Our driving purpose is to dramatically improve roadway safety by developing innovative lighting technologies that:

  • Enhance driver vision and response time,
  • Increase pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle visibility,
  • Reduce on-coming and rear-approaching high beam glare,
  • Extend safe beam range farther ahead, around corners and onto the right shoulder,
  • Improve driver situational awareness with augmented reality (AR) driver alerts, and
  • Automate driving systems by integrating active sensors, processors, cameras, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

It’s a bold vision we’re driven to bring to light.

North American Lighting (NAL) is a member of the Japan-based Koito Group of companies and has been manufacturing automotive lighting systems for vehicle manufacturers since 1983. Today, we are the largest lighting supplier to automotive OEMs in North America. With eight facilities in the United States, NAL provides advanced lighting technology, engineering design expertise, and state-of-the-art production capabilities to auto makers based in North America and beyond. This, combined with our global network of Koito Group companies, uniquely positions NAL to meet increasing global demand for safe, energy-efficient, eco-friendly, intelligent automotive lighting systems.

NAL designs, engineers and manufactures state-of-the-art automotive lighting systems for major automotive manufacturers in North America and around the world. As a tier one OEM supplier, NAL is recognized for delivering best-in-class quality, value and customer satisfaction. By tightly integrating our people, processes, technologies and business systems, NAL has become a trusted partner with the talent to transform fantastic lighting design concepts into manufacturable automotive jewels. Our stylists, optical engineers and program managers work closely with OEM launch teams from concept to product rollout, to create distinctive designs that define the signature gaze of many of today’s most popular brands.

The Kaizen Way

In Japanese, kaizen means change for the better, or simply improvement. Kaizen refers to improvements that are small or large, one-time or continuous, individual or organizational, and can apply to people, processes and products. Kaizen is the heart of the Koito Production System (KPS), and is a daily practice that involves people at all levels of the organization. At its best, kaizen teaches individuals—and especially teams—how to observe, measure, experiment, verify and document improvements in their work.

From Kaizen Comes Innovation

Innovations are not typically the result of the spontaneous invention of a totally new technology. Innovations arise gradually, from many small incremental improvements developed and implemented over time. As this process of collaboration, iteration and refinement becomes integral to an organization’s culture, cross-functional teams are free to reengineer long-established ideas, processes, materials or technologies. In this way small, incremental change can add up to big improvements that lead to breakthrough innovations.

This is kaizen. This is the North American Lighting way.

The days of throwing a design over the wall to engineering are gone. It takes cross-functional teams, collaboration and deep insight to solve today’s tough engineering and design challenges.

NAL’s Silicon Valley Lab (SVL) continues to create new mobility partnerships to cement our position as the world’s leading exterior automotive lighting supplier. As transformational changes in the way we commute continue to evolve, SVL explores ways in which sensors necessary for ADAS and autonomous vehicles, such as lidar, radar and camera, can be housed in exterior automotive lighting.  Since our inception in 2017, we have supported the automotive industry’s necessary disruption by increasing both a vehicle’s technology and safety to provide drivers, passengers and pedestrians a seamless experience without compromising well-being. The Koito Group through Silicon Valley Lab will continue to partner with innovative startups to guide us into the future.

Ryosuke Hara

Project Director, NAL Silicon Valley Lab, NAL Silicon Valley Lab

Where Innovation & Technology Come To Light.

See What's Ahead.

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