OFFECCT Care Part 1: Design in Healthcare Environments

#healthcare #design

The environment in health facilities is most often associated with functionality. However, research today shows that poor interior design can have negative health effects and that by producing a more sound and beautiful interior, patients as well as staff profit.

During this year OFFECCT has had its furniture introduced into a number of projects within the healthcare environment throughout Europe. One of these is the St Gallen public hospital in Switzerland. The interior architects of the hospital chose products from the Bond series to improve the interiors of the hospital. Important considerations by the architects were questions of quality and fire safety, and they felt that the Bond products corresponded well with their demands.

St Gallen

Weight loss company Xtravaganza in Finland has also chosen to make their interior environment more inspiring. The company chose products from the series Bond, Spoon, Flower and Cornflake among others for the many meeting rooms at their headquarters. Not only inspiring for creative meetings, it was also important to the company that the furniture was eco labeled.

Two clinics in Sweden have also chosen to purchase design furniture from OFFECCT. One of them is the dental practice Tandhälsan in Skövde, who highly value locally manufactured products, proximity to service as well as prompt delivery and therefore decided to choose OFFECCT.

Another Swedish company is the aesthetic surgery practice Art Clinic and their facility in Jönköping. Art Clinic wanted to create an exclusive and distinctive environment corresponding to their corporate identity. By installing furniture from OFFECCT the company not only met these requirements, but also their standards of eco labeled Swedish furniture.

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Supplier of the Year

#design #supplier

Yesterday we organized our annual supplier event. Suppliers from different areas such as textile, leather, compression molding and metal came to listen to lectures on future developments at OFFECCT.

OFFECCT-supplier of the year

The day began with the traditional Swedish Lucia procession before the rest of the day was filled with talks and lectures. OFFECCT CEO Kurt Tingdal talked about the future and our strategic goals, Anders Englund, Design Manager, informed about innovation, new materials and the importance of new ways of thinking. Acting Environment and Quality Manager Joachim Schubert talked about corporate social responsibility and international standards that we follow here at OFFECCT.

OFFECCT-leverantorsdag-supplier of the year

Every year at this event, we launch a challenge to our suppliers, something that they can work on during the coming year, and thereby have the chance to win the title Supplier of the Year. The challenge launched in 2009 was to become the most innovative supplier. The winner, who collected the title in 2010, presented the results of the challenge at this year’s event.

Together with Anders Englund, the supplier went to New York this past spring to visit Material Connexion, a material library with over 6000 different materials (read more about this here). The visit presented an excellent opportunity to discover new and innovative materials that we can use in the future.

Supplier of the Year 2011

The “Supplier of the Year” 2011 is Anderssons Mekaniska AB. They were awarded the title for their excellent delivery performance, great flexibility as well as the long-term price policy which has provided both parties with a successful sales story.

Supplier of the Year 2011: Anderssons Mekaniska AB

Anderssons Mekaniska AB also shows a low complaint frequency and good routines for any potential problems that may arise. Their customer focus and swiftness is highly valued and contribute to making the company a worthy Supplier of the Year 2011.

Newcomer of the Year 2011

The title the “Newcomer of the Year” was awarded to G. Magnusson Snickerifabrik AB for their 100% delivery performance and high quality. The company has shown how an OFFECCT supplier can develop and create customer confidence.

Newcomer of the Year 2011: G. Magnusson Snickerifabrik AB

The winning suppliers have since last year performed the best improvement work in their production process. They have developed better structures in their production such as upgraded routines, decreased wastes as well as created a more rational production process. They have also improved their delivery performance during the measurement period.

Next Year’s Challenge

The challenge next year will be to decrease energy use, an important step in becoming more environmentally friendly. At OFFECCT we continuously improve our environmental impact, and it is important that our suppliers do the same. The winner will be presented at next year’s supplier event.

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Saint Lucia Visits OFFECCT

#SaintLucia

Tibros Saint Lucia Olivia Hultman and her handmaidens visited us here at OFFECCT this morning of December 13, bringing light and beautiful traditional hymns.

OFFECCT-Tibro-Lucia

The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to St Lucia of Syracuse, a martyr who died in 304, and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. It is said that she consorted with the Devil and that her children were invisible infernals. Thus the name may be associated with both lux (light) and Lucifer (Satan), and its origins are difficult to determine. The present custom appears to be a blend of traditions.

The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 20th century, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbar custom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927. The custom whereby Lucia serves coffee and buns (lussekatter) dates back to the 1880s, although the buns were around long before that.

OFFECCT-Tibro-Lucia-Showroom

Olivia Hultman was crowned Lucia this Sunday, and has delighted people all over Tibro with their procession led by Jenny de Carvalho.

Now that Lucia has been here, we can really feel Christmas approaching.

