Novel Arrangements For NOC Furniture

If you asked a producer in the control room furniture industry to list ten adjectives about their business, it's likely that only one would be related to high technology. And if we're being honest, these opinions might not be that far from the truth; control room furniture is a generally conservative sector. But I do not see this as a bad thing in the least. Control room furniture and the wider office furniture industry are important pieces of America's manufacturing backbone. It is important, therefore, that these companies not chase every innovation that comes along.

But an important and fundamental new development could be on the way. One of the leading designers in the furniture world is about to unveil a new genre of office furniture that will change everything going forward. Herman Miller is currently beta-testing a product line they are calling Metaform, that features fully customizable, interchangeable parts. For example, the consoles can easily be configured into the standard cubicle setup. But the pieces can be rearranged to allow for more face-to-face time if a company is undertaking more collaborative projects.

The project was created on behalf of Herman Miller by a German-owned company called Studio 7.5. Before Metaform appears in stores, the designers have had prototypes in numerous offices to gather data about how end-users will specificaly employ the various interlocking parts. The development of this

is all part of Herman Miller's "Living Office" initiative. They are looking toward a future in which each worker is tied less and less to a single workspace. And so, the ability to shift work areas within a given office space becomes absoultely necessary.  

One might envision a number of ways that this shift could effect the control room furniture segment in undesirable ways. Control room consoles are typically designed for one space and are meant for that space only. If Herman Miller is correct and all work becomes less stationary, this could decrease the number of orders for control room furniture. It might not be such a danger in some of these industries (such as the intelligence industry). But overall, America (and most of the world) has become more and more collaborative in the way it functions. This can be seen in crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing and it makes sense that the tendency has seeped into the ways we do work as well.

It's probably time for us to update the perception of the control room furniture industry. It is doubtful that the industry is doomed or any such thing, but we should realistically expect that user-defined furniture is in the cards. This potential new standard in office furniture could detract from our industry at first, but that is all the more reason to adopt more progressive attitudes going forward. If we do so, America's backbone will continue to get stronger.

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