Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1991. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 30).

M.Tech. (Operations Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This thesis focuses on the revitalization of a once thriving manufacturing city, Gardner, Massachusetts. In the past the city of Gardner was rich with furniture manufacturers. Over the years the manufacture of furniture has left Gardner. The goal of this thesis is to reinvigorate the furniture making and craft back into Gardner. The proposed revitalization of the town was furthered through teaching and the design and production of a new product line. The renovation and retrofit of an existing now abandoned, building. Designing to meet the strategies, methods, and processes of furniture production; merged with an architecture meant to signal both respect for the history of Gardner and a new revitalization; designing from the inside – out. Thoughts about sustainability and environmental design are incorporated into the design. There are a multitude of new building practices and strategies that are explored and will be used to try and form a design that could unite usability, function, aesthetics, and comfort as well as meeting current code and ADA requirements, through retrofitting an existing building. Teaching the former craft of furniture making will ignite revitalization in the downtown area. A new form of universally designed furniture making will be taught and practiced in the facility.

El presente proyecto se realizó con el fin de determinar la factibilidad de la instalación de una planta de muebles RTA (Ready To Assemble). Para empezar, se realizaron justificaciones técnicas, económicas y sociales, que dieron como resultado el crecimiento económico del Perú, la gran cantidad de mano de obra y la oportunidad para apoyar al crecimiento social de la zona. / This project was carried out in order to determine the feasibility of installing a RTA (Ready to Assemble) furniture plant. In the beginning of it, technical, economic and social justifications were made, which showed evidence of the economic growth of Peru, the large amount of ready workforce and the opportunity to support the social growth of the area. / Trabajo de investigación

We consider the problem of scheduling production in a wood furniture plant. In particular, we consider the problem of selecting orders from various types of furniture products and determining their lot-sizes for production when there are sequence dependent setup times involved in the production of these items. This is termed the aggregate scheduling problem. In addition, we consider the problem of scheduling work at various production facilities in the presence of capacity constraints once the items for production and their quantities are selected. This is termed the detailed scheduling problem. The aggregate scheduling problem is formulated as a mixed integer program and solved using a dynamic programming procedure. The detailed scheduling program is a linear program and is solved using a canned linear programming package. In order to understand the state-of-the-art in the furniture industry, various furniture plants in Southwest Virginia were visited and a national survey was conducted. The results are summarized. The survey emphasized the problem addressed in this research. In order to understand the decision points better in the furniture manufacturing process, the IDEF (ICAM definition) procedure is used to describe the furniture manufacturing process. The methodology developed is applied to a real-life problem and the results are summarized. / Master of Science

