 One gigabyte. That's how much data is processed every second through Snap-on Incorporated's fiberwires, which amounts of to billions of page views per month. Snap-on Business Solutions, the tool company's technology arm, celebrated continued growth with the opening of a new facility last week in Richfield, Ohio.
The new 105,000-square-foot facility, a combination of the division's Richfield and Wooster, Ohio, locations, boasts environmental friendliness and streamlined data processing. An extension of the company's tool offerings, Snap-on Business Solutions offers electronic catalogs, software solutions and other technology-focused products for automotive, powersports and power equipment markets. Snap-on commemorated the opening of the new facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which included Nicholas T. Pinchuk, chairman and CEO of Snap-on Inc.; Tim Chambers, president of Snap-on Business Solutions; Jerry Baracz, vice president of Finance, Snap-on Business Solutions; and Chris Burnham, president of the Summit County Port Authority. Also on hand were representatives of major auto manufacturers. After the ceremony, in conjunction with the opening events, Pinchuk hosted an automotive industry roundtable discussion with the automotive executives. A year in the making, the new facility spans 105,000 square feet and is becoming LEED Certified. According to the
U.S. Green Building Council, “LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” The new Snap-on facility incorporates energy-saving lighting and other elements that reduce electrical costs by 20 percent, while modern bathrooms with "waterless" and paperless amenities is expected to save 243,000 gallons of water per year. The data center has also reduced its electrical consumption by more than 40 percent. Chambers says that this enables the company to continue its innovations, like "VIN filtering," which opens access to information on 20,000 parts per vehicle. "If you can understand a VIN, you can figure out a lot more about the car." He adds: "Innovation is part of our heritage. It's what we do every day." | ||||
