Music is Life - A Sound Environment
It is an incredible privilege for us to operate from our very own, purpose-built facility; nestled in mature woodland and surrounded by an idyllic pastoral postcard scene, just south of the cosmopolitan bustle of post-industrial Glasgow.
But it wasn’t by chance that we found ourselves in such surroundings. Ivor Tiefenbrun had a very clear vision in the mid-80s of how he wanted his factory to operate, and how he wished it would evolve and grow as the decades passed.
We have our entire R&D, manufacturing, office and facilities teams under a single roof. In line with Ivor’s original intention, the whole place works like a machine; an enclosed system with togetherness and integration at its core.
Having this single, family-like operational headquarters makes everything easier. Everything flows, whether that be people, ideas, or simply materials. It has taken decades for us to get to where we are today. An all-singing, all-dancing facility which is a Petri dish for rewarding, entertaining and challenging work – all in the service of the music.
Linn is a maker of things. Not an assembler. We could, as many of our peers have, outsource things such as circuit board manufacture – and save a huge chunk of money – but in doing so, we’d lose part of our identity. It is so critically important to us to expand our operational capabilities; bringing yet more processes in-house with the aim of gaining ultimate control over quality and consistency. Every capacitor, every tiny machine screw, is scrutinised and must pass muster.
As we bring more and more manufacturing in-house, we're given the opportunity to better police the impact that we have on the environment. Waste is minimised at every possible step. Not only is all aluminium swarf fastidiously recycled, but we also compact it into pucks to minimise lorryloads. The factory roof is festooned with solar panels, and we’re almost done with replacing all of our lighting with low-energy LEDs. Our longstanding focus on sustainability echoes our end product too; by eliminating noise and distortion, we’re driving down ‘musical’ waste via upgradeable products that are both built-to-order, and built-to-last.
We take our role in the local community incredibly seriously too. Very few companies remain committed to manufacturing in this country, and in their communities. Linn is central to the lives of people who work here. Many met their spouses here. Several have been working here for over forty years. There are a few in our team whose grandparents worked here, and it’s common for employees’ children to gain valuable work experience at Linn during the summer months.
We have a well-established apprentice programme; giving young people from the surrounding area the amazing opportunity to become a fully fledged engineer. Not only this, but a significant proportion of our R&D teams is populated by the brightest minds fresh out of university. To all these young people we give maximum responsibility and autonomy; they can run with a big project and thrive on it.
At Linn, there’s a collective pride. Everyone understands what we’re trying to do. Everyone pulls in the same direction towards the end result – surprising and delighting our customers the world over. Everyone’s learning, all of the time. As such, there’s a palpable ‘buzz’ around the Linn factory (and no, it’s not a grounding issue). If you’ve visited, you know what it feels like – you just ‘get it’. It’s not just a factory. It’s a sound environment. One that’s been constantly evolving and improving at this site since 1987.
