AI, chip manufacturing helping grow Trane Technologies workforce in Fort Smith

The workforce at the Trane Technologies commercial HVAC manufacturing facility in Fort Smith has grown by more than 50% in the past year thanks to unique products made at the plant used in the growing AI and chip manufacturing sectors.

They’ve experienced this work while managing to continue a standard in safety that led them to celebrate Wednesday (Feb. 21) 5 million hours, approximately 12 years, without a lost day from work due to a work-related injury or illness.

The Fort Smith facility has been in operation for 29 years at the site near the City of Fort Smith Landfill. The plant has 200 employees who manufacture custom HVAC units, custom air-handling systems, and components for commercial applications. The ultra-high efficiency and precise space heating and cooling capabilities of these products are ideal for a variety of commercial building applications, including schools, office buildings, health care, multi-family residential, hotels, and more, a news release said.

“We have plants with the standard catalog that comes out of another facility, but when you have to go and have something that fits different dimensions that you can’t just open up a catalog and order it, it comes here,” said Carter Roth, plant manager. “Everything built here is designed to order. … Our team members here are working more off schematics. At our other plants, they build more assembly line stuff. … Our operators here are really into the details and building these things together.”

Most of the plant’s customers have traditionally been in healthcare – hospitals or large facility labs that need filtered air – and higher education, Roth said, adding that they did have several government contracts that run through the facility. But recently, they have seen huge growth in three sectors: Data centers, chip manufacturing facilities and EV battery manufacturers.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard about AI and data servers. Those all take servers to run, and those servers get very hot, and you have to cool them down to keep them running. We’ve seen a large increase in chip manufacturing in the country, and they require extra dry air for their manufacturing and, finally, EV battery manufacturing. We supply a number of the air handlers for those facilities,” Roth said.

The growth in those sectors has driven growth at the Fort Smith facility. Jason Neal, operations manager, said they had added 70 to their workforce in the past year.

“We are continuing to hire. Since I started in November, we are bringing in 10 to 12 employees every week. And we have not stopped that pace,” Roth said, noting that demand for the product produced in Fort Smith is exceeding their capacity. “We are continuing to stack our lines to be able to meet these fantastic rates in the growth of the company.”

Roth told a group of dignitaries touring the plant Wednesday that in the past, the production was about one unit a day on one line and two on the second line. That has now increased to about two or three a day.

“So we are seeing huge growth really driven by those three major groups. There is a ton of investment in our machinery, our capability, and our people. Our people make this place awesome. They are dedicated to the quality of our product,” Roth said.

And they are making those strides while staying committed to safety, according to company officials.

“In our company, we have about 50 factories around the globe, and one thing that I tell every single plant that I go to, and I try to get to them all, is that if we are going to be world-class, which is our mission, it starts with safety. Because if we can’t take care of our people and take care of each other, we can’t be good at anything else. We shouldn’t even waste our time,” said Ray Pittard, executive vice president and chief officer of integrated supply chain for Trane Technologies.

Steve Guntharp, chief of staff for the Arkansas Department of Labor, said the department has given out the special million work-hour safety award since 1976. Wednesday, the Fort Smith Trane plant received its second major safety award.

“This is only the 42nd time this award has been given. If you average that out, it’s less than one a year, and this is the second time Trane has won this award,” Guntharp said.

Trane received the 4 million-hour plaque in 2021. The last lost-time injury at the facility was in November 2011. John Ferguson, enterprise communications generalist with Trane Technologies, said the facility is on track and working toward the 6 million hour mark in October 2025.

Based in Swords, Ireland, Trane Technologies posted a full year 2023 net income of $2.023 billion, up 15.2% compared with 2022. Total revenue in 2023 was $17.677 billion, up 10.5% compared with 2022. Shares of Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT) closed Wednesday at $276.57, up 41 cents. During the past 52 weeks, the share price has ranged between $278.81 and $162.04.