It's because 9 out of 10 employee's hired now are "temps". 11.5month contracts with no benefits. LA already has a bunch as well as east coast facilities.

I agree. What is the point of the CP headcount reduction if there is not at least some sort of "soft" freeze on new hires. I don't get it.

There are many vacancies on the Siemens website. Looks like the company just wants to churn people. The cost to bring new people on board is going to be a whole lot more than letting go all those employees in the near future.

3 DAYS TO GO UNTIL THE END OF FISCAL 2012, HOW MANY GET AXED OVER THE NEXT 3 DAYS??

You're the one who is blaming and laughing at Siemens management, not the LA people.

On time would have meant that Siemens' expectations of DPC were met. Among those was that the manufacture of reagents had been rigorously documented in a manner that was relatively easy to transfer to a reasonably skilled manufacturing site. Siemens would have probably been alot better off had they tried to transfer DPC reaents' production to Walpole rather than Llanberis, but that is water under the bridge at this point. The fact is that other companies have managed to transfer complex reagent manufacture that requires organic synthesis to relatively unskilled personnel who don't have or need Ph.D.s or years of training in a specific complex task. They are trained to follow directions and, when necessary, to tweak the reagents to meet specifications. What they need is a clear set of directions and a process that allows them to make as many trial lots as is required in order to adjust the documentation to remove any ambiguities. It appears that such things never happened in the old DPC and that they didn't even try to transfer the capability to Llanberis if for no other reason than to hedge against the possibility of an earthquake or fire that could shut LA down for a while. Siemens only added to the problem by not even recognizing it for a long time and then not knowing how to correct the problem. Siemens is far more likely to turn a problem over to the next level down manager than to go out and look for the experts that they still employ who can actually fix things (I seriously doubt if they even know who or where those experts are).

As a consequence, the people in LA have been living in a paradoxical, surreal world for a few years. At times they can sit back and laugh at Siemens management and taunt them about how they are being paid to do virtually nothing and at other times they know it's going to end sooner or later and they have to suffer through the suspense of guessing when the pink slip will come their way. It's not a pretty picture no matter how one looks at it and it, once again, goes back to how poorly Siemens did their due diligence prior to all three of their purchases.

"The real reason is no managers are capable of cleaning up the potential mess AFTER LA close, and nobody wants to touch LA and ruin their career path, so everybody stays out of it.
END QUOTE

Gotta be once of the most ridiculous comments I've read here."

Let me tell you why it's not ridiculous at all. If you close LA on time, people will say it's piece of cake and should have been closed long time ago; if you close LA a few months late, well, you can't even close LA on time and you're a loser.

LA really is a sinking boat that will suck everything into it. If you want to get promotion, then stay away from LA. Just look at how many Germans left LA and DX after the first couple of years.

Remember they're smart insiders, why they didn't try to stay and close LA if it will bring them all the glories?

Plus free food & rental!

YES! WE WON'T PAY IMCOME TAX ANYMORE.

Vote for Obama and everything will be OK

Sorry, but the on decision when and how to close LA does not reside anywhere in LA.
END QUOTE

No one ever said it did. EF might be in charge of LA but he resides in Wales. He runs the Llanberis site.
As it turns out he'll be paying LA a visit this week also.

What happened to the loyal DPC'ers and the person who hates the ones who work at LA? Haven't seen their rants lately and I honestly do miss reading all the vitriol!

Sorry, but the on decision when and how to close LA does not reside anywhere in LA. It might be in Tarrytown and it might even be in Germany. The people running LA are simply puppets in a lawn drawn out tragedy.

Does EF still put Siemens branded prizes under chairs in town halls?

Exactly!
Ruin someones career path?
My goodness.
If anything the person who finally closes LA will get a promotion.
That being said, LA, has shown to have nine lives.
LA's existence is in the hands of one man...EF.
The decision to keep it open or close it and the timing will be his to make.
Everyone Department head there knows this.
Llanberis Rules!

The real reason is no managers are capable of cleaning up the potential mess AFTER LA close, and nobody wants to touch LA and ruin their career path, so everybody stays out of it.
END QUOTE

Gotta be once of the most ridiculous comments I've read here.

Siemens wants deadwood director Like Alex. G Flanders not capable leaders

There was that too, but that was before Siemens entered the picture. It seems to be quite difficult for acquiring companies to find ways to smoothly integrate cultures, or let the ones that work well operate on their own. And when you acquire three new companies at once that have significant overlap in product line, you have to expect intense rivalry as each group tries to promote themselves and put the other people to try to save their jobs. Siemens seemed completely unprepared for this kind of behavior and doesn't seem to know how to deal with it other than the 'we are one big happy family and we are all on the same team'.

