"Responding to Specialty Lighting Needs for Four Generations"

Today as in the past, Adjustable Fixture Co. is guided by its corporate credo. Adjustable Fixture Co. was founded in 1911 by William L. Schumaker. The company's heritage, while spanning most of the 20th century, four family generations, two world wars and countless product innovations, has remained true to its founder's vision.

Against the trend of the time, William Schumaker held the surprisingly modern conviction that a company would best prosper if its products were specifically designed to meet the needs of its end user customers rather than merely starting with a preconceived product and hoping the marketplace would accept it. All great ideas seem obvious in hindsight. It was no different with William Schumaker's innovative task lighting, the first line of Adjustable Fixture Co. products.

In visits to Milwaukee-area industrial manufacturing plants, Bill noticed that workers spent long hours at machine tools in poorly-lit areas, with little or no local lighting to illuminate the job they were working on. This, he realized, was not only diminishing the quality of the work environment, but was actually compromising production speed, accuracy and worker safety. The workpieces and machine controls were simply hard to see, and the workstations were gloomy.

Here was the foundation for a whole new concept in enhancing the work environment- specialized local area lighting that would illuminate the task. Speed and production quality would improve. Safety would be enhanced. The workplace would be brightened. William Schumaker determined to set out at once to design a line of task lights to fill what he realized was an important unmet need in industry.

He set about the task in typical Schumaker fashion- personally visiting a large Milwaukee machine tool manufacturer to gain an understanding of precisely what was needed to respond to the need, inspecting the work stations, observing worker movements, making measurements, jotting down ideas. Armed with an arsenal of observations and ideas, he returned to his new Adjustable Fixture Co. shop to design a series of task lights expressly for that customer.

The rest, as they say, is history. The manufacturer liked the products so well, he became a virtual spokesman for the company. On the heels of this first success, Schumaker went on to personally visit many other companies, develop new solutions, and expand his line of manufactured task lights. A catalog soon followed, and the lights were sold to manufacturers nationwide under the Ajusco brand name- a respected name in task lighting to this very day. From that beginning in 1911, the Adjustable Fixture Co. diversified into a wide variety of commercial and residential lighting over the years experience that would serve it well in its current markets.

From Factory Floor to Haute Couture

For a time, Adjustable Fixture Co. was a major national producer of residential lighting. In the 1930's, its innovative, stylish designs were featured in swank east coast department stores. In fact, at one time in the 1930's, AFC had 50 employees working exclusively to produce silk shades! Unfortunately, with the advent of World War II, silk became a rationed commodity- supplies were disrupted and silk was needed for the manufacture of military parachutes- effectively ending the elegant AFC line of silk-shaded residential lamps.

Ever-alert for new opportunities to serve the lighting needs of America, William Schumaker's three sons, who had joined him in the company, expanded into the field of institutional lighting, bringing to the new enterprise the proven principles that had already served the company and its customers well for over thirty years.

The Post-War Era

Post-World War II America saw an explosion of new construction in hospitals and healthcare facilities. After serving in WWII, Gene Schumaker joined the family business as Adjustable Fixture Co. participated in this growth and the development of improved patient care by developing a new line of lamps and lighting fixtures for exam rooms, patient rooms and common areas under the Nightingale brand name.

Among Gene's many innovations was the introduction of a bedspring-mounted patient reading lamp. With the aid of a special bracket, when the bed was elevated, the lamp would go up with it- maintaining an optimum, self-adjusting reading angle for the patient.

At that time, the company was also manufacturing a line of infra-red heat lamps for patient therapy. Gene Schumaker used the lamp's unique reflector which ventilated and effectively dissipated heat to as a basis in a variation of it. He introduced Adjustable Fixture Co. Model 421 gooseneck physician's examination lamp- a reflector which remains safe and cool to the touch. The Model 421 has become one of the most popular lamps in the history of healthcare, and is still winning sales and satisfied customers today with its combination of efficiency, abundant light, cool-touch safety and economy.

Gene Schumaker also introduced resident and staff friendly lighting for Health Care with such innovations as the night light and the convenience outlet. Another one of Gene's innovations, the Ajusco-Loc Socket, eliminated annoying breakage problems on conventional task lights. Gene also worked closely in the early 1960's with major Universities to develop a study lamp that would be able to stand up to the sometimes challenging environment - Creating our trademark FiberLast molded shade: " So Tough You Can Even Stand on It."

The Tradition Continues

Today, Adjustable Fixture Co. is still a family-run business, with a third-generation Schumaker, Mike, at the helm since 1990. Fourth-generation Barb Schumaker joined the company in 2000 to work with product development & marketing. The company serves three primary markets with its unique combination of inventive design, ergonomics, efficiency, safety and economy:
Healthcare and medical task lighting
Industrial task lighting
Institutional, multi-housing and architectural lighting

Adjustable Fixture Co's medical and industrial task lighting lines are truly "fixtures" today in America's business landscape. Few competitors can lay claim to AFC's unique mix of innovation and value. Fewer still can boast anything like its heritage.

While AFC is continuing its development of uniquely effective products in the medical and industrial field, the areas of multi-housing, architectural, residential and extended care facility lighting are rapidly-evolving areas with special demands. Adjustable Fixture Co. offers a wide array of choices and options to meet the needs of these marketplaces. Whether it's simply a cosmetic choice of colors and finishes, a nearly-indestructible shade option or specialized fixtures designed for energy savings, products for these applications can be varied and packaged in a wide range of configurations to meet the specific requirements and budgets of institutional buyers and specifiers. The signature attributes of all AFC lighting products are their tough, exceeds-the-need construction, maintenance-free design, long life and durability in demanding environments and features appropriate to the specific day-to-day uses by people in these marketplaces.

Adjustable Fixture Co.'s vision of the future focuses on continuing to explore new and better lighting solutions for institutional users and to design products that meet the needs of specialty users. The company has a special focus on reducing life cycle costs and developing more efficient ergonomics, energy savings and safety features- design factors like the placement of switches, tip-resistance, energy-efficient bulb systems, and more. In short, very special products to meet very special needs, at prices that are more than competitive. And now, with the increasing elderly population in America, another important focus for AFC is its emphasis on the needs of residents in extended care facilities- ergonomics, ease of use, safety and economy.

Adjustable Fixture Co.'s long-term goal is one of never-ending improvement, ever-better solutions & ever-greater value. In terms of sophisticated research, design and marketing, Adjustable Fixture Co. has come a long way in almost a century. "Responding to specialty lighting for four generations," has yet to be improved upon.