OFFICE FURNITURE
Innovative beautiful design, grounded in principles of quality and durability, are primary values at international office furniture designer and manufacturer Teknion. A fine example of this philosophy is its Tekwood division, which manufactures wood veneer products. Teknion was one of the first to introduce a warmer, more residential aesthetic to the office space. These designs radically changed how office spaces looked.
The District product line, which introduced
new casegoods formats and refined architectural
features, was an award-winning star that led a
design evolution in the office furniture industry.
“You didn’t see a lot of residential look-and-feel in
the traditional cubicle environment at the time,”
said Richard Wolfe, VP and General Manager at
Teknion. District offered a ;ood of new options.
Putting together award-winning designs
was one thing; manufacturing it was another.
Operations was under tremendous pressure
to execute on these designs, which put a big
strain on their software. “Tekwood was using
custom-built software that relied on a fixed bill
of materials—which was better suited to higher
volume and fewer options,” said Wolfe.
So Wolfe, who was a part of the software
selection team at the time, started looking for a
new system. The team decided on 2020 Insight,
software that was designed for quickly producing
customized office furniture.
Teknion office dealers were already using
2020 Cap or 2020 Giza software for designing
office spaces, so the selection of 2020 Insight
would allow for product data to be imported
electronically all the way from order right through
to the shop ;oor, for faster, more responsive, and
more accurate production.
Implementation was quick and successful
at Tekwood. “One of 2020 Insight’s great
strengths is being able to generate CNC code
from a configurable engineering model very
effciently,” Wolfe said. “We put that capability in
place in three months, and we were completely
implemented at all our plants in less than a year.”
Software helps to integrate manufacturing with customer-centered design
in cutting-edge office furniture line.
The District product line from Teknion’s Tekwood division, which introduced new casegoods formats and refined
architectural features, was an award-winning star that led a design evolution in the office furniture industry.
