington R&D department is basically gone. It's talents and such squandered by the new management (Special Metals). There were a lot of alloys (nickel, ferrous, copper-nickel, and other types) researched and developed by this group. And melting, casting, and processing of those alloys were also developed. Alas though, the times of big research are gone though.

Wistfully in remembrance....

 

[uppili11]

there are ideally two categories or rather three
categories of companies that vanish over a period of time.
1.0 the technology company who promise everything in the world but fail to reach the masses and ultimately a sad demise

2.0 companies who live on past inventions and never improve upon and loose to latest innovative companies -the best example could be dell computers who has grown beyond imagination from scratch at the expense of conventional computer companies -IBM still struggling with the latest arrivals and donot know whether teey will exist in future or not

3.0 the most important thing that is happening today in automobiles:The single word cost is ruling the entire world in automobiles-ALL MAJOR AUTO companies have started their operation in china or started procuring from china .so many auto industries are in the threat of closing down in US as well as europe .Never they could imagine such a situation earlier.But the lack of quality consciosness and too much manpower usage in china may not go well over period of time.
Right now what is required is right amount of engineering and intelligent manpower mixup is essential for all engineering industries to survive and India is waking up right now to catch up the challenge slowly with its vast technical resources and english knowledge which has proved its best in IT and now slowly concentrating on manufacturing as well.

 

[ProEpro]

Here are two.

Reynard: They were the largest manufacturer of race cars in the world at one point. They were also one of the most successful. They had started branching out into consulting for automakers. They also did some things with customer service that were unusual in racing. In Indycar they didn't have a factory team. They gave everyone similar equipment.
They stated reason they died was spending to much money on a F1 effort. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened.

Motorola: If they are not there now they soon will be. For years they have been moving production overseas. Now that they are starting to run out of plants to close they are sending Engineering overseas. They have also decided that it is better to use contract manufactures and even rebranded products.
They were one of the great places to work as an engineer. Whether it was design or manufacturing. They strove to be the best in the world. They took 6 sigma pretty seriously. They also worked hard to train young engineers. They even a good company to be a supplier for. They really helped to raise the standards of manufacturing in the US from the levels it was in the 70s. They are still doing that but unfortunately it is in the low labor parts of the world.
At some point they took their eye off their customers and put it on the stock market. If the stock price dropped they had to lay people off. For a while as soon as it went back up they hired more. This lead to a huge number of excellent engineers being added to the work force but it couldn’t last forever.
ProEpro

http://www.whitelightdesign.com

 

[etch]

Motorola

i worked for them for a short period, and can honestly say they were one of the best companies to work for. They could not do enough for me, even though they had no position for me int he end, they still spent money on me and my training.