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Learning about Lean

#lean

Lean production and administration is a philosophy of resource handling. The purpose is to identify all parts of a process that do not add value for the client, and eliminate them.

Here at OFFECCT we began to work with the concept of lean about one and a half years ago. We started in the production process, and the employees concerned had a course at the University College of Skövde.

OFFECCT-lean production

We learnt that there are ways to make the production more efficient and less resource-demanding while keeping the high quality of the end-product. The point is not to make the process as cheap as possible, but to eliminate everything that does not add value, and to eliminate the production of wastes. This is a great way to work towards a more environmentally friendly production process, something that is very important to us.

OFFECCT-lean production - sustainability

Now that we have seen how great lean production is, we also want to implement lean into our administration process. So our management team took a course in lean administration and is passing the examination this week.

Lean administration has taught us ways to make communication more effective and to reevaluate our administrative work process to identify small things that can end up making a great change and save resources. One such thing could be to decrease the amount of material that we buy, or to eliminate as much printing as possible. The concept Just-in-Time is useful in both lean production and administration. It simply means that the right thing should be at the right place at the right time. In administration this means for example to make sure that we place items we use continuously close to our workplace. Lean also teaches us to make decisions based on their long-term results rather than short-term financial benefits.

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Bio-Based Plastics

#design #plastic #sustainability

A few weeks ago we visited the fair Muovi Plastics in Lahti, Finland. Plastic is an important material in the design of furniture, and at the fair several suppliers of biopolymers and biocomposites were present. Bio-based plastics are interesting from an environmental point of view, and we continuously monitor the branch and its developments as a part of our sustainability work.

OFFECCT-Muovi Plastics

Bio-based plastics, or bioplastics as they are often called, are derived from renewable sources, like vegetable fats and oils, corn and pea starch and microbiota. A few of these plastics are biodegradable.

The production of bioplastics is growing and presents a good environmentally friendly option to plastic made from oil and natural gas, but the production must not interfere and compete with the production of food, an inherent risk considering the resources of production. The best alternative here is when the plastic is produced with wastes from production or garbage. But the increased use of biofuels also produced from wastes affects the availability of bio-based plastics.

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No Christmas Without Snowflakes

#design

Christmas is approaching, but here in Sweden, the snow isn’t. OFFECCT Snowflakes can help you get that perfect snowy Christmassy feeling no matter the outdoor temperature.

Snowflakes

The Snowflakes table is designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune, and is as unique as a real snowflake. Their inspiration came from photographer Wilson Bentley who devoted his career to documenting the uniqueness of snowflakes with his camera.

3 Snowflakes

Every table has its pattern randomly generated by a computer, so no to patterns are alike. We made this possible in 2010 when we introduced an innovative production method that allows us to combine unique design with serial production.

6 Snowflakes

Snowflakes’ table top is glacier white, just like its stand. The stand is available in three different heights, making the possibility for variation infinite.

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ROBO Chosen for the ADI Design Index 2011

#design #ADI

ADIdesignaward

The OFFECCT chair ROBO by Luca Nichetto has been selected for the ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale) design index 2011. The book of all designs selected for the index was presented yesterday November 30 2011.

ADIDesignIndex-OFFECCT

The inclusion of ROBO in the index means that next year ROBO will have the chance to win the Compasso d’oro. The Compasso d’Oro Award was established in 1954, and is thus the oldest international design award today. The award has been managed by the ADI since 1964.

OFFECCT-ROBO-two

The selection to the index, and later the award, is made by the ADI Permanent Observatory of Design made up of experts, designer, critics, historians, specialized journalists and ADI members.

All the present and previous designs awarded with the Compasso d’Oro are displayed in the Historical Collection of the Compasso d’Oro Award. In 2004, the collection was declared a part of Italy’s national heritage.

LucaNichetto-OFFECCT-ADI

Nichetto’s inspiration to the robot-like ROBO came from a Björk video in 1999. The idea that robots could come alive, and acquire human characteristics exited Nichetto, and so he began imagining how this could be applied to the design of a chair. The goal was to create an object that respected the environment by playing with a design comprised of separate pieces so that the chair could be transported in a small box.

OFFECCT-ROBO-box

The stackable chair is made of plywood, compressed textile made of recycled plastic bottles and metal structure, so our wish to always strive for environmentally friendly designs is fulfilled not only in the smart design of the chair, but also in the materials used to realize it.

OFFECCT-ROBO-in-a-box

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Monthly Archives: December 2011

OFFECCT Care Part 1: Design in Healthcare Environments

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Supplier of the Year

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Saint Lucia Visits OFFECCT

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Learning about Lean

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Bio-Based Plastics

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No Christmas Without Snowflakes

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ROBO Chosen for the ADI Design Index 2011

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