Greg Junek: Sunday Briefing

Late last week the Trane facility in Tyler blew its horn a little, and for good reason.

It achieved a notable safety milestone - 3 million work hours without one lost-time injury. A lost-time injury is commonly referred to in the manufacturing world as an injury that requires an employee to be absent from work for one or more days because of an injury he or she received while working.

Officials at Trane, which employs about 1,400 manufacturing and about 600 office personnel, say the company has long valued safety and been committed to it as a key business priority.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment for our associates," said Greg Hodge, safety leader. "Each day they demonstrate their commitment to working safely, identifying potential problems and working as a team to correct any potential problems. They really understand the value of working safely and the impact that has on themselves, their co-workers and their families."

Paul Fisher, plant manager, said he was really proud of the team.

"This has been a total team effort, from our supervisors, associates, skilled trades and managers all being actively engaged," he said.

Officials said three key activities helped the plant achieve this milestone.

The first is improvement activities, which include subcommittees, audits and events that support lean manufacturing techniques. The second is operations ownership and accountability, where the leadership team sets the tone by leading safety training, safety meetings and participating in audits.

The third activity is ongoing projects to improve ergonomics.

New Title Company

Central Title Co. will open its new office at 6783 Old Jacksonville Highway on Monday, Betty Lamb, executive vice president, said.

"We are excited to be entering such a dynamic area as Tyler and Smith County and joining the other fine title agencies that are serving the market," she said. "Based on our research and analysis, Central is confident that the area will experience substantial population growth over the next 20 or so years and as a result, real estate development will continue increasing as well as the need for professional and exceptional title and title insurance services."

Steve Taylor, senior vice president, and Janie Malone, area manager, will provide leadership for the Tyler market.

Central Title also has offices in Longview, Lindale, Marshall, Gilmer and Henderson. The company was founded in the 1930s and initially operated as an abstract company. Now it operates primarily as a title insurance agent and represents eight underwriters.

Deadline Approaching

Those wishing to attend the Tyler Economic Development Council's 19th Annual Investors and Contributors Appreciation Luncheon should register by Thursday.

Chris Engle, chief project officer at New Economy Strategies in Austin, will be the guest speaker at the luncheon, which begins at noon March 5 at the Holiday Inn Select.

Tickets are $20 to the invitation event. For more information, call Stephany Petree at 903-593-2004, extension 236, or e-mail spetree@tylertexas.com.

Scholarships

Heritage Land Bank announced it is accepting scholarship applications from graduating high school seniors planning to pursue a college degree in agriculture.

It will award four scholarships in the amount of $2,500 each to graduating high school seniors living and/or attending high school in Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Collin, Dallas, Henderson, Hunt, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rockwall, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith or Tarrant counties.

The scholarship application and general rules are available at www.heritagelandbank.com, or may be picked-up at any of the branch offices in Athens, Greenville, McKinney, Nacogdoches, Palestine and Tyler. Application deadline is March 31, with scholarship recipients to be selected in April-May. For additional information, call 877-404-5263.

Business Editor Greg Junek may be reached at 903-596-6280, or by e-mail at business@tylerpaper.com.