Some companies manage these integration issues very well, but they are few and far between. Siemens is clearly not one of them.

So are you saying there was no Dade vs.Dupont turf war? De. and Chicago can't stand each other - this is obvious to anyone with a pulse.

look, will you f&*^% off and stop eroding your finger skin typing. No one cares about siemens beyond the humorous observation it sounds a bit like semen.

Bayer was falling apart, period. Centaur, which they bought, was getting old and each new upgrade was a bit worse that its predecessor. Advia IMS was going down the drain and yet, Bayer did learn one thing from their Tarrytown experience. They learned how to peddle a rosy future to the next sucker, much as Cooper did to them in 1989. What has happened is that the conflicts, politics, backstabbing, etc. has now been extended elsewhere. But it's not all Tarrytown's fault. Each of the three companies came into the famil with big attitude problems; each believing that they, and only they, possessed all the talent and that they were far above the other as well. Tarrytown people got blamed by LA once it started to sink in that LA had no long term future in the Siemens family. That decision came from Germany; Tarrytown was only charged with carrying out the edict. Tarrytown people sort of looked at DPC as a child or much younger sibbling. When the DuPont people came on board and JRA took over, they fell all over themselves singing the praises of DuPont and JRA and ridiculed the other two family members.

The reason most of the focus remains on Tarrytown is that this kind of culture is much more in line with their recent culture and they are just a bit better at it through sheer practice.

[ Leadership has done nothing to bring people together, and very little to discourage the still on-going turf war that is Dade vs. Bayer vs. DPC ]

Bayer was falling apart by internal turf wars well before Siemens acquired them. Nothing has changed since the acquisition.

siemens wants what the germans always want: people who will do what they are told no matter how right or wrong their directives may be.Questioning is not allowed and severely punished.

Remember, Siemens wants MANAGERS, not LEADERS.

And if anyone ever figures out who's driving the bus, let me know...

It was four people, and they were good people.

What we have is an absence of leadership within Siemens Dx. The latest team is no better then the last, maybe one of the worst in fact. They garner no respect, no confidence from general staff in thier abilities, and no-one will ever go the extra mile for any of them. There is no strategy and no executive skill. There exists only paint-by-numbers reactions to blips on the general ledger.

There are good people from the former entities that - if given the chance - could really turn this into a world-class organization. These people work together well, respect one another, care about the customer, and know this business. People are screaming to be led by someone, anyone..

Alas, Siemens isn't after that.

Leadership has done nothing to bring people together, and very little to discourage the still on-going turf war that is Dade vs. Bayer vs. DPC.

To Siemens, Dx is a mechanism to fill out the portfolio - nothing more, the people within it just moving parts easily replaced and assimilated into the uncreative, uninspired, finance-driven organization that is Siemens.

Good people are looking and looking very hard, and leadership is to blame. This is the way things are....

You're absolutely right! It's smart to stay out of LA. If Siemens really wants to close LA, they'd already done it years ago. So stop to worry about LA, but yourself.

"Perhaps LA is just too insignificant in terms of the total Siemens bottom line for them to care much. It's just hard to figure out why they can't finish a simple job of closing a vestigial site."

I agree with you. some managers say Siemens can close LA in a day, and the reason not to close it is because it's such a tiny piece of pie. I'd say stop using BS as excuse. Even Apple will close LA ASAP is it's deemed to become a money HOLE. The real reason is no managers are capable of cleaning up the potential mess AFTER LA close, and nobody wants to touch LA and ruin their career path, so everybody stays out of it.

I'd call it terrible management. The continued existence of LA as part of Siemens is less a tribute to ex-DPC personnel than it is to the total incompetance of Siemens management in knowing what has to be done to complete the closure, and how to do it. Perhaps LA is just too insignificant in terms of the total Siemens bottom line for them to care much. It's just hard to figure out why they can't finish a simple job of closing a vestigial site.

"Siemens will create another miracle to let LA stick around until mid 2013."

What'd you call it if LA stays until the end of 2013 or longer?

That must be the 47 % of you that believes that you are entitled to employee simply by virtue of the fact that you work in a building once occupied by a company called DPC. You can be sure that Mitt won't be going for your vote. Just based on our crazy electoral system, neither candidate will even campaign in California (or New York or Texas for that matter). Just goes to show how important people in those populous states are to our policiticans.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Tarrytown isn't going anywhere. Before you get too excited, my comment is simply a fact, not a judgment as to which site, Tarrytown or LA, is or was better and/or more deserving to survive.

I'll put 47% of me on the line betting that folks in TTN will leave before LA. Siemens will create another miracle to let LA stick around until mid 2013.

Picky, picky. I thought 'almost 200' would be close enough to 199 to go without comment. I hope this trait doesn't show through on your resume.

