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Types of Furniture
The Process of Evaluating and Selecting a Furniture System
How to select a furniture system
One of the most important aspect of office design is the selection of furniture system. In order to specify the appropriate furniture system for use in the office, the designer must have a broad understanding of different manufacturers' product lines, the physical features, the panels and components, the constructions and hardware, the technical performances, the qualities and the price ranges in the market.
The evaluation and selection process
Furniture systems are system specific, that means they are very different in application. Understanding how to evaluate furniture systems is an important skill for any interior designer doing corporate or office work. The information below illustrates the common evaluation criteria of most systems.
Manufacturers of furniture systems design their products for specific applications such as for general purpose, for up scale or executive offices, for technical offices, for team work, etc. Most manufacturers develop their systems for general office applications. These are mostly steel and fabric or laminate systems that provide durability, flexibility, ease of maintenance and affordable. A selected group of manufacturers develop their systems for upscale offices with emphasis on esthetics and quality such as wood or wood and fabric systems. They require more maintenance, and the price ranges are relatively high. Today, due to the improvements in technology and the popularity of the Internet, many manufacturers develop systems for the highly technical offices that requires a vast amount of electrical and communication capabilities.
Prior to evaluations of the sytems , the designer must understand the users' operational needs and the image of the company to the public. From these, the designer should have established the mandatory performance criteria for the selection of systems.
Phases of Furniture system evaluation
- The first phase is to select a number of furniture systems that is able to meet or exceed the majority of the performances. These systems must be compatible to each other. An abbreviated evaluation form can be used for this purpose so as to quickly identify 3 to 5 options for further detail analysis
- The second phase is to use a detail evaluation form to study the systems in detail to arrive at the final selection
The Evaluation forms
The form consists of 2 columns. The left column is the evaluation categories, the right column corresponding to each category row is the entry of the performance feature. If a feature is not available, enter NA for not applicable. If a specific feature present in the system that is not represented, add the features under other.
To use the list for comparative analyses between different systems, enter additional columns on the right side. By comparing the information across from each row, one will be able to visualize the differences between the systems. For a corporate project, it is normal to compare between five systems, whereas for a small project, three systems will be adequate.
- The abbreviated evaluation form
- The detail evaluation forms - this is broken down into different forms for more detail evaluation:
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