Data analytics and software development.
When it comes to residential and commercial lighting, there’s one name that stands out—Lutron Electronics. The Coopersburg, Pennsylvania-based company has been the gold standard for over 60 years. Whether for homeowners searching for ways to reduce energy usage or for commercial developers looking to build sustainability into their projects, Lutron’s energy-saving light, shade, and temperature control systems set the standard for the industry.
As Lutron’s product line and manufacturing processes have grown over the years, so has the amount of data required in its day-to-day operations. Lutron wanted to make the data manageable and accessible, and they turned to our team to make that a reality.
As a trusted partner for over eight years, the Lutron team knew that we had the right understanding of its operational needs, IT infrastructure, and team to help design a solution.
Lutron was looking to increase efficiency when managing their complex data set.
Created a secure, scalable system for fabric data, with real-time tracking and a workflow approval process.
Lutron saw an increase in efficiency, faster updates, and improved data quality, all while making operations more scalable.
Lutron came to us with an interesting dilemma. The company offers the selection of a vast range of textile colors and materials for its shading product line. Keeping the textile data synced between design and manufacturing created a large, complex data set.
E Glenn Denison, Software Development Manager at Lutron, said textile engineers were facing a significant challenge with the data set—a challenge that was time-consuming and increasingly unsustainable. The data management challenge was made more difficult since the textile engineers are not software developers.
“They had to deal with a very complex amount of fabric asset data that needed to be tracked for our bespoke customized window treatments. The project goal was essentially creating a database schema to show how all of those parts and pieces came together,” Denison says.
With its existing solution, Lutron could make database only updates four times a year. As Denison says, the textile data is very complex, with over 144 distinct data columns that need to be maintained. The change process itself was also complex. A cross-functional team meeting was required for every change made in the existing system to ensure the changes were reflected across inventory, manufacturing, and sales.
We had a vision, and we had no way to realize that vision. I cannot imagine another consulting firm I’ve worked with that could have delivered a solution this effective for our unique needs in the time and budget the project had available.
Lutron is a leader in automation both externally and internally, but there was still a need for specialized database expertise that was beyond their in-house capabilities. We knew there was internal buy-in to design and deploy a scalable solution enabling Lutron to automate many of the existing manual processes.
“We knew it required database specialization that we did not have on the team. We didn’t have anyone with that kind of background, and we needed a team that could be self-driven and lead the software development process all the way through delivery, validation, and support,” says Denison.
We worked with Denison and the Lutron team to design an application and data store that centralized window shade fabric information. Lutron wanted a solution that would be secure, easy to maintain, and—most critically—made into a consumable asset that could be used across all of Lutron’s internal systems and applications.
The solution included a relational SQL Server database model and a front-end data entry and management system. The new system stores all fabric data and tracks changes made to any fabric property in real-time.
For the new system, Lutron still wanted this ability to review all changes being made to the data and to allow a release of the data only once it was approved by all affected parties on the changed data. All data changes are now within a staging environment and are moved to production through a workflow approval process.
“Green Leaf brought us not just an architectural solution, but also recommended off-the-shelf components that we could leverage to accomplish what we wanted. One particular technology that stands out is Kendo UI. It delivered a web-based grid view for viewing and manipulating data that gave our textile engineers an Excel-like workflow that they were comfortable with. Green Leaf has a lot of empathy for the customer, whether it’s a Lutron end-customer or an internal employee, and understanding what their real needs are so that they can make a better solution recommendation,” Denison says.
The new solution empowered Lutron’s fabric team to make changes, get approvals, and deploy changes—all while reducing risky data inconsistencies. Working on the solution also helped the Lutron team recognize they were solving a more extensive problem around managing engineering data across its multiple business teams.
“This improved data quality, which impacts customer satisfaction. We want to ensure our customers are getting the right products, and that means reliably having the right data. We’ve seen significant improvements across the board in how that’s managed,” says Denison.
With the new system, Lutron realized a:
Discover how Green Leaf Consulting Group’s strategic IT solutions can bring you growth through technology. Contact Neil McCole at neilm@greenleafgrp.com or (484) 535-4405.