Adoption of manufacturing technologies have been cited as an important competitive strategy for successful firms. This study assessed the wood household furniture industry for its current level of technology adoption, examined the impact of competitive variables on technology adoption and strategy formation, as well as, characteristics of innovators or early adopters within the industry. The results provide both insight into the technological direction of this industry and factors influencing the adoption of innovations by industrial organizations. The U.S. wood household furniture industry was surveyed concerning their recent equipment purchases, future purchase plans, and adoption of a list of 21 innovative technologies. Respondents listed recent equipment purchases within the finish machining area of the mill, particularly with automatic controls, as providing them with the most important benefits of increased efficiency and product quality. Respondents indicated that the functional areas of finish machining and the rough mill will receive the majority of new equipment over the next five years with automatic controls increasing in importance over time. A competitive-policy contingent model of technology adoption was developed and empirically tested. Innovativeness of firms was accessed by the number of technologies adopted from a set developed by industry experts. Empirical results suggest that organizational policy is dependent on the competitive conditions under which it was formed and that policy has an important effect on the innovativeness of an organization. Communication variables (signal frequency, cosmopliteness, and professionalization) were found to exhibit greater direct and indirect effects on innovation than industry structural variables with the exception of firm size. Characteristics of early adopters were contrasted with those of later adopters of technologies within the furniture industry based upon their adoption of thirteen processing technologies. Early adopters were found to differ significantly from later adopters on firm size, technological expertise, technological progressiveness, opinion leadership, information sources, and cosmopolitanism of the decision making group. The influence of technology push versus marketing pull strategies on firms was examined in an empirical study. Results of cluster analysis indicate that firms do align themselves along these strategic dimensions and can be contrasted on key characteristics; such as, demographics, company performance and environmental uncertainty. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Darbe nuosekliai apžvelgiama 1900-1940 m. profesionaliosios meninės Lietuvos baldininkystės raida. Gilinantis į mažai tyrinėtą, tačiau aktualią gilesniam meniniam pažinimui XIX a. pabaigos.- XX a. I pusės profesionaliąją meninę Lietuvos baldininkystę, yra pristatomi žymiausi baldininkai ir jų kūryba. Tad tyrimo tikslas – charakterizuojant sociokultūrinį kontekstą atskleisti 1900-1940 m. Lietuvos baldininkystės raidą, analizuoti menininkų kurtus baldus bei baldų projektus ir apibūdinti jų meninę stilistiką. Darbo dėstymą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmoji skirta Lietuvos baldininkystės raidai nuo 1900 iki 1918 m. Čia aptariamas meno ir amatų sąjūdis europiniame kontekste, jo reikšmė Lietuvos baldininkystės vystymuisi. Taip pat apžvelgiama tuo laikmečiu vyravusi art nouveau stilistika bei analizuojamas A. Jaroševičiaus bei P. Rimšos baldininkystės paveldas. Antroji dėstymo dalis apžvelgia Lietuvos baldininkystę nuo 1918 iki 1940 m. Gilinantis į sociokultūrinį kontekstą nušviečiama baldininkystės padėtis, o taip tuo metu vyravusi art deco ir tautinio stiliaus samplaika. Analizuojami žymiausių menininkų kūriniai, bei interjerų projektams skirti projektai ir baldai. Trečioji dalis skirta baldininkystės sklaidai virtualioje erdvėje pateikiant internetinio tinklaraščio modelį bei mokslinį baldų katalogą. / The present paper gives a consistent overview of the development of Lithuanian furniture making during 1900-1940. Focussing on Lithuanian furniture making in the first half of the 20th century, which has remained until recently little analysed yet fundamental to deepening one’s artistic perception, this paper sets out to analyse the furniture and furniture projects created by artists in the socio-cultural context. In order to shed light on the development of furniture making, the paper discusses the arts and crafts movement which emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and its impact on the development of Lithuanian furniture making. It also gives an overview of the Art Nouveau stylistics of the time and analyses the heritage of furniture making by A. Jaroševičius and P. Rimša. When Lithuania became independent after the First World War the life in the country changed, therefore, in order to shed light on the situation of furniture making during 1918-1940 the paper focuses on the interwar socio-cultural context and outlines the reasons of confluence of Art Deco and Ethnic Style in furniture making. It also analyses the works of J. Prapuolenis, the most famous interwar cabinetmaker, and discusses the sketches of furniture of G. Bagdonavičius as well as the unique furniture design of P. Galaunė. During the interwar representative interiors served as an important means of expressing national identity, therefore, the paper analyses the furniture projects of interior... [to full text]

The increasing impact of mass production and consumption behaviours have made sustainable product design an important issue in design literature in the last two decades. Studies in the early period focussed on research projects carried out in collaboration with multinational large-sized enterprises, owing to pressures from non-governmental organizations. However, recent studies about sustainable development have pointed out that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rather than multinationals have a greater share of manufacturing and employment in both industrialized and industrializing countries. Unfortunately, in spite of the important role of SMEs, there is inadequate data and literature relating sustainable design practices to these firms. A lack of information and collaboration, caused partially by communication problems, has resulted in an absence of proper sustainable product design tools for these companies. Furniture enterprises in Ankara are the focus of this study because of the impact of product design in market possibilities and the spread of employment of product designers in the sector. Attitudes of staff and consultants of furniture SMEs regarding barriers and opportunities of sustainable product design are explored, and contrasted with overlapping points of existing product development methods and strategies in the literature. This work is intended to contribute to improved understanding and application of sustainable product design among furniture sector SMEs. To this end, interviews were conducted with 16 furniture manufacturing enterprises from the furniture industry, based in Ankara region and 5 freelance furniture designers cooperating with these enterprises. According to the results of the study, furniture sector SMEs are interested more in economic opportunities of sustainable product design rather than environmental and social aspects. Furthermore, a lack of information about environmental issues is observed in micro and small-sized enterprises / to overcome this situation, it is recommended that training sessions are organized to bring together researchers and practitioners.