Innovation is purposefully painful at Cummins. If you are interested in your career accomplishing something, then I wouldn't recommend working here. I realize that this sounds like an angry former employee, but looking back it was insane how difficult meaningless things were to change. This is evident by the amount of workarounds that exist at the company. There is a joke that Cummins is run by Excel, and that is because critical systems and analysis is done in excel, because none of the corporate systems are capable. Cummins is incentivized by its stock holders to keep doing what they are doing. They are risk-adverse and show it in every decision.
A few common sayings at Cummins that make me laugh:
Cummins is a supplier of diesel engines to companies that make diesel engines. 9 out of the top 10 customers make their own diesel engines. Translation - Cummins is in a horrible competitive environment. This, along with macro-economic trends, make layoffs and down-sizing a common occurrence (basically every 4-5 years).
Cummins new engines are environmentally friendly. They are so clean that in some places in the U.S. (usually the claim is L.A.) the air coming out of the engine is cleaner than the area going in. They clean the air. Translation - In every other place in the U.S. the air coming out of the engines is dirtier than the air going in... Being better than the past is not itself an accomplishment worthy of praise.
At Cummins most people move positions about every 2 years, so you can try out a bunch of different positions to find what you like. Translation - Most people don't like what they are doing, and are constantly looking for something that they will enjoy at the company. These moves are mostly lateral.
