Save time and money. In manufacturing, that’s everything. Every plant manager wants a more efficient and productive manufacturing facility. The quest to gain greater levels of performance and achieve greater savings drives them to be strategic, innovative and agile. They leave no stone unturned in the search for cost and time savings. This is a key reason why the industrial control and automation market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 8 percent every year and will reach $200 billion in the U.S. this year . ALSO SEE: Improve Operational Efficiency for Food and Beverage Manufacturers In my work with manufacturers over the years, I’ve seen some incredibly clever and result-producing ideas spawned by smart owners and managers who have learned to optimize technology, process and workforce to drive results. But one thing that confounds me is that many of these bright folks have yet to embrace the tremendous potential for plant optimization that literally hangs right over their heads — in the lighting system. Not long ago, I toured a major U.S. production complex for a global consumer products company and I quickly zeroed in on the overhead lighting. What I observed underscores my dilemma. In this massive facility, with tens of thousands of square feet where state-of-the-art machines and hundreds of employees are hard at work, every space was lit by a patchwork of outdated, inefficient lighting that consume a lot of energy and maintenance resources. It’s enigmatic… state of the art equipment and people who operate it all being lit by inefficient, inconsistent lighting. Too many manufacturing facility managers don’t treat their lighting as a resource put through the same rigor as their other resources (machines/people) to demand better efficiencies and continuous savings. Traditional lighting is costly — it costs a lot […]