CHILLICOTHE, OH – Kenworth cabs are heading to new heights thanks to a second storey being added to a production facility in Chillicothe, Ohio. The $17-million building-on-building will soon hold painted parts like cabs and hoods, which to this point have been stored outside.

Think of it as an automated vending machine for cabs, which are lifted into the space until being lowered back onto the assembly line when they’re needed. “That is to be commissioned in November to avoid another winter of having cabs in the snow,” plant manager Judy McTigue said during a briefing to industry media today. “We’ll have employees doing more value-added activity as opposed to tugging product around.”

The plant’s day shift is now running at full capacity, accounting for 80 trucks per day, and the facility’s overall build rate is now approaching 128 trucks per day. That’s down from the maximum capacity of more than 150 per day that was reached last year, but still represents a relatively healthy market.

“Kenworth did a good job with keeping their eye on a market and feathering us down the way we needed to,” McTigue says, referring to how production was adjusted. “Because of that we’ve been very stable this year.”

“The forecast that we have for 2016 is that Class 8 will be a market for 220,000 units to 250,000 units,” added Kurt Swihart, director of marketing, referring to North American sales. That will be the third-highest market in this decade, even though it’s down from the breakneck pace of 280,000. “It’s still a very good market,” he says.

Thank strong market fundamentals. Truck tonnage has reached record levels in the last couple of months, and manufacturing indicators are expanding. Consumers are spending again. Housing has also reached levels not seen in a decade, while aggregate construction is as high as it’s been since 2007.

“We hear stories from dealers that say it’s difficult for them to even keep stock dump trucks on their dealer lots,” Swihart says.

Then there’s the matter of oil, which is climbing closer to US $50 per barrel. The low values have helped fleets lower operating costs, although that is at the expense of fracking operations. “That could turn from being a slight headwind for the industry back into a tailwind that will help to drive business,” he says of the oil price.

The market for Kenworth trucks has changed in other ways. As recently as 2013 – the same year that the T880 first went into production — Kenworth was building 10 to 15 T680s per day. “Now when you walk through the factory it’s very difficult to find one of those legacy models,” he says. “We’ve really seen the product transition.”

The T680 is the flagship on-highway platform, launched in 2012, and now represents more than half the trucks the company sells. “We continue to see that overall take rate as a percentage of what we’re selling increase,” he says. The goal is between 50 and 60%. “The vocational business is a big part of Kenworth’s business as well.”

The production process itself is “completely different” than the one existed five years ago, Swihart adds, referring to enhancements that have been made.

The one thing that remains relatively unchanged are many of the faces in the 42-year-old facility. The average tenure at the plant is 15 years, although some employees have been here close to 40 years. And McTigue says the plant is ready to hire a third generation of employees. “When a father or mother gets hired here they would love their children to be hired here,” she says.