Todd Bluedorn, president, Carrier North America Commercial, said in a statement that the move is intended to leverage its manufacturing scale and to simplify its business model. “Consistent with this strategy, we are moving assembly of the McMinnville product lines into other Carrier factories producing common product platforms,” he said.

Carrier also announced in October 2003 it is closing its Syracuse, N.Y., plant by next June. The manufacturing of container refrigeration and compressors from this plant is moving to its existing plants in Georgia, Singapore and China.

In other news, Carrier introduced the Infinity™ System of furnace and air conditioning products. The system includes Infinity Control, which controls all six core comfort functions - temperature, humidity, air flow, ventilation, indoor air quality and zoning - in a single unit.

It allows the homeowner to program an entire week's comfort schedule using plain language prompts. The control also monitors the system and gives prompts concerning furnace and air conditioner maintenance issues and provides a phone number of an authorized dealer. The TrueSense™ dirty-filter detection alerts users when their air filter needs to be changed.

The Infinity Control will have the ability to “phone home” if there is a system problem, via a remote access kit available in mid-2004. In the event of service need, the system will automatically contact the dealer or homeowner through a wireless network and generate a phone and e-mail message.