Tag: office furniture

OM in the News: The Ultimate Ergonomic Desk

deskWhile the standing desk has become a staple in homes and offices, this ergonomic revolution hasn’t given us an acceptable way to recline flat and still be able to work. And not just lie down, really, but what about all the many micro-positions between standing and sitting? Those are the places Altwork wants to be. Altwork is a convertible workstation that covers everything from standing to sitting to lying down, with your monitor hanging above you, writes Wired (Oct. 28, 2015). The price: $5,900. Unveiled, it sort of looks like the chair in your dentist’s office: a mechanized assembly with plenty of head support and with a swiveling desk attached. The unit also has an arm that holds your second screen, and the desk piece extends out so that you get up from the chair and work standing up at the side. In order to keep your keyboard, mouse, and mousepad from flying down at your face while the desk portion is situated above you, Altwork’s design uses magnets.

The origin of Altwork—which has been in stealth mode for half a decade—came from CEO Che Voight, who injured his back years ago and was unable to sit while working at a computer. “We aren’t trying for a general purpose desk. This is designed for people whose job is to operate a computer. We are looking at CAD engineers, financial traders, animators, technical writers,” says Voigt. “I feel like the high-intensity computer user is undervalued. Those are the people who, if their project gets done a little bit sooner, that’s a big deal.”

Altwork certainly seems like it would make you focus. While it’s not a walled-off pod, reclining with a computer floating above your face sends a strong “Do not disturb” signal—which, maybe isn’t great for communication or co-working. But Voigt says that’s why the standing desk option exists: The importance of the “deskside,” drive-by meeting can’t be underestimated, and Altwork allows for it.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What other ergonomic advances have been made in offices?
  2. Who will be the customer for this product?

 

OM in the News: The Long and the Short of the Perfect Office Chair

ergonomicsErgonomics (see Chapter 10) is an important issue for operations managers, be it in a factory setting or in an office. A rising problem, reports The Wall Street Journal (May 20, 2014) is the office chair. Most chairs are designed for the 5th to the 95th percentile of the population—people who are closer to average in size. That leaves roughly 4 million white-collar workers on the unlucky extremes of the bell curve—too small for their chair, with legs dangling, or too big for their chair, with knees bent up toward the chin.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who is 4 foot 10 inches, once sawed off the legs of his office chair and desk to make them fit. He was working in the Justice Department in the 1970s, and the General Services Administration refused his request to shorten his standard-sized wooden desk and chair. “I snuck in one weekend with my saw and did it myself, and sent the stubs to the GSA administrator,” Dr. Reich says. His office chair later as Labor Secretary left his legs sticking out, so he held meetings standing up.

Solving the problem can be complicated for employers. Some worry about fostering resentment if they give one employee a special chair. Also, changing the size of a chair often means the desk must be raised or lowered too. Manufacturers are offering more work tables that can be adjusted with an electric lift, a hand crank or movable pins in the legs. They are also making more work surfaces, keyboard supports and computer-monitor arms that can be moved on vertical rails.

Most operations managers are under heavy pressure to hold down costs, however, and providing special items for a few workers conflicts with a common strategy of buying many standard items at discounted prices. Special chairs can list for $1,000 or more. But the need for adjustable chairs is growing. Steelcase Inc. recently studied the body shapes and postures of 2,000 workers in 11 countries and found that “extreme size” is on the rise.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why is ergonomics an important OM issue in offices?

2. Are height issues a similar problem in factories?

OM in the News: Don’t Touch My $900 Ergonomic Chair!

An important, but often overlooked topic in Chapter 10 (Human Resources), is ergonomics. An interesting article in The Wall Street Journal (Sept.21, 2011) points out that improving the ergonomics of office chairs increases worker productivity by an average of 17%. “Bad office chairs are to chiropractors what candy is to dentists”, says one doctor. Staples Inc.’s research says that 86% of office workers say their furniture causes discomfort, with more than 1/2 saying the one change they would make would be a better chair.

No other piece of workplace furniture evokes stronger  physical and emotional attachments than the office chair. When Mike Williams, an exec in Grand Rapids, bought his $500 chair (called “Think” by Steelcase, Inc.), his productivity and energy immediately skyrocketed. When Williams is out-of-town, coworkers borrow the chair. When he presents at a meeting standing up, “it’s a fight over who gets to sit in the chair”, he says.

In a perfectly fitting chair, your back is supported and your feet are planted on the floor with your thighs parallel to the floor, and your knees at a 90 degree angle.

After putting in long hours as chief engineer  for  a Charlotte, N.C., company, Jason Ashbrook felt his back and neck get so stiff that he had to got to chiropractors and massage therapists.  When his firm brought in the $900 “Generation” chair, by Knoll, Inc. (who knew that chairs all had names?) to try out, he sat in it and then wouldn’t let them take it back!  He reasons that “if you can sit in the chair an extra 15 minutes a day, the savings are double or triple” the cost of the chair.  I never had a dean who offered me a $900 chair, but if I did, I would probably agree with Ashbrook.

Discussion questions:

1. Why isn’t office ergonomics taken more seriously?

2. Ask students to identify some non-office jobs in which ergonomics plays an important role.