What is shutdown, an overview

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anonymous

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Yesterday I was shocked to learn that many employed with Philips still don’t know. What began in May of 2013 is still secret inside the company even as outsiders have all of the details.


To put it simply: Philips is not permitted to work any further on a Nuclear Medicine product, new or old. There are not going to be any changes in any product and nothing will be sold. Nothing may be manufactured.


Philips is not permitted to work any further on a CT product, new or old. There are not going to be any changes in any product and nothing will be sold. Nothing may be manufactured.


The last thing is refurbished systems. No refurbished system sales are to be made. Philips will not buy a product for refurbishment. Philips will not open the facility for refurbishment.


Philips’ Cleveland factory is a ghost town. It is all closed off and unoccupied. Some parts of the building are used so long as the function is not listed above.
 
























In April I talked for hours with a guy who had left Philips in Cleveland 3 days before. He told that the shutter type doors are down on most of the halls within that building. He said that ever since the FDA had left, people cleaned up manufacturing areas and closed them off. He had worked as an instructor in classrooms that were still open.

Sounds true from talking with that guy.
 












Seems that Philips can make iCT or Ingenuity CT but the NucMed, Refurbish plant and the Brilliance CT are gone for good. I know about iCT and Ingenuity because the FDA slapped them down again and made them recall software.

Nobody answered the question if anybody knows of an install of a Philips CT, Nuc or refurbished anything. I would be curious to know if when the last install was. I do know that any software I see these days is what was released in 2013.
 






I'd heard this rumor as well as was curious as to what their account managers are selling if they cannot sell CT or MR? Full focus on IV rooms and I supposed ultrasound/general x-ray? I'd hope they've adjusted their quotas if this is the case.
 












the ultrasound team is a mess too. once they set the bar high, especially in cardiac. now they are sucking wind across the board selling a premium system that has nothing unique about it. the competition is has gotten much better and typically has better price points.
 






Lousy management, cut quality employees to save money, hired unqualified people then gave them a bad attitude. Philips customers hate them now, every single one I talk to says a Philips employee is an untrained employee who does a lousy job.

They need to shut down for good. Just a board room kissing each other's asses.
 






An okay bunch of guesses, but not quite right.

In a nutshell:
- An FE called Philips legal saying that one of his customers was taking bribes to buy Siemens. A corporate lawyer and the FE talked until the lawyer understood how the whole thing worked. The buy was padded by $70,000 to $100,000. This was a state hospital. The guy who made the final decision was given the $70,000. Pretty standard stuff. Sometimes the salesman will keep some himself.

- Philips told Siemens, who was just coming out of that worldwide SOX judgement, to back off. Then Philips took over all future sales to that state. Millions of $$$ in of sales later, the state built a new hospital and every single thing in the place was Philips, everything.

The FE knew what had happened and what was going on. He had been the one to explain it to legal. And every equipment sale to the state from that day on had been Philips, all over the state. He sent the FDA and the state AG a letter.

The FDA shut down Cleveland and began an audit. Philips assigned KC the job of interfacing with the FDA. That same FE had conversations with KC, who then knew where to look and for what. Being honest, KC could not sit and watch the crimes discovered. KC quit Philips, and hired on with the FDA investigating Philips.

The SOX case with Siemens had proven that a massive fine is never paid. Lawyers can spend loads of company money fighting to not pay the fine. Siemens was fined several billion $$$. The FDA learned lessons. What they did was to keep Cleveland shut down until, according to past sales records, Philips was prevented from earning about 1 billion $$$. They couldn't even upgrade their existing CTs to include dose monitoring, which became mandatory during the shutdown. That hurt Philips even worse, as customers bought GE or Siemens to replace Philips systems without dose monitoring.

But now Philips is open in Cleveland again. They can sell Nuclear Medicine, CT and refurbished again. I think. Not so sure if NM wasn't just dropped, and can't tell if refurbished is running again or not.

I guess Philips was bribing more than a few customers to buy their product. The way things were done, which was cheaper for the FDA than going to court, the state buyers may never have been held accountable for taking the bribes.
 






One more thing:

Philips got rid of just about every experienced service engineer and hired inexperienced, but cheap, FEs.

Customers do better by contracting service of their equipment to anyone besides Philips service. That has to hurt in any discussion on what system to buy.

The executive board must all have lead poisoning. Nobody can manage a company that poorly. It defies all odds.
 
























The shutdown seems to still be having effect. During the shutdown the FDA would not allow Philips to do any work, in any way, on the products which were shut down. The PET/CT and Brilliance CT lines were made in Cleveland. Today I see customers buying Siemens CT which kicks ass compared to the Philips offering. Philips is so far behind they can't ever catch up. Same for the PET/CT, a comparison between the Philips and either GE or Siemens can't help but rule out the Philips as not even competitive. I see many GE models chosen.

Philips is mortally wounded. Going down for the count. Executive management won't know about it until about 2 years after the doors are shuttered for good. They'll still be patting themselves on the back for the great job they are doing.
 












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