Office furniture evolves

Consistent with the Herman Miller brand, the collaborative team designed an elegant, graceful and innovative furniture system that included freestanding adjustable-height tables, storage bins, lighting, accessory tool rails and privacy screens.

The improved, overall aesthetic reduced the visual weight of the system and replaced it with a clean, contemporary aesthetic. The table featured motorized height adjustment, manual height adjustment and a fixed-height version with a high degree of common parts. The freestanding system could easily be reconfigured and allowed individual workers to optimize the height of their work surface without expensive or time-consuming alterations.

The design achieved the desired goals for structural rigidity and passed all ANSI/BIFMA tests. In addition, the team reduced the initial table deflection by a factor of nine through engineering optimization. The unit cost to manufacture was reduced by 20 percent.