TECO-Westinghouse Motor Co. is a global manufacturer, but the company’s facilities on I-35 have led a rather anonymous existence since opening in 1972, TECO President Pat Rogers said. To passersby the most notable features of the property are its longhorn cattle grazing the pasture in front of the plant, and most locals do not know what the company does, he said. Rogers, appointed president in February, said his goal is to change that awareness. “We’re not just the big brown building on I-35 with the longhorns,” he said. “We actually manufacture some pretty neat things here.” The company has been in existence in some iteration since the 1800s and produces electric motors varying from 2,000 horsepower to 100,000 horsepower that are used in applications from air conditioning units to oilfield pipelines. TECO has a global clientele that includes Marathon Petroleum Corp., American Electric Power and Fluor Corp., an engineering company. The Round Rock manufacturing facility is TECO’s North American headquarters. The Taiwan-based TECO has plants in Europe, Asia and Oceania. More than 2,000 employees make up the global TECO workforce, and about 350 staff the Round Rock site, said Human Resources Manager Lori Schrayer. But Rogers said one of his first orders of business as president is to help the company transition from an aging baby boomer workforce in an age in which manufacturing jobs have become less attractive to younger generations, he said. “This whole industry—and it’s not just us—in general is coping with the fact that we need fresh blood,” Rogers said. Rogers has also been presiding over an evolution of sorts at the company. In January, TECO shipped its first variable-frequency drive motor, which marks the first step in its introduction of high-tech products. The new product combines an industrial age device, the motor, with a digital age technology in computer hardware and software. The computerized nature of the device allows users to vary the speed at which the motor operates and thus conserve energy, said Tom Hibbs, director of operations. “Customers put a motor and drive together, and they typically spend a lot of money to do that,” Rogers said. “It’s typically on applications that are very critical to their process. If that goes down for any particular reason, we’ve been told by customers it could cost $1 million a day in lost revenue for them.” TECO’s rollout of the variable-frequency drive is part of its charge into the 21st century, Rogers said.