Exposure to beauty and creativity during work. Beauty in the workplace can be expressed in adequate lighting, cleanliness, and access to views of the outdoors.

 

Improvement Action: Provide access to green areas, recreational areas, and lunch rooms

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977

  • GWT Analyst Summary: At Volvo's Torslanda plant, improving work began with improving the conditions of the physical plant. Beyond improving the work place itself, special attention was paid to the secondary areas such as lunchrooms, recreation areas, and exterior green spaces for workers to enjoy.
  • Excerpt from text: “The first [of the gradual improvements] is the physical environment, primarily improving the working place itself, with attention to the secondary places such as green areas, recreation, lunchrooms, and so on.”

 

Improvement Action: Focus attention on proper lighting, mitigating vibration, and controlling noise

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977

  • GWT Analyst Summary: At Volvo's Torslanda plant, the redesign of working areas included consulting with architects and engineers who provided solutions to control noise in body shop areas. Equipment to reduce airborne dust was installed and assembly areas were painted with in color schemes. The results were the conversion of a workspace that had been inherently noisy and dirty into a pleasant environment which workers are motivated  to keep clean.
  • Excerpt from text: “Organizationally, we would like to make the four departments as autonomous as possible. Thus, each now has its own decor. The body-shop changes in 1973 indicate how this minor item in the environment can contribute to a sense of participation that gives impetus to other projects as well.” “Bedeviled by an inherently noisy and dirty process, body-shop workers and managers got together and chose a working group to assess the various problems, suggest some solutions, and figure out the costs of the alternatives. The working group went to the Gothenburg School of Applied Art for help. A group of architects there took on the shop as an assignment. ”The results were promising. The architects proposed a fundamental color scheme with red, orange, blue, and green. They also suggested ways to cut the noise from jigs and grinding machines. These suggestions were put together in a special exhibition in the shop, and employees came to see and decide for themselves. Many had further questions and related problems to offer. The response was quite positive. It took several years to implement all the proposals, but today the body shop is one of the brightest spots in the corporation. By building ‘houses’ for the worst noise-making equipment, the designers were able to cut the sound level by 10-20 decibels in the noisiest areas; new equipment keeps the air cleaner where dust was worst. The pleasant surroundings encourage people to deep the area tidy, too.” p.85