The work undertaken by the Design Unito can be divided into two distinct components: crafting the furniture model and assembling the requisite production information. Crafting a piece of furniture is a creative endeavor, the duration of which is directly contingent upon the intricacy of the piece. On the other hand, preparing information entails the mechanical task of extracting essential data from the designed furniture model, including drawings, Bill of Materials (BOMs), and, in certain cases, the development of CNC programs by the design unit.

The primary factor contributing to the extensive duration of information preparation for production is the lack of automation in the process of extracting and presenting data. Instead, this task is typically accomplished manually, often relying on tools like Excel. Consequently, it consumes a substantial portion of the designer’s time, at times amounting to as much as 70% of their working hours.

Consequences of Manual Information Preparation

The time invested in manually preparing information leads to several negative outcomes. It results in prolonged lead times, bottlenecking the design unit’s capacity and limiting overall throughput. Additionally, companies are compelled to hire design engineers for their intellectual capabilities, which are more costly. However, if designers are compelled to allocate a portion of their time to estimations and less creative tasks, it represents a misallocation of the company’s valuable resource—time—on lower-skilled work.

Furthermore, when designers are compelled to engage in non-creative estimative tasks, their motivation often wanes. Lastly, manual work introduces the potential for human error. In contrast, when a program generates an error, it can be identified, corrected, and the error is less likely to recur. Humans, being inherently variable systems, exhibit fluctuating performance influenced by factors like mood, fatigue, and overall health. One day, the system may operate flawlessly, while the next, it might be prone to errors.

Previously: Hidden Design