In the modern workplace, you have to keep the place flexible in line with the ever-changing needs of modern work. That’s where systems furniture comes in as it offers lots of flexibility in meeting varying needs at work. You can also have the same setup in your home office.
Systems furniture is a modular furniture system which provides for integrated electrical and data connections with shelves, desktops and drawers being interconnected in various combinations to create linked or individual workstations. In other terms, it’s a set of pieces of furniture that can be customized and adapted to match the prevailing needs.
Office systems furniture can also be applied to the home office where modular home office furniture is used to meet the current needs of the worker. You can have the office looking a certain way for a meeting, studio, desk or other purpose by setting the pieces of furniture in a certain way. You’re basically getting a system of pieces you can put together the way you see fit.
Factors to Consider Before Using Systems Furniture
When choosing the right type of systems furniture for your workplace, you should focus on these factors:
1. Storage Needs
Putting into perspective the storage needs allows you to have a neat yet functional office. In this regard, you’ll keep in mind the storage needs in terms of where to keep items in the office, and where to keep the parts of the system furniture not in use at a particular time.
2. Work Surface
This refers to the amount of surface needed for the task at hand. Some tasks such as computer work will need just enough space for a computer, its peripherals and a few other items. Other tasks such as mapping or modeling will require a wider work surface to work on.
3. Visual and Auditory Privacy
This requires that you consider the privacy of the work you’re undertaking both in sound and sight. If there is need, you can erect temporary walls and partitions between sections of the office for privacy purposes. Other times, you just need work surfaces without need for such privacy.
Cubicles are a part of systems furniture and they offer visual and auditory privacy at various levels. They can be varied by having glass walls or walls with soundproofing materials.
These factors will save you from headaches such as finding yourself with pieces that can’t do the work you need to.
Benefits and Advantages of Systems Furniture
Modular systems furniture is advantageous in the following ways compared to conventional furniture:
1. More Versatility
Systems furniture comes with the benefit of being versatile in terms of the ease with which it can adapt to changing needs. For example, when the firm switches to another type of task requiring other types of furniture, you only need to buy the needed parts while utilizing the existing ones. The unused parts will be simply stored away for later use.
2. Lower Costs
With a modular systems furniture, you can save a lot in terms of the pieces of furniture you’ll need to buy, data and power cables, partitions and storage space for your office. Unlike the conventional types of furniture where pieces are for specific purposes, systems furniture pieces can be repurposed with ease saving on time, space and money.
3. Increased Collaboration
Systems furniture enables easier collaboration since it brings people together through providing shared amenities. Unlike secluded offices where individuals only deal with a few other employees, systems furniture makes it much easier to foster teamwork. This has the positive impact of improving productivity.
4. Better Aesthetics
Buying furniture for specific purposes presents you with a dilemma in which you don’t know how the workplace will look like if there were renovations or other changes. With modular furniture, the look of the office will be easily adaptable to the new look. You can thus always have a beautiful office no matter the purpose.
5. Flexible Layout
The recent developments in systems furniture have made it possible to quickly adjust any given office into the desired setup depending on the current task. For example, systems furniture allows for switching a studio to a conference room in a short while. The same room can be easily turned into a brainstorming venue in no time.
You have more than enough reasons to use systems furniture. You always have the advantage changing to what you want with systems furniture given its modular nature.
Disadvantages of Systems Furniture
With all the benefits you can derive from systems furniture, they’re not the best for everyone given the downsides explained below:
1. It’s not the main ingredient to collaboration
While it makes it easy to collaborate for lots of people, systems furniture is a very small ingredient in collaboration. For the proper collaboration, you will need to develop the culture with the employees before they can fully utilize modular systems furniture.
2. Limited flexibility
The pieces of furniture used in modular systems furniture can be quite easy to move about and repurpose. However, it takes a while and some input to completely transform the workplace for another purpose.
3. Not the most private setups
If you need complete privacy for your team, it can be quite difficult achieving that with modular furniture. For example, the privacy you get with cubicles can’t be compared to that which permanent walls can attain for an office.
For these reasons, you should consider a hybrid system for the office. This can have a majority of the parts in a modular design while the rest in a permanent or fixed design.
FAQs
- What is a modular desk?
A modular desk is one that’s designed to be fitted together with other pieces of furniture such as other desks, stands and others.
- What is a modular workstation?
A modular workstation or cubicle is a prefabricated desk that comes attached to short walls usually covered in attractive fabric or any other material with a professional look.
- What is an upholstered chair?
An upholstered chair (or other piece of furniture) is one which is provided with springs, padding, webbing, and leather or fabric covers.
- What is casegood furniture?
Case good furniture is any piece of furniture that isn’t upholstered. These include wooden or metal armories, tables, dressers, chests and others.
