The Trane Company

  Below you can find summaries of three of our co-op students who have worked at Trane in Lexington.

Greg Rueff is a Mechanical Engineering Senior and just finished his third tour at Trane in the spring of '07.  Greg is originally from Louisville, KY and attended Saint Xavier High School

When first arriving at Trane for my first tour in the spring of 2006, I was assigned to work in a design group. This position consisted of making changes and additions to the existing M-Series product line's drawings and assemblies in Mechanical Desktop. In this product support capacity, I became very familiar with some very specific aspects of specific parts of the whole product. Rarely was I able to see the big picture or get a good solid understanding of the final air handler we produce .

For my second tour however, I moved to the Trane Official Product Selection System group, or Topss. This group managed the Topss program, which Trane built from the ground up for the sales team to use in selecting an appropriate air handler for a customer. This is the program I worked with for the majority of my tour, so I had to become familiar with it quickly. This also led me to become much more familiar with our entire product line and how each component came together to form a finished unit. In this sense, I gained a much greater understanding of Trane air handlers.

For my third tour, I worked in the other principle design group: the controls group. However, this design group focused on a different product line than before- the T-Series product line. Now, instead of working from a product support standpoint, the majority of my time was spent improving upon a process or design to achieve simplicity in manufacturing or a cost reduction. I worked hand in hand with many six-sigma green belts and black belts in their projects. Working in the previous design group and Topss had prepared me, in this third stint, to take on significantly more responsibility in design decisions and manufacturing execution, and in this way, I felt that I was a very vital, contributing member to the company. My first two tours very much prepared me for the third where I was able to enjoy myself the most.

Alex Thomas, a graduate of Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Lexington, and a Mechanical Engineering Student at UK, worked at The Trane Company here in Lexington. See below what he had to say about his first rotation in the summer of 2006:

This summer, The Trane Company has given me the opportunity to work on the design aspect of several different projects. During the first few weeks of work, I worked alongside a former Trane co-op, to finish a major ongoing project. At this time I was able to quickly familiarize myself with Autodesk Mechanical Desktop, one of the design programs utilized at Trane. By using this program, I have learned how to construct 3D models of piece parts, constrain these parts together to form assemblies, and create drawings and engineering documents that represent these assemblies.

I was also assigned to do several projects on my own using Mechanical Desktop. One of these major projects included changing the gauge of steel used in certain modules. Another project changed to a larger diameter bearing used in grease lines, to prevent these bearings from popping out of the steel channel. I edited the existing parts, assemblies, and drawings to represent these changes. I also participated in a product audit with an engineer, where a near-finished unit was disassembled and it is inspected for any problems, both inside and out.

Most importantly, these projects have given me an idea of what role engineers play within a company, and the influence that their work has on a product. I have seen some of how the business world works and how Trane operates as a company. I have experienced the importance of communication and working as a team to achieve a goal within a large company like Trane.

Trey Gilliam, also a first-time coop student at The Trane Company, learned that what he learned at UK is only half of what he needs to succeed in the "real world":

Working at the Trane Company has proved to be an invaluable experience. My initial expectations of the job were not at all realized. I have found the workload to be much more demanding and realistic than I had imagined before starting. The primary lesson learned from my first co-op tour pertains to the inner workings of a large scale manufacturing facility.

Working as a co-op is not at all what I expected. My expectation coming in was to be bored day in and day out, with nothing more than pure busy work to occupy my time. The first day on the job seemed to be the icing on the cake, as I spent the entire afternoon printing files to be inserted into a 3-ring binder. However, upon my second day of work I was given an assignment which was fairly involved. I have more or less received what I would consider non-busy work since then. However, the level of involvement, difficulty, and importance of my work seems to be atypical for co-op students. The group in which I was placed is the sole reason for this fact. The biggest reality adjustment for me was adapting to the dynamics of a large scale company. Coursework at UK teaches students to be analytical thinkers, with the ability to recognize and solve engineering problems. While this skill is important, in my opinion, it only serves as half the work done at Trane. Particularly, learning to successfully interact with co-workers to achieve a common goal was a more prevalent concern. When multiple individuals, each with their own jobs, attempt to reconcile their work together, many problems arise. Learning to overcome these problems and rely on myself to search out solutions was the biggest lesson learned while working at Trane.

In short, the primary adjustment was realizing that a large majority of engineering is not truly engineering, but rather adapting oneself to successfully interact with co-workers.

Besides the typical co-op filler work (changing title blocks, printing pages, etc), I have received many larger projects. My largest project is an estimated $160,000 cost reduction redesign. The project has called for me, with the aid of my supervisor, to work with marketing, engineering, programming, and even management. All parties within the company had to reach a consensus before I was able to begin work to implement the new design. The project will take approximately 8 months to complete. This co-op has taught me to balance and distribute workloads, as well as better ways to handle stress created in the workplace.

This job has proved to be a very valuable experience. I have formed a new opinion of what engineering is really all about. I was shocked to learn that engineers must serve as drafters, accountants, and other titles which would seemingly be fulfilled through other individuals. I have learned to view problems and solutions outside the box, and to consider the company wide effects my actions will take. I have developed stronger interpersonal skills, as I daily have to communicate with employees for help. I have had opportunities to expand my presentation and technical writing skills. I have even scheduled my own meetings, and held conference calls with Trane employees in London , England . The largest benefit has been learning to be self-sufficient. Working efficiently has required that I take tasks upon myself, and not rely on others to provide me with guidance, whether I feel said guidance should be provided to me or not.