Alcon Case Study

Industrial - Manufacturing

Alcon, a global leader in vision care, sets its eyes on increasing visibility in its facility while putting a lid on high energy costs with a LED lighting upgrade from National LED.

Alcon Case Study LED Lighting

The Opportunity

Alcon, a world leader in eye care, has been dedicated to helping people see brilliantly over the last 70 years. As the largest eye care device company in the world, they have been transforming how eye diseases get treated with a wide array of eye care offerings in both surgical and vision care businesses. Their corporate mission is to enhance quality of life by helping people see better. Ironically, employees suffered from poor visibility working in their facility due to poor fluorescent lighting. In order to honor their mission, Alcon set goals to improve overall visibility in its own warehouse facility, enhance safety, and improve energy efficiency in the process.

 

Over many years of operation, the existing T5 high output fluorescent luminaires had been the subject of a maintenance nightmare. Employees spent a significant amount of time replacing ballasts or lamps that had completely gone out, which can be overwhelming considering the facility covers four city blocks. More importantly, light levels were inconsistent, with areas only reading 10-15 footcandles where employees were working on important tasks. The team at Alcon turned to National LED to update the existing lighting system with energyefficient, long-life LED lighting for improved photometric performance and increased energy savings.

Alcon Case Study LED Lighting

The Solution

Alcon began looking at LED lighting solutions for its facilities several years ago and evaluated a number of manufacturers and installation companies. After much consideration, they concluded that partnering with National LED would fit both their lighting needs and financial requirements. The lighting experts at National LED collaborated with Alcon’s engineering team to develop a turnkey solution that could be deployed quickly and not interrupt operations. After new photometric layouts were generated, the large-scale project comprised of replacing over 550 T5 high output fluorescent luminaires with 300 US LED ExsaBay® LED High Bay luminaires. The ExsaBay® from US LED, is a scalable, high bay lighting solution that is designed specifically for large mounting heights and offers multiple optical distributions for specific areas like aisles in-between racking. Not only did visibility improve in the facility, the overall number of luminaires decreased, with some aisles only needing three luminaires each.

We are extremely happy with our new lighting. US LED consulted with us on the purchase of over 300 luminaires for our facility here in Houston, which takes up nearly four city blocks. The project was monstrous and the amount of information we received comforted us in knowing there is good engineering, design, and assembly for the lights we purchased.

Billy Morris | Engineering Technician | Alcon

The Benefits

Alcon has been pleased with the positive feedback from employees and is even more excited that with the new LED lighting, they no longer have to worry about constantly replacing lamps and ballasts in the facility. Before the new lighting, some plant operations would have to be halted to deal with the outages, costing both time and money. In addition to the reduction in maintenance, Alcon is enjoying the immediate financial impact on energy conservation in the warehouse. They’ve reduced their energy usage by over 50% and combined with their maintenance savings, amounts to over $66,000 annually. Alcon has also seen a supplemental benefit as employees have been more engaging in their work. With some areas reaching 40 footcandles now, employees have been able to complete their tasks more effectively and be more productive overall. With their new ultra-long-life LED lighting backed by a 10-year warranty, Alcon will enjoy issue-free lighting for many years to come.

Turn-Key LED solutions for maximum ROI

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