LC&D Completes Major Expansion Project to Keep up With Record
Production Demands. Capacity More Than Doubled vs. Prior Year.

Summary

Lighting Components and Design today announced completion of a major expansion project which doubles its total production capacity vs. that of just twelve months ago.

Jon Cooper, President of LC&D, went on to identify these events in just the past 12 months:

• 30% Year-to-year growth vs. 2000; 75% increase vs. 1999.
• Doubling of sales "conservatively projected "for 2001 vs. 1998.
• Infrastructure now in place to support full second shift production from only a nominal second shift operation in 1999-2000.
• Resulting in the ability to support a doubling in production with no additional increase in floor space over the next 2-3 years.

Complete Story

Lighting Components and Design today announced completion of a major expansion project which increases its manufacturing assembly floor space by over 75%, increases warehouse capacity through automation, and more than doubles its total production capacity vs. that of just twelve months ago.

In a meeting held at its Deerfield Beach Florida Conference Facility on Thursday, January 18, 2000. The company’s President, Jon Cooper, went on to identify these major events of the past 12 months.

• "30% Year-to-year growth reported vs. 2000; 75% Increase vs. 1999.
• "Doubling of sales "conservatively projected "for 2001 vs. 1998.
• "Infrastructure in terms of people, equipment and facilities now in place to support full second shift production up from only a nominal second shift operation in 1999-2000.
• "Resulting in the ability to support a doubling in production with no additional increase in floor space over the next 2-3 years.

He continued: "If we have learned anything from the growth of the past two years, it is that we must eliminate any infrastructure constraints as early in advance of need as is prudent. We therefore conducted a critical study during the first half of 2000 that identified constraints that would come into play if our volumes were to continue their record growth.

"Constraints were identified in several key areas, and plans put in place to address each one by year end 2000. Almost all of these have now been resolved, with the exception of a few activities which are ongoing (training, some work-cell redesign, etc.):

• Assembly Production Constraints in terms of space, people (supervisors and assemblers), training, traffic pattern workstation design and equipment.
• Materials Management Constraints in terms of warehouse receiving, inspection and storage.
• Engineering, Customer Service, Information Systems and Administrative Constraints.

"We made great progress in all of these areas, which should be visible to even the most casual observer:

• Redesigned and expanded manufacturing floor space. A 75% increase in space dedicated to assembly operations and a great improvement in the efficiency of those operations though work-cell redesign and optimization.
• Installation of Automated Vertical Storage Systems consisting of seven separate modules, each more than 20’ high. This greatly reduced the need for additional warehouse space, but even more importantly, it sped up the movement of raw materials "from dock-to-stock-to-floor-to-customer" while improving quality by reducing damage and errors in handling, reducing materials loss and improving space utilization and materials management.
• Created an R&D Lab, as a supplement to our expanded engineering and design facilities.
• Made numerous "quality of life" improvements to the work environment, improving the manufacturing floor layout and operations, expanding and improving our cafeteria, plant, quality assurance, customer support and administrative offices."

About Lighting Components and Design, Inc.

For further information about LC&D: who we are, what we do, company history, ISO/TS 16949:2002, recent developments, etc., click here.