Lights-out manufacturing is production that runs fully automated without people on site, so lights, and sometimes heating, can be switched off. In practice it usually means unattended shifts rather than a permanently empty factory.
The idea is old. Robot makers, machine tool builders and electronics and semiconductor plants have run parts of their operations unattended for decades. The usual pattern is a staffed day shift that sets up machines, loads material and handles problems, followed by unattended night or weekend running.
Running lights-out requires more than robots. Material must be staged for hours of work: pallet pools, bar feeders, part magazines, automated storage. Machines need in-process measurement, tool-life management and broken-tool detection so that a fault stops one cell instead of scrapping a night's output. Remote monitoring and alarms send notifications to on-call staff. Processes must be stable and repeatable.
Fully lights-out plants remain rare. Setups, changeovers, maintenance, quality problems and material handling still need people. CNC machining, for example, often requires human intervention to remove finished parts and set up new jobs. The term is also used loosely for any facility with high automation, including so-called dark factories. The useful question for a given line is not whether it can run with no one present, but how many hours it can run unattended before someone must intervene.
Questions about Lights-out manufacturing
What does lights-out mean in practice?
The term lights-out is used loosely for any facility with high automation, including so-called dark factories. Strictly, it means production that runs fully automated without people on site. In practice it usually means unattended shifts rather than a permanently empty factory.
What do you need before lights-out manufacturing works?
Material staged for hours of work, in-process measurement, tool-life management and broken-tool detection, plus remote monitoring that sends alarms to on-call staff. The processes themselves must be stable and repeatable.
Are fully lights-out factories common?
No, they remain rare. Setups, changeovers, maintenance, quality problems and material handling still need people. The usual pattern is a staffed day shift followed by unattended night or weekend running.
Lights-out manufacturing in real plants
- Mandom and Universal Robots: Cosmetics maker Mandom built an unmanned production line for trial product bottles in-house around UR3e, UR5e and UR10e cobots.
- Liebherr and Yaskawa Electric: At its Telfs plant, Liebherr builds bulldozer track roller frames in an autonomous manufacturing cell from Yaskawa with three Motoman robots that handle and weld the parts.
Related terms
AGV (automated guided vehicle)
An AGV (automated guided vehicle) is a driverless vehicle that moves materials along fixed or predefined paths, guided by floor wires, magnetic tape, reflectors or markers, in factories and warehouses.
Bin picking
Bin picking is a robotic task in which a robot, guided by a vision system, locates and grasps individual parts from a container where they lie in random positions and orientations.
Cobot (collaborative robot)
A cobot (collaborative robot) is an industrial robot designed to work in close proximity to people, with safety functions that limit speed, force, or distance so that fencing can be reduced or removed after a risk assessment.
Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is the umbrella term for connecting and computerizing manufacturing through cyber-physical systems, networked sensors, and data analysis.
Physical AI
Physical AI is AI that perceives, reasons about, and acts in the physical world, typically through robots, vehicles, or machines.