Case Study: North American Lighting accelerates assembly production and cuts tooling costs with MakerBot METHOD X 3D Printers

North American Lighting Accelerates Assembly Production With Makerbot 3d Printers

North American Lighting (NAL), a Koito Group company that manufactures automotive lighting systems, faced long lead times and high costs when outsourcing assembly tools and fixtures. To eliminate weeks-long waits and reduce disruption to production, NAL introduced MakerBot METHOD X 3D printers (with the MakerBot LABS extruder) to bring tooling and prototyping in-house.

Using MakerBot METHOD X, NAL prints end-of-arm tools, jigs, nest blocks and prototypes in materials like nylon carbon fiber and PolyMax™ PC, cutting tool cost by about one-third versus outsourced aluminum and reducing inventory by 50%. Lead times dropped from weeks to as little as 12 hours for parts and five days from design to assembly, nest blocks now cost under 10% of outsourcing, specific tool costs fell 25–30%, print times such as 48 minutes per gripper, and the company achieved ROI within months — prompting NAL to deploy five MakerBot printers across the facility.

North American Lighting

Joey Carpenter

Production Engineering Technician