MHT Technologies’ reshoring initiative cuts production time for intelligent lighting systems by 70 percent.
New York City, USA – Smart-building lighting and technology firm MHT Technologies announced that the company’s MHT Lighting business will now build its intelligent lighting fixtures with a 100-percent onshore operation. The move restores the 15-year-old firm’s manufacturing operation to full U.S. production, which is how the company began.
MHT Technologies has operated a manufacturing facility on Staten Island, New York, since 2009. Originally, the LED light fixtures, and now the components that make those fixtures, talk to a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) network. These are the core products built and tested in MHT’s facility. Because it transmits both energy and data along the same cables, PoE is quickly becoming standard in smart buildings.
Marketplace Dynamics Make Onshore ‘Competitively Advantageous’
Like most U.S. manufacturers, MHT has contracted with international fabricators over the years, largely to keep product pricing aligned with market expectations. That need has been removed thanks to several shifting marketplace dynamics, including rising tariffs and import duties, certification changes required by other countries, as well as U.S. tax incentives related to the Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy facilities.
The return to 100 percent domestic manufacturing required MHT to invest in new equipment and a complete recreation of MHT’s assembly lines, as well as the addition of four team members. Since flipping the switch on the new manufacturing lines, the company reports a 70-percent reduction in delivery times. Combine that with the fact that MHT’s proprietary architecture typically requires much less hardware than competing providers, and MHT’s clients are realising meaningful savings as they build and renovate properties for the smart-building movement.
“We’re just one member of the larger U.S. smart-building community, which is eager to contribute to the reshoring of American manufacturing,” said MHT Technologies CEO Akram “AK” Khalis. “It was energising to hear phrases like ‘competitively advantageous’ replace those like ‘cost prohibitive’ as we researched onshore upgrades to our facility. With faster speeds to market, lower expenses, higher quality and quantity of output and much more predictable timelines, we expect to see a surge of integration projects in 2024.”
U.S. Manufacturers Control their Destiny, Accelerate Smart Building Movement
For Khalis, bringing 100-percent production back to New York is as personally fulfilling as it is professionally. Hailing from Casablanca, Morocco, the U.S. has long represented opportunity to the polymath, who holds a rare trifecta of engineering degrees within the mechanical, electrical and software disciplines.
“It’s humbling to be in a position to make this country stronger,” remarked Khalis. “The U.S. is poised to become an accelerator of intelligent buildings, which will push forward all kinds of worthy aspirations, from sustainability to workplace inclusion. The more in control we are of our destiny through strategies like onshore production, the faster that vision can become a reality.”
MHT’s 55,000 square feet facility is Electrical Testing Laboratories (ETL), Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001/15001 certified.
