Enabling your drive for improved manufacturing performance

Lighthouse Systems is one of the world's leading developers of factory information systems known as manufacturing execution systems. MES is configurable software that helps manufacturing companies achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, output, compliance, quality and customer satisfaction. Implementing MES also greatly assists in the drive for LEAN manufacturing.

You are no doubt working hard to get your manufacturing operations working towards world-class standards. Finding ways of making even the smallest improvements in performance and quality becomes an increasingly difficult and expensive challenge, yet this is the reality faced by most companies. The demands of customers and the pressures from competitors and shareholders are a constant force for change.

By focusing on the practical issues faced by manufacturers, we have devised powerful applications that are highly configurable and economical to run and support. They are readily understood and used at all levels from the shop floor to operational management through to group-wide management and executives.

Lighthouse factory information systems target the area that even the most sophisticated enterprise resources planning systems (ERP) are incapable of addressing - the availability of consistent production data that's essential to pinpointing problems in your production processes, identifying opportunities, effecting change or meeting regulatory requirements e.g. traceability data.

Most manufacturing operations record lots of operational data. The problem is that it is invariably locked up in a variety of different systems ranging from computer applications to spreadsheets and paper records with the ever-present possibility of human error. It's not accessible to everyone who might benefit from it, it's not consistent, it's rarely available when needed and it has to be reprocessed before it can be presented to management.

Our MES solution - the Shopfloor-Online MES Factory Information System - provides real-time visibility of the entire manufacturing environment. Being web based, the information it collects can be accessed by anyone who needs it - the operator of a particular machine, a colleague on another part of the line or the shift manager. It also makes it available to support functions: production engineering, maintenance, engineering, quality and, of course, operational management.

And the view is not just plant-wide: it can be used to see what's happening in any of your production units anywhere in the world. It can aggregate data from across plants to provide plant-by-plant performance metrics. The same data is a valuable repository for engineering functions that need to plan new product introductions.

Shopfloor-Online MES is also scalable; you can introduce in one part of the factory, then when proven extend it to other areas and expand the scope. The software is internationalised so can be deployed across all your plants across the world backed up with support from Lighthouse offices in Europe, USA or Asia.

It is based on the latest web-based architectures, it is certified by Microsoft, it slots in with your existing IT infrastructure and integrates with existing IT applications such as ERP.

The gains that come from such an integrated and systematic approach can be dramatic. By concentrating on the very heart of your manufacturing operations Shopfloor-Online MES gives you the means to reduce spoilage and downtime and improve quality, performance and on-time delivery. The companies that have adopted MES have demonstrated a payback that is typically measured in months.

Lighthouse MES systems are being used in a wide range of industries such as medical devices, packaging, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace, plastics and electronics. We work in partnership with corporate giants such as Rexam, Crown, Nissan, Toyota, BD and GE, and numerous smaller but highly progressive manufacturing companies.

A Lighthouse MES factory information system enables you to transform your manufacturing culture from one where operational and investment decisions rely on intuition and experience to one where they are based on accurate and consistent real-time information.

Our track record at implementation

As our products evolved so has the way we operate. Lighthouse is now involved with projects from conception through to pilots and roll-out, often on an international multi-site basis in industries as diverse as aerospace, automotive, plastics, packaging and medical devices.

Global capability

Lighthouse can deploy solutions worldwide because our software has been designed to be multi-lingual, multi-regional, and even multi-time-zoned. In addition we have the expertise of a multi-lingual team located in Lighthouse offices across Europe, USA and Asia.

Support

Exceptional customer support is key to mutual success. We provide dedicated support from the UK, USA, and Asia. Remote assistance is delivered with direct connections to customer networks or by internet meetings with desktop sharing via WebEx.

Partnerships with customers

The aim is to develop long-term partnerships with our customers to ensure that our solutions deliver the expected benefits and to use their feedback to evolve Lighthouse products to meet the changing demands on the manufacturing process.

Lighthouse Systems - A Brief History

1990

Lighthouse is established in the UK, developing Statistical Process Control software for quality management including SPC-Light, the first SPC solution for Microsoft Windows which has sold in over 40 countries with more than 15,000 installations in six languages.

1992

Lighthouse develops OEM partnerships with leading metrology companies such as DEA, Brown & Sharpe (now Hexagon Metrology) and ARL (now Thermo Electron) to sell SPC-Light, a seamlessly integrated SPC component that differentiated them from their competitors.

1993

Lighthouse signs strategic agreements with resellers across Europe and Asia.

1994

Lighthouse signs an OEM agreement with Quality Measuring Systems (QMS) to satisfy the growing demand for our products in the USA. SPC-Light was sold under the name of ANSTAT for Windows.

1999

Lighthouse announces the first version of Shopfloor-Online, a real-time shop-floor data collection and reporting system focusing on quality, SPC and production information.

2000

With multi-national clients now needing to deal direct rather than through an OEM partner, Lighthouse Systems opens its US office in Rochester NY. Reseller partnerships are set up throughout the USA.

2003

Lighthouse launches the web version of Shopfloor-Online MES factory information system with much improved production information capabilities giving it the power of a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

2006

Lighthouse opens its office in Singapore to service the expanding world-class manufacturing community in Asia.

2007

Lighthouse releases version 4.3 of Shopfloor-Online bringing in the Maintenance Management module and making substantial improvements to the browser based interface, making it more lightweight and optimised for use over wide-area networks.

2008

Lighthouse sign a distribution agreement with Magma in Israel for Magma to act as a Systems Integrator building solutions with Shopfloor-Online.

2009

Lighthouse releases version 4.7 of Shopfloor-Online, making further enhancements to light-weight the user interface within the browser. First customers move Shopfloor-Online into the cloud.

2010

Lighthouse sign distribution agreement with Atos Origin in USA, allowing Atos Origin to implement solutions with Shopfloor-Online.

2010

More than 200 Shopfloor-Online deployments are live across 33 countries.

2011

Lighthouse achieves growth in consolidated sales revenues of more than 40% in the financial year 2010 - 2011.

Lighthouse Systems Limited is company registered in England and Wales with a registration number of 2495151 and a registered office at Buchan Hill, Pease Pottage, Crawley, West Sussex RH11 9AP.