The Rewards of Proper Lighting
Don’t take lighting for granted. Good lighting
can boost productivity and profitability.
By George Linkletter
If your customer messaging center occupies the same location that it did 10 or 15 years ago, there’s a good chance your lighting resources are inadequate. Or unnecessarily expensive. Or perhaps both.
Why? Because of change. Over the past decade or so many customer messaging centers have upgraded equipment or added shifts to keep pace with increasing volumes. But very few have updated their lighting plans and resources to compensate for the new work flows, or to capitalize on recent innovations in lighting technology that can provide better light, and even more light, at less cost.
The culprit, according to many managers, is simply the need to keep pace with daily demands. New or upgraded equipment is acquired whenever it is needed. But it is often deployed haphazardly -- and especially without regard to the adequacy of overhead lighting -- wherever space is available at the time of acquisition.
As a result, a lighting plan that was suitable when initially designed becomes outdated as work activities evolve. And costly problems related to productivity, quality, morale or safety soon begin to crop up.
Identify and Solve
If you think your lighting may be out-of-date, here are some tips provided by the Philips Lighting Co. and Mark Loeffler, IALD, a professional lighting designer with The RETEC Group, an environmental consulting firm, to help you identify the problem and develop a solution.
First, take a step back and look at your facility from a fresh perspective. Is the lighting bright, without glare and even throughout the center? Or are there shadows or areas where the lighting is dim and uninviting?
Any modern work place should be bright, attractive and productive, says the Philips spokesman. But the lighting in customer messaging centers can be uneven or inadequate. “Poor lighting typically results in eye strain and fatigue, particularly for employees who work longer shifts, or hours when sun light may not be available to compensate for poor interior lighting,” he says.
Poor lighting can also contribute to high error rates as workers become tired or frustrated and make unnecessary mistakes. “In some instances,” the spokesman continues, “the light required to perform a task safely and competently may be 80 foot candles. Yet some environments provide only 25 percent of that level.” You should also consider the age of your work force. “A 40-year-old typically needs twice as much light as a 20-year-old to perform the same task comfortably.”
Understand the Foundation
Three key components contribute to good lighting. Compare your facility against these factors to make sure your center is up-to-date.
1) General lighting is the foundation of any lighting plan. General lighting refers to the overhead or ambient lighting conditions. Good general lighting creates a positive atmosphere for workers and business.
2) Task lighting is next. Task lighting enables workers to successfully perform their assigned job functions. Good task lighting helps workers maintain high levels of productivity and accuracy and reduces costly errors.
3) Supplemental lighting is exactly what it sounds like. Supplemental lighting offers higher light levels in areas where general light is not sufficient. Supplemental light is important because uneven light levels can cause eye strain or fatigue as workers constantly refocus or adjust to different light levels. In general, task lighting should not be more than three times as bright as the lighting in adjacent work areas.
Once you have an idea of your existing light levels, and which work areas may need improvement, you should examine your lighting resources to determine which lamps or fixtures can be upgraded, and if new or supplemental ones should be installed.
However, it is not always a simple case of just substituting new or improved lamps or fixtures. “You may need to contact an industrial lighting consultant to help perform this evaluation”, says Loeffler, who points out that the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD.org) can provide referrals to accredited professionals.
In some instances, you can obtain the same level of light with fewer fixtures. You may also want to lower the cost of lighting. Or you may need faster warm-up of lamps, or to focus specialized light in critical inspection areas, to help boost productivity or reduce errors.
The Top Ten
The key is analyze your current environment against pertinent criteria, such as the ten listed below, or the standards established by the Illuminating Engineers Society of North America, and then “create a solution custom-tailored to your specific needs,” says Loeffler, who is based in New Haven, CT.
Cost of light. Many managers believe the cost of light is directly related to the cost of the lamps. But acquiring lamps is a just a small part of the total cost, about three to four percent, according to Loeffler. “The largest cost of light -- about 87 percent -- is electrical power,” he says. “Upgrading lighting with high-technology or energy-efficient lamps can dramatically reduce the cost of electricity and yield equivalent or even superior levels of light.”
Quality of light. This generally means good light-levels or an even and well-lighted work space. Most managers don’t realize that many lamps degrade over time and gradually yield less light as they age. However, you can counter this problem by using lamps designed to yield as much as 90 percent or more of their initial light over their expected life. This helps your facility remain bright, attractive and productive over longer periods of time.
Reliable light. Depending on ceiling height and the expected life of the lamp, the cost of labor to replace a burned out lamp can exceed its initial purchase price. So it can be more cost-effective -- and far less disruptive to daily business activities -- to install longer-life lamps whenever possible to avoid the cost of replacement.
Distribution of light. This generally refers to the practice of varying the direction of light, such as focusing a portion of it on walls and ceilings, so the light isn’t exclusively top-down. Reflecting light in this manner, plus using shrouds or shades, can help reduce annoying glare.
Uniformity of light. Light levels should always be even and coherent throughout any work area. However, the goal is to place light where it is needed but not wasted. So it is acceptable to place lower light levels in corridors or circulation areas where there is less need for visual acuity.
Light color. The color of light can help improve morale as well as the performance of key tasks such as inspections. For example, white light generally creates a more pleasing environment than yellow light. The correct lamp can also help assure that colors appear more natural.
Worker safety. There’s little doubt that good lighting leads to good vision, and good vision leads to better performance and higher productivity. But safety is also an important factor, especially in low-ceiling environments. For example, a lamp that is accidentally broken can result in injuries to workers as well as lost productivity. Installing lamps with protective a shroud or coverings can help prevent accidents.
Lamp disposal. The proper disposal of all unneeded materials is important in today’s environmentally-conscious world. Depending on your situation, you may want to substitute lamps that minimize environmental issues related to proper disposal. For example, Philips lamps with ALTO technology are popular because of their low mercury content.
Control strategies. The use of automatic timers or occupancy sensors is appropriate for ancillary work areas such as storage and meeting rooms that are used irregularly or infrequently. These devices are “dependable, affordable and can reduce energy costs,” adds Loeffler.
Return on investment. In some cases, selecting the right lamp and fixture can yield as much as a 50 percent return via savings in lower energy costs. That’s a hard-dollar pay back of just two years. In an era when investments such as Treasury Notes and CDs yield in the low single digits, this is an excellent ROI. Plus, some investments in energy-efficient lighting may also qualify for rebates or incentives from utilities or state tax credits, which can yield even greater savings.
Reducing costs is always important. And implementing the right lighting plan with the right resources will likely yield long-term energy cost savings for almost any customer messaging center.
But the biggest pay off from improved lighting may come from workers via higher employee morale, better productivity, fewer errors and enhanced safety. Admittedly, these benefits can vary widely from site to site, and even within a site, so they are harder to quantify. But some studies show that a modest investment to boost efficiency can be worthwhile if it improves performance by just 4/10ths of one percent.
So, add up all the benefits -- from reduced energy consumption, to increased productivity, to higher morale, fewer errors and even enhanced safety -- and it is easy to see how improved lighting can yield significant returns.
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Comments? Contact: georgeol@ntplx.net.