The section of the MakerBot factory where the MakerBot Replicator Z18 gets made didn’t get much overhead light, so fluorescent tubes were hung above each workstation. The assembly line workers weren’t used to the brightness, however, and some switched them off.

Scott Hraska, manufacturing engineering manager at MakerBot’s Brooklyn factory, knew that good lighting improves worker safety, productivity, and quality control. So he asked an intern to design a rectangular cap to cover the light switch, with two holes for zip ties to fasten it to the workstation frame.

“That’s all it does,” Hraska says of the light switch cover. “But that’s something you can’t buy—and it works really well.”

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