“Experiences say that the design cycles can be reduced by 45% of the original time with software solutions for design automation.”

With expanding retail stores and markets, the furniture design needs also have increased. It is an easy task only until the entire store’s furniture is designed from scratch. Series of challenges are encountered when only a single part of the furniture is left to be designed. Let’s say that the entire retail fashion store is ready and furnished with shelving, racks, and drawers, and just the fitting room furniture is pending.

Furniture Design Challenges

New designs of the fitting room should complement the existing furniture. Secondly, as fitting room is a point of interface of the customers, the store owners would want it ergonomically sound, good looking and suit their regional as well as international design standards. CAD furniture design engineers usually prepare 3D CAD models and render them for approvals. It flows back and forth from the designer to shop owner before one of the designs get finalized.

Furthermore, fitting rooms should be sturdy and reliable considering their rough and repetitive usage. Each design is customized as per the store needs and local conditions, likes and dislikes; as hardly any store owner would want his store’s designs to be replicated from somewhere else. And on top of all, for retail stores, the challenges of spatial occupancy are always daunting the designers.

Furniture design engineers when try to address either one of the above challenges, other challenges tend to get overlooked due to squeezed deadlines. Failing to meet deadlines leads to losing the customer and if that is to be avoided, manufacturers and designers end up compromising the quality of designs.

Picking a choice

When CAD models are released, which are finalized after dedicating a significant part of the total project time, manufacturers are put under pressure to deliver the final ready product for shipment. To avoid such hustle, the furniture manufacturing firm, invested in manufacturing customized products in masses, can either cut the design or manufacturing cycle or can afford to lose the customer.

CAD – excellent alternative

While shortening manufacturing cycles depend on the accuracy of designs, CAD software simultaneously takes care of it. CAD shortens design cycles by eliminating repetitive tasks. It dramatically accelerates the entire design cycle, when dealt with product configurator and design automation solutions. Selecting appropriate software for developing product configurator would help the furniture manufacturing firms to practice mass customization while maintaining quality, as well operate with profitable growth.

As a custom retail furniture product manufacturer, your design engineers can leverage SolidWorks for developing native CAD models and DriveWorks would be the best choice. If your design teams use Inventor, iLogic and Configurator 360 should be your preferred alternatives.

Product configurator will shave off minutes, probably hours, from design cycle time and quickly generate CAD drafts, fabrication drawings with details of BOMs and isometric views. Quick drafting and modeling will enable same-day manufacturing. Configured and accurate quotes can be prepared right at the moment when order is placed, which gives the idea of purchase to the customer as well.

In fact, experiences say that the design cycles can be reduced by 45% of the original time. Cumulatively, the manufacturing firm for retail furniture gains an edge by having sufficient room for quality manufacturing and holding on to their customers.