Pete Connor has dedicated his career to solving one of manufacturing’s most persistent challenges: helping production lines perform the way they were designed to perform.
As Founder and CEO of Optimized Lines, Pete has spent more than 78,000 hours on production floors across North America, helping manufacturers recover lost capacity, improve throughput, reduce downtime, and achieve measurable operational results. His experience spans engineering, system design, equipment integration, automation, troubleshooting, optimization, and leadership, making him one of the industry’s most experienced production line performance specialists.
What drives Pete is a simple belief:
Most plants don’t need new equipment to hit their targets—they need to get more out of the equipment they already have.
That philosophy became the foundation of Optimized Lines and the EMPOWER™ Capacity Recovery System.
Throughout his career, Pete has designed and implemented thousands of production system improvements, developed prototype machinery to solve seemingly impossible challenges, and led teams responsible for optimizing some of the most demanding production environments in the food and beverage industry.
His expertise extends far beyond individual machines. Pete specializes in understanding how entire production systems behave—how fillers, conveyors, accumulators, controls, operators, maintenance practices, and production demands interact to either create flow or create bottlenecks.
This systems-level perspective is what ultimately led him to develop the Optimized Lines approach to Capacity Recovery.
Over the years, Pete noticed a common pattern.
Plants were investing heavily in equipment, maintenance programs, consultants, and improvement initiatives, yet many continued to struggle with the same recurring problems:
The problem wasn’t a lack of effort.
The problem was a lack of clarity.
As discussed throughout the development of the Optimized Lines methodology, Pete recognized that most manufacturers were solving individual symptoms while the true constraints remained hidden within the system. Rather than focusing on isolated machine issues, he developed a process for identifying the entire chain of interactions limiting performance. This philosophy ultimately became the foundation of the company’s Clarity → Capacity → Capability framework and the EMPOWER™ Capacity Recovery System.
Pete’s career has never been confined to a single discipline.
He has served as:
He has built prototype machines to solve unique manufacturing challenges, redesigned production systems in real time, and helped customers recover capacity without unnecessary capital expenditures.
His approach has always been practical:
“We’re engineers that design the lines. We go in and redesign them on the fly. We take what’s there and make their production lines flow.”
Optimized Lines was founded around a simple idea:
Manufacturers deserve a partner focused on helping them maximize the assets they already own—not selling them more equipment.
The company was built to provide something Pete felt was often missing in the industry:
Today, Optimized Lines serves as a trusted Capacity Recovery partner for manufacturers seeking more output, greater reliability, and stronger operational performance without unnecessary capital spending.
Pete’s vision extends beyond recovering capacity.
He believes lasting improvement occurs when organizations move through a progression:
Clarity → Capacity → Capability → Results
That’s why every engagement focuses not only on improving equipment performance but also on developing the people and systems needed to sustain those improvements long-term.
“When we’re making improvements on a plant floor, that isn’t work to me—it’s fun.”
That enthusiasm for solving problems, improving performance, and helping manufacturers succeed remains at the heart of everything Optimized Lines does today.
What makes Pete unique is not simply his technical expertise—it is his ability to see opportunities where others see limitations.
For decades, manufacturers have been told that more production requires more equipment.
Pete’s experience has repeatedly demonstrated something different:
The fastest path to improved performance is often already sitting on the production floor.
By helping manufacturers uncover hidden capacity, eliminate constraints, and build stronger operational systems, Pete and the Optimized Lines team continue to help companies transform underperforming production lines into reliable drivers of growth, profitability, and long-term success.
