I started my working life 1992 in a PCB factory in the north of England. It was a baptism of fire: the manufacturer in question had just been acquired and was in the process of being turned around in what was, and still is, a hugely competitive electronics industry.
My boss was a guy called Alan, a man who left no cost-reducing stone unturned, even if this meant getting rid of a few hundred people or replacing a staffed full-service canteen with a row of vending machines – that’s what had to be done to save the business. Monty Burns would have admired him.
Alan was a seasoned turnaround expert, who was proud that, on a previous mission, he knew he was starting to make a difference when he drove home one night and found that someone had sprayed in a local bus stop outside the factory: ‘Alan M***** is a bas****.’
So what has this got to do with lighting? Well, as the cost-cutting juggernaut rolled on, I found myself removing half of the fluorescent tubes in the multi-lamp fittings – as an instant energy saving measure.
It worked. We reduced lighting-related energy use by 40 per cent in a matter of days, which was a big number in a 24/7 factory. Nobody really noticed, because they were more concerned about losing their jobs and bacon sandwiches from the canteen than the loss of a few hundred lux on the working plane.
The strange thing was, this particular factory was built in the 1930s and had north-facing windows, so was bathed in daylight. However, in the 1980s it was modernised and someone installed a false ceiling to give a the place a more modern feel, at the same time blocking out all of the light, which meant the factory needed constant artificial illumination and the free light was wasted above the ceiling.
This meant that for six days a week during the winter months, I never got to experience daylight. I entered the building when it was dark outside, and left when it was dark outside. It was a strange existence.
Despite Alan’s best efforts, the factory rumbled on for a few more years, and eventually closed, unable to stop the tide of manufacturing drifting to the Far East – probably to factories with lighting a hundred times worse.
The challenge lighting always faces in the workplace is that it is seen as a pure cost, not as a productivity tool that can affect your mood and your ability to perform tasks. I was amazed to hear a presentation at our recent retail lighting conference about a lighting design approach at a women’s clothes shop in Germany that resulted in a 12 per cent increase in sales. If this continues to be the case, then I’m sure retailers will crawl over broken glass to adopt it.
My thinking is, does this sort of approach stack up in the workplace? Can lighting drive productivity, improve the way people feel about their employer or their absence? There is a growing body of evidence that indicates it does, but not many people have turned this improvement into hard cash.
Put a proposal on Alan’s desk that says giving people access to daylight and the right type of artificial lighting can improve productivity or reduce errors. Then he may change his penny-pinching ways. And reduce local vandalism.
