Office Solutions

It’s a word often seen in advertising, “solutions”, and when I see it my immediate reaction as a cynical old engineer is “solution to what?”  One day I got to thinking about it in the context of office ergonomics and realized that there was one quite reasonable answer to that question.

OSHA requires that businesses provide a “hazard free” work environment.  A reasonable “office solution” would be one that provides such a work environment.  There are two ways to go about this.  One is to hire an ergonomist to analyze one’s business and recommend improvements which then get implemented.  The other is to purchase predesigned office layouts consisting of standard components designed to work together that when installed to specification provide a work environment that meets OSHA requirements. 

Which approach is best is going to depend on the size of the business and its growth rate and on the current state of its office layout and furnishings.  If it is expanding into a new location where new furnishings need to be procured anyway the predesigned approach would seem to be the obvious choice unless the firm’s business model requires a more tailored appearance.  If it’s an older location which has collected its office furnishings and accoutrements over time the question becomes more complex and could from a cost viewpoint go either way.  If the available structure won’t accommodate a standard layout then the custom approach is by default the choice which must be taken.  If the business is growing and has unoccupied space available in its existing facilities the standardized approach allows easy expansion into the unoccupied space.  Other circumstances may favor one approach over the other.

Unfortunately, many purveyors of “office solutions” simply sell furniture and leave it up to you to decide what furniture to buy to provide a “solution” for your office.  When shopping for a source you need to look for one that has the staffing and certifications to provide you with an OSHA-compliant solution and not just a bunch of furniture.