Plan Enough Time For Office Furniture

Delayed decision making has impacted everything from hiring, to office lease negotiations, to move-in dates. As a "down-stream" participant in the office leasing process, our part (furniture planning, procurement, and execution) increasingly gets compressed. I thought I would use this posting to outline a "reasonable" time-line to allot for furniture.

This timeline assumes an office of 25 employees, with 20 cubicles and 5 private offices, and assumes that the building CAD plan is supplied. It should be noted that this is a "guideline". If your schedule doesn't afford this much time, notify your provider at the outset, and accommodations (typically in the furniture lead-times) need to be made.

Time Required*: 40 Business Days

Required Steps in Furniture Process:

1. Programming: Programming involves determining the actual required office furniture (i.e, required sizes, required filing, worksurface, panel heights). This is an on-site meeting typically held with a designer and client representative. - 1 day
2. Drawing Time: After the programming is completed, the information is compiled and entered into the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. This step is required to produce the scaled drawings that will be used by other trades (electricians, data/cablers), as well as to produce the Bill of Materials used by the furniture dealer to cost the project. - 3 Days
3. Client Review: A full scale drawing is provided to the client to review the initial design. A meeting is held to gather and record client feedback - 4 Days
4. Design Revisions (Drawing Time): Revisions are entered into the CAD software, and the revised plan is re-issued to the client for final review and approval - 3 Days
5. Order Entry: After the client approves the plan and proposal, the order is electronically entered and transmitted to the manufacturer. The manufacturer confirms receipt of the order and provides a firm shipping date - 3 days
6. Manufacturing Time*: This is dependent on the product selected, however on average furniture lead-times run approximately 5 weeks (including transportation) - 25 days
7. Installation: For a project of 20 workstations and 5 private offices allot - 4 days

*The variable in any timeline is manufacturing time. There are many products available that ship within 10 days, AND there are products (higher-end) that take up to 12 weeks. Your furniture provider should be aware of your schedule, and provide product accordingly.