Lighting level and productivity: a field study in the electronics industry

The effect of illuminance on the speed and the quality (percentage of errors) with which workers assemble electronic devices was studied in an electronics factory in The Netherlands. For the study, the horizontal illuminance was alternated per work shift between 800 and 1200 lux. The first test was done during the summer and a second test during the winter. A significant effect of illuminance has been found. With 1200 lux at the working plane, the speed of production in the summer was 2.9% higher than with 800 lux. In the winter it was 3.1% higher with the increased illuminance. There was no significant effect of the illuminance on the percentage of errors.