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Life on the Rails

Started by Savonarola, June 17, 2015, 12:52:20 PM

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HVC

Quote from: Savonarola on December 14, 2023, 05:59:28 PMI got a list of Alstom job postings today.  Since they're supposed to be tailored to your skill set I was surprised when there was one for "Deputy Project Manager."  Then I saw it was for Green Line in Tel Aviv and I thought - I bet you're not getting a lot of applicants for that.

At least you won't have to deal with the snow.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Savonarola

Time to power up Duolingo German:

Knorr-Bremse Acquires Alstom's Rail Signalling Technology Business in North America

Right now a lot of things are still up in the air.  Alstom Canada is remaining Alstom, Alstom US is becoming Knorr-Bremse.  I'm not sure how I'm impacted since my primary project is in Canada.

Does anyone know anything about Knorr-Bremse?  I've never met anyone who worked for them.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Jacob

Bremse means "brakes", is about all I know.

Savonarola

Quote from: Jacob on April 19, 2024, 01:08:32 PMBremse means "brakes", is about all I know.

You know more German than I do, but yes, they're a rail safety company.  From the various meetings I've been on today I've learned that they're sole US presence is New York Air Brake.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

I got an unsolicited e-mail from an antenna manufacturer this morning.  That's not unusual; I get e-mail from radio equipment manufacturers almost every day.  This one stood out because he encouraged me to check out his company's jamming antennas.  That amused me, we could sell a service where you take out your competitor's radio links to make your trains run faster; then we could film the project and release it on Netflix: Hard Core Train Signaling.

He mentioned Alstom by name in his e-mail and we have a large presence in the manufacturer's country (Turkey) so he should know what we do.  Jamming antennas are probably a lucrative business right now; but that's not really something a rail company would use.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

And it's official I am going to Knorr-Bremse.  They haven't picked out an official name for North American Operations.  I'm hoping for "From Soup to Brakes"; but it probably won't be.


In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Gups

Quote from: Savonarola on April 25, 2024, 03:57:50 PMAnd it's official I am going to Knorr-Bremse.  They haven't picked out an official name for North American Operations.  I'm hoping for "From Soup to Brakes"; but it probably won't be.




Nice one Sav. Good luck

Jacob

Quote from: Savonarola on April 25, 2024, 03:57:50 PMAnd it's official I am going to Knorr-Bremse.  They haven't picked out an official name for North American Operations.  I'm hoping for "From Soup to Brakes"; but it probably won't be.

 :lol:

Savonarola

We've been Knorr-Bremse for about a month now.  It really doesn't seem like they thought things through entirely before divestiture; for one thing we don't have our own K-B templates and have still been using Alstom ones.

This morning our new manager (Ken, from the various stories on this thread) read out a power point about our Company's values.  Of course it was a bunch of balloon juice, but one of our values is "Courage."  We're supposed to confront people who are behaving inappropriately in meeting rather than excuse it as "Well, that's just Bob..."

:unsure:

...since Bob is my first name I'm not sure if I should take this personally.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Josquius

██████
██████
██████

Valmy

Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Darth Wagtaros

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 30, 2015, 02:06:23 PMTempurpedic. :smarty:
We just got a new bed that is a tempurpedic.  Old one was over 20 years old and sucked.  This one is better. 
PDH!

viper37

#462
Quote from: Savonarola on April 19, 2024, 11:56:25 AMDoes anyone know anything about Knorr-Bremse?  I've never met anyone who worked for them.

They own a subsidiary in my home city, Technologies Lanka.  They have the reputation of being a people-centric company, compared to Alstom.  Not a sausage grinder machine, as Alstom is described to me by people who work there, especially people who worked for both in their engineering/designing department.

Obviously, their subsidiary in my home town is small, they don't do the heavy parts, mostly HVACs and door controls, no heavy equipments like Alstom does.  Before they were acquired by Knorr-Bremse, this company used to sell their production mostly to Bombardier.  Don't know about nowadays.

Anyway.  Irrelevant.  The problem they had in a small town was mostly related to accounting/finance, not engineering.  Not many people able & willing to work with SAP and automated systems. 

That's about all I know.


edited for bad english.
I don't do meditation.  I drink alcohol to relax, like normal people.

If Microsoft Excel decided to stop working overnight, the world would practically end.

Savonarola

Quote from: viper37 on October 07, 2024, 01:27:29 PMThey own a subsidiary in my home city, Technologies Lanka.  They have the reputation of being a human centered company, compared to Alstom.  Not a sausage grinder machine, as Alstom is described to me by people who work there, especially people who worked for both in their engineering/designing department.

Obviously, their subsidiary in my home town is small, they don't do the heavy parts, mostly HVACs and door controls, no heavy equipments like Alstom does.  Before they were acquired by Knorr-Bremse, this company used to sell their production mostly to Bombardier.  Don't know about nowadays.

Anyway.  Irrelevant.  The problem they had in a small town was mostly related to accounting/finance, not engineering.  Not many people able & willing to work with SAP and automated systems. 

That's about all I know.

Thanks, right now it seems like there's a lot of trying to find our way.  Knorr-Bremse has only done products in the past, never projects.  They don't want to use Alstom's processes, since those are designed around much larger projects than we would bid on.  In addition the deal was done so quickly that there's a lot of HR issues regarding transfer of benefits or even job titles.  So I'm not really sure if they're more people-centric than Alstom.

(I do hope they change my title.  In Ontario (maybe all of Canada) you can only call yourself an engineer if you are a licensed professional engineer.  Even though I am a professional engineer, in order to avoid a two-tier job titles everyone on my team is a Network and Telecommunications Designer.)
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

viper37

Quote from: Savonarola on October 07, 2024, 03:48:53 PM(I do hope they change my title.  In Ontario (maybe all of Canada) you can only call yourself an engineer if you are a licensed professional engineer.  Even though I am a professional engineer, in order to avoid a two-tier job titles everyone on my team is a Network and Telecommunications Designer.)
It's the same in Quebec.  You need to be a member of the "Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec" to be referred to as an engineer.  Unsure about other provinces if it's as regulated as that.
I don't do meditation.  I drink alcohol to relax, like normal people.

If Microsoft Excel decided to stop working overnight, the world would practically end.