Furnishing and equipping an office can be a pricey business. And for a growing company, it can be tempting to cut corners in seemingly simple areas – with the assembly and installation, for example.
You’ve probably thought about doing the assembly on your own. Or maybe you’ve considered hiring a cheap, “general moving” company to get things set up.
Bad move.
For starters, assembling office furniture is probably not the best use of your employees’ time – not to mention your own. In addition to the loss of working hours, the hassle and risk of potential damage to your office furniture is certainly not worth it. The office furniture you choose is likely to be in place for the foreseeable future. And you’re not going to want to replace anything broken by accidents caused during construction.
Even with a general moving company, their lack of expertise will end up costing you in the long run. Non-professionals will inevitably take longer to put together office equipment and furniture. That means that the dollars you “saved” avoiding professional office furniture installers will be lost as employees wait to get back to work.
Or maybe you’ve got a “friend who is good with a wrench” and is “willing to help out with putting things together for your home office.” But, did you know that commercial grade furniture is built to different standards than residential furniture? The process for assembly of your new conference table is not as simple as it is for that computer desk you picked up in Target last month.
That being said, before you pull out the wrench or Google “movers in my area,” take a look at…
Five reasons why you don’t want to assemble office furniture:
1. There needs to be a strategy.
Assembling and installing office furniture isn’t as simple as it sounds and takes more than a few hours and the tools you have handy. You need a plan that considers things you’ve probably not thought about. For example:
- Do you have drawings for exactly how each station is to be laid out?
- Do you have staff that is skilled in reading those drawings from an installation point of view?
- How long will furniture take to construct and arrange?
- What sequence of installation will ensure a streamlined workflow?
- How many employees will it take to complete installation in a timely fashion? And do any of them know how many man hours it takes to assemble (10) 7′ x7′ cubicles with power?
- Will you need an electrician?
- Will you need someone to sort out telephone lines and internet? Cable and other wiring?
- What do you do if you seem to be missing parts?
And that’s just the beginning – clearly a bit more complicated than slotting a couple of desks together.
2. It will cost you time and money.
If you choose to ask your employees to take a couple of hours away from their desks to assemble chairs, tables, desks, dividers and everything else that makes an office function properly, then their everyday tasks will be neglected.
Deadlines could be missed or set back and, ultimately, you’ll end up paying twice – for the hours lost while employees fix everything up and for the extra hours for them to catch up on normal duties.
3. It won’t be perfect.
Putting furniture together smartly and efficiently and, above all, correctly, isn’t actually that easy. Anyone who has wrestled with an IKEA bookcase can tell you that.
It doesn’t take much to end up with a unit that just doesn’t fit together. Placing a cantilever or panel a fraction of an inch the wrong way can cause the failure of entire workstations. Before you know it, your carefully drawn up office plan is destroyed and every surface is slightly askew.
Office desks won’t match up flush at the edges, drawers won’t line up and trays won’t be level. But worst of all, you and everyone else will be frustrated.
Leaving the heavy work to your employees will be completely counter-productive. So save you and your team the hassle, and leave it up to professional office furniture installers.
4. It might not be safe. Literally.
OSHA is charged with ensuring that safety and health regulations are enforced in the US. Together with local fire code, there are a boat load of things you can and cannot do to ensure your furniture meets all the required laws. Just a very few are:
- Do you know how much space the fire and OSHA laws require for walkways and working space per person?
- Do you know how weight-bearing load is affected if you don’t use those “extra” bolts on your new desks?
- Those overhead storage cabinets are great space savers. Did you know that if they are not installed exactly to manufacturer’s specifications they can fall, causing injury and property damage? And that each manufacturer designs them a little differently?
- If your employees are injured while performing duties outside of their job description – such as heavy manual labor installing furniture – will they be covered by your insurance? And what will that cost you in fees and lost productivity?
Office furniture installation crews are experts at making sure your furniture is assembled to code and placed according to the space planner’s specifications. That expertise keeps you in the clear with the law and free of fines.
5. You might need help after the installation.
Our professional office installers provide dependable post-installation customer service that could come in handy should you find something isn’t working properly. Saving time and stress for employees, they’ll be able to swiftly fix any issues with minimum fuss.
So, the best advice is to hire professional office furniture installers. If you need service in Jacksonville, FL or the surrounding areas, Advanced Furniture Solutions is here to save you time, money… and your sanity! Stop by today to talk more about your office’s needs, or call us at 904-398-0807. 9452 Philips Hwy, Ste. 7, Jacksonville, FL 32256 Advanced Furniture Solutions