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A Strategic Choice
02/07/2010 00:00:00
Dark colours are the usual choice for work wear in the manufacturing sector, but not for Koyo Bearings. This Japanese owned firm has a different theory about colour
The following article appeared in "Company Clothing" magazine in June 2010
Workwear serves several purposes. Firstly, it provides functional garments to staff that assist rather than hinder them in the work they are doing. It also provides a unifying appearance that helps to supports the feeling that staff are working as a team, and serves to create an image for a company through those staff. For Koyo Bearings Europe, a Japanese company with its facilities in Barnsley, the workwear there is yet another philosophy behind the workwear of its 350 wearers – to encourage staff to keep their working environment clean and tidy.
Staff at Koyo’s Barnsley site wear workwear from Tranemo supplied through a laundry contract with PHS Besafe Garment and Laundry Solutions. It’s unusual for workwear supplied to a manufacturing company because of its colour – a pale silvery grey. This is the influence of the Japanese parent company. The pale uniform accentuates rather than hides the dirt picked up during a day’s work, and the theory, explains Koyo’s Andrew Miller, is that if the workwear is dirty, the environment is dirty, and this will highlight the need to make sure the workplace is kept clean.
The uniform was introduced a couple of years ago when Koyo’s existing laundry contract came to an end, and the company invited several suppliers to quote for a new contract. Among these was PHS Besafe, and national sales manager Paul Sharkey met with Andrew and his colleagues to discuss their requirements – one of which was the fabric colour.
‘We listened to what Andrew had to say and what the company needed from the uniform, and identified the problems they had with their previous contract,’ explains Paul. ‘We also sat down with wearers and talked to them to understand what they needed from the garments, and it was all about design fit and wearability. It was clear that image was a very important factor, so we showed them both our basic workwear range and garments from Tranemo Workwear, as they wanted a more practical and modern look, and they opted to go with the Tranemo garments in a bespoke colour.’
The pale colour did give Besafe pause, admits Paul. ‘We tried to steer them away from it, because the colour is so pale and they would have problems with it showing the dirt, but they were adamant this shade.’
At this point PHS Besafe approached Tranemo, and UK sales director Danny Hemmings had a meeting with the Koyo team to discuss fabric weights, garment styles and colour. Then it was a case of approaching fabric suppliers to achieve a colour match, and getting some samples made up. Once the samples had been approved, staff were measured to ensure a good fit, and Tranemo put the garments into production at its own factory in Bulgaria which is uses for flexible, short run production.
Besafe worked very closely with Tranemo throughout the project, from the initial stages right through to sampling and final production, which took about four months from start to finish. The chosen garments come from Tranemo’s core range, says Danny - the 2100 245gsm cargo trousers and 3100 245gsm work jacket - with three pairs of trousers and two jackets provided to each wearer over a three-year laundry contract.
Because the uniform is bespoke, explains Paul, the real test was not the initial roll out, but the requirement for additional garments over the course of the contract. ‘To get around this we introduced a 15 percent stock holding, which Koyo agreed to underwrite, which means that instead of waiting 12 weeks for new garments, the turnover time is only three or four days, and this has worked fantastically well.’
But what about the colour? Has it achieved the aim of keeping the workplace clean? ‘I think it might take us a while to get to this stage,’ says Andrew, ‘as staff are working in hands-on, dirty environments, but I think that in theory it does help. Originally we chose an even lighter colour, but we ended up going with a slightly darker shade of grey which has worked well. The garments themselves we are very happy with. The trousers are a much more functional design than we had previously, and both the trousers and the jackets have lots of pockets. The jackets are also shorter, which means they don’t get in way as much, the quality is higher and the style much more modern.’
The contract is running very smoothly, adds Andrew. Every two months Besafe send in their account manager to hold a wearer surgery to discuss any issues that wearers might have with their garments. Mostly these are around garment allocation. ‘If get three people come in to talk to us during these sessions, we are amazed,’ says Paul. ‘There have been very few issues with this contract at all.’
