Function is pivotal in home office lines
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 18, 2001
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT — The style is mainly contemporary or transitional, but in home office furniture, it's the function that sells ready-to-assemble furniture.
Function, and the ability that flat-pack furniture makers have to adjust their designs nearly as quickly as computer producers, gives RTA its biggest leg up in the home office, which accounts for about 50% of sales for the three largest factories.
While computers have not changed dramatically in the last couple of years and there has been no compelling need to change furniture configurations to match technology, RTA producers have been tinkering to find the functional feature or benefit that might add some juice to demand.
O'Sullivan Furniture introduced the Digital Dock in several of its desk configurations at the October market. This feature gives users quicker access to the ports in their computers so that they can connect or disconnect peripherals without climbing under or behind their desks.
"This allows you to interact with the CPU," said Mike Franks, director of marketing services. "Computing is all about peripherals now, and in order to take full advantage of your peripherals, you need to be able to conveniently reach your CPU."
Adjusting to changing needs has always been a strength of RTA producers. "We've always been more function oriented, and that's always been an advantage we've had over case goods," Franks said. "We make a product that the consumer is going to change. Rather than changing something that we build and stock in a warehouse, we change some of the parts that go into a box."
For instance, when CPU towers grew wider and shorter in 1998, it was just a matter of weeks before RTA makers were able to hit the market with desks that had storage cavities with the new proportions.
| HANG IT UP Ameriwood's EZ Hang cabinets, which are available to coordinate with the company's entertainment and office furniture, allow consumers to build their storage around their electronics exactly as the need it and want it. |
| PORT OF CALL O'Sullivan Furniture's new Digital Dock, available in several home office collections, gives users easier access to the ports on their computers. |
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