At a time when manufacturers are under pressure to recruit skilled workers and preserve expertise as experienced employees retire, Trinity Forge is highlighting a less common workforce asset: longevity. The Texas manufacturer is celebrating two employees who have each reached 50 years of service, giving the company a combined century of institutional knowledge across forging, machining, engineering and quality operations.

For most manufacturers, retaining skilled employees for five decades is almost unheard of. At Trinity Forge, it has happened twice.

Trinity Forge, a Mansfield, Texas-based manufacturer founded in 1955, is recognizing Richard Hughes and Don Moody after both employees reached 50 years of service. Hughes is the first employee in the company’s history to reach the milestone, with Moody following shortly afterward.

The company will mark the occasion with an employee celebration on August 25 at its Mansfield facility.

The recognition is more than an anniversary milestone. It offers a window into a workforce challenge facing manufacturers: how to retain experienced workers while transferring highly specialized knowledge to employees entering increasingly technology-driven production environments.

Hughes and Moody have spent their careers watching Trinity Forge evolve from a traditional forging operation using mechanical board hammers and gas furnaces into a modern manufacturer combining closed-die forging, precision machining, engineering and quality systems.

That progression mirrors a broader shift across manufacturing.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that more than 12.8 million people worked in manufacturing in 2024 and projects nearly 1 million annual openings in production occupations between 2024 and 2034, largely driven by workers leaving occupations, including through retirement.

For manufacturers, that makes institutional knowledge increasingly valuable. A technician or quality specialist who has spent decades understanding equipment behavior, production processes and customer specifications can carry knowledge that is difficult to reproduce through formal documentation alone.

Two careers spanning manufacturing’s technology transition

Hughes joined Trinity Forge directly out of high school in 1976, initially working in the forge department alongside his father and brothers.

His career later moved into tooling and the die shop, where he served as supervisor before transferring into engineering. He now works as an engineering technician, bringing decades of hands-on forging experience into a function increasingly dependent on engineering precision and modern manufacturing technology.

His career provides a particularly clear picture of manufacturing’s transition from labor-intensive processes toward more sophisticated production and engineering environments.

“When I started here out of high school, I never imagined I would be celebrating 50 years,” Hughes said, describing the people he worked with as one of the most meaningful parts of his career.

Moody’s connection to Trinity Forge began even earlier. He first joined the company in 1967 before leaving for two years of service as a U.S. Army infantry soldier during the Vietnam War.

After returning, he worked across multiple manufacturing and quality roles, including operating forging hammers, becoming one of Trinity Forge’s early quality-control inspectors and later serving as a forging supervisor.

He currently works as a Quality Assurance Specialist, applying knowledge gained across decades of production and inspection work.

The two employees therefore represent more than tenure. Their experience spans multiple layers of the manufacturing process, from forging and tooling to engineering, supervision and quality assurance.

Why long-tenured workers matter to modern manufacturers

The challenge facing companies such as Trinity Forge is not simply hiring enough people. It is preserving the knowledge that experienced employees accumulate over years of solving production problems.

NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership has identified attracting and retaining qualified workers as a major manufacturing challenge, citing factors including an aging workforce, retirements and changing skill requirements caused by advanced technology.

NIST also recommends that manufacturers identify roles vulnerable to retirement, document processes and standard work, and build succession plans to preserve institutional knowledge.

That issue is becoming more complicated as factories adopt automation, connected equipment, digital quality systems and AI-enabled tools. New workers increasingly need both traditional hands-on skills and the ability to operate within digitally enabled production environments.

Deloitte’s 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook similarly identifies talent as a central issue for manufacturers, noting that more than one-third of 600 manufacturing executives surveyed in 2025 identified equipping workers with the skills and knowledge needed for smart manufacturing as a top concern.

In that environment, long-tenured employees can become an important part of workforce development. Their value is not limited to the tasks they perform; it also includes their ability to explain why processes work, recognize abnormalities and teach less experienced employees how to respond.

Experience as a workforce strategy

Trinity Forge CEO John Fairbanks said Hughes and Moody have contributed through periods of growth, technological change and operational challenges.

The company’s current operations span industries including aerospace, agriculture, automotive, defense, mining, oil and gas, power generation and railway and mass transit. These sectors often require tight tolerances, traceability and consistent quality, making accumulated process knowledge particularly relevant.

The company is positioning the two 50-year careers as examples of the value of experience and mentorship in skilled manufacturing.

That distinction matters as manufacturers consider how to respond to the next wave of workforce change. Technology can automate tasks and make information easier to access, but it does not automatically recreate decades of practical judgment.

For enterprise HR and operations leaders, the lesson is straightforward: retention, succession planning and knowledge transfer are increasingly connected. A workforce strategy that focuses only on filling vacancies may overlook the operational risk created when experienced employees leave without transferring what they know.

Trinity Forge’s milestone puts that issue into unusually concrete terms. Two employees have collectively accumulated 100 years of experience inside one manufacturing organization.

As manufacturing becomes more automated, digitally connected and technically demanding, preserving that kind of human expertise may be just as important as investing in the machines themselves.

Market Landscape

The manufacturing workforce is entering a period in which skills development, retention and knowledge transfer are becoming strategic HR functions rather than administrative concerns.

BLS data shows the scale of the replacement challenge, with nearly 1 million annual openings projected in production occupations through 2034. NIST meanwhile identifies aging workers, retirement and changing technology requirements as important contributors to manufacturing’s talent challenge.

The implication for HR and operations teams is significant. Digital workplace systems, learning platforms and workforce analytics can help organizations identify critical skills and succession risks, but manufacturers also need structured mentorship and documentation programs.

The emerging model is therefore less about choosing between experienced workers and technology. It is about using technology to capture, transfer and extend human expertise while developing the next generation of skilled workers.

NIST’s 2026 manufacturing competency framework reinforces this direction, identifying 132 occupations and 235 knowledge, skill and ability requirements associated with advanced manufacturing through 2030.

Top Insights

• Trinity Forge employees Richard Hughes and Don Moody each reached 50 years of service, creating a rare 100-year combined manufacturing knowledge milestone.
• Hughes and Moody’s careers span forging, tooling, engineering, supervision and quality assurance, illustrating how institutional knowledge accumulates across manufacturing functions.
• U.S. manufacturing faces substantial workforce replacement needs, with BLS projecting nearly one million annual production-occupation openings through 2034.
• NIST recommends formal knowledge capture, succession planning and workforce development as manufacturers confront retirements and changing technology requirements.
• The milestone highlights why HR and operations leaders increasingly need retention, mentorship and skills-transfer strategies alongside automation and digital manufacturing investments.

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