"Heard Siemens LA facilities will have almost 200 lay offs. Good luck LA.

Get your resumes redeady befor the end of Sept."

200? LA has only 199 people right now. If you counted yourself, that'd be 200 even. So you should get your resume ready before the end of Sept.

They plan to leave a small skeleton staff to take care of the bodies hidden in the walk in. It's part of Siemens' retirement package.

"almost 200..."

Sounds like there's still something left in LA after the 200 let go. I wonder what it is? Maybe a walk-in refrig.

I hear one to be let go from Sudbury, UK - tomorrow

Heard Siemens LA facilities will have almost 200 lay offs. Good luck LA.

Get your resumes redeady befor the end of Sept.

Guess he's in the 53%, good for him.

By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: January 26, 1992

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Print

Martin L. Scheiner, an inventor of electronic medical devices, entrepreneur and supporter of social causes, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

He was 69 years old and lived in Pleasantville, N.Y. He died of leukemia, his family said.

Mr. Scheiner founded Electronics for Medicine in 1950, and as its president and research director he developed many sophisticated instruments. They included the first cardiac monitor for operations, a recovery-room patient monitor that was the precursor of today's intensive care equipment and a physiological recording system used in Nobel-Prize-winning work in cardiac catheterization.

He wrote and lectured on medical uses of electronics and received an honorary doctorate from New York Medical College.

His company, in Pleasantville, grew to 700 employees. When Honeywell Inc. bought it in 1979, he shared more than $1 million of his profit with the workers.

No: Not MLA on Marble Avenue; but Electronics for Medicine which was purchased by Honeywell.

Take managing your career: Grove writes: "The sad news is, nobody owes you a career. Your career is literally your business. You own it as a sole proprietor. ... It is your responsibility to protect this personal business of yours from harm and to position it to benefit from the changes in the environment. Nobody else can do that for you."

Andy Grove former co-founder of INTEL

XYZ

The layoffs become political because of the economy. If the economy were great and the diagnostics industry was booming and if plenty of jobs were available, the layoffs themselves would be more of an inconvenience that a big problem for people. The economy is obviously political, so it becomes hard to separate Siemens layoffs from politics completely because, somehow they seem to just creep in and then things snowball. The layoffs, not knowing when they will occur, etc. are all about frustration. Most of the political stuff here seems to arise out of frustration as well. It's just another avenue for people to vent which is half of the purpose of this site (the other half being attempts to get information).

Never discuss politics, religion or sex .. guaranteed to get somebody pissed off. We could move on to religion. I forgot what sex is.

Since when has DX layoffs turned into a Political debate?
Get back to the original topic of "layoffs".

Wrong again, but let's not get all bogged down with facts or relevant issues.

That may be the case considering some facilities have less than a few hundred anyway. It does look like the majority of this layoff will again be within the US. Siemens doesn't want to deal with European Unions if necessary. They don't have that problem within US DX sites.
If this turns out to be the case I think layoff notifications and layoff schedules will happen early November and be completed by end of December.
Will this "right the ship"? Seriously doubt it. It's a quick financial fix for a DX ship halfway under already.
Siemens Healthcare is concentrating its money on IMAGING. This is where they're making their money.

If you guys want to discuss politics or current election memes, perhaps you should find a forum other than "Siemens DX continues layoff schedule".

Back to the topic at hand: it sounds like Siemens is going to achieve their headcount reduction by letting people go here and there from different dept's and facilities rather than address the duplications and redundancies within their organization. Why the reluctance to streamline?

Heard that all things molecular are being consolidated on the left coast? Are they bundling it up to unload it?

I sense a conflict here. You started your own business, but seem to complain that Obama didn't help you with it. But, as someone who tends to lean right, you should not want the government to help you at all. You're on your own, the way you want it.

As for the Volt paying back the incresed cost of ownership, you again show a bias. It is not just the Volt, but virtually every other similar electric/hybrid car that has this issue. It generally takes 4-6 years to save enough in fuel to cover the added cost of the vehicle and the best reason for buying one is not financial, but for principle. The above statement has been echoed by several financial publications, which I can document if necessary. I have this suspicion now that LHR is also an expert in documenting things, if I have guessed his identity correctly.

I tend to lean "to the right". After all, I started my own business after getting downsized, and Obama didn't help me with it.

It is a simple fact, companies are not going to stay around long if they pay out more then they take in.

Tea Party - yes I agree with SOME of their ideas, but not all.

Have fun driving your Volt. Better drive it a long time, because the payback is very slow, if at all.

LHR

"Have you purchased a "Volt" lately?"

You've just clearly identified yourself as a right wing nut job teabilly. Are you dumber than a rock, dumber than a hammer, or 10 pounds of stupid in a 5 pound bag?