Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
MAIRESSE Sebastien
LE NOC Ludovic
FILS 1243
2015
SEAT CONFORTABLY
Table of content
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 4
Needs Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 5
The stated need............................................................................................................................ 5
The characterized need ................................................................................................................ 6
Choice & Description of the market ................................................................................................. 9
Choice of the market (multicriteria analysis) ............................................................................... 9
General description .................................................................................................................... 10
Current products and services on the market ........................................................................... 11
Current Distributor Network ...................................................................................................... 12
Current Competitors .................................................................................................................. 13
Evolution of the market ............................................................................................................. 14
Target Markets ........................................................................................................................... 14
Market segmentation and Target market segment ................................................................... 15
Marketing environments............................................................................................................ 15
Competitive analysis and SWOT analysis ................................................................................... 16
Lifecycle and Environment ............................................................................................................. 16
Lifecycle of the product .............................................................................................................. 16
Environment ............................................................................................................................... 17
Elements of exterior environment ............................................................................................. 17
Service functionsFunctional specifications .................................................................................. 17
In use .......................................................................................................................................... 18
At rest ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Conclusion: market & needs analysis ............................................................................................. 19
Functional technical Analysis ......................................................................................................... 20
Numerical calculation ..................................................................................................................... 22
Manufacturing process .................................................................................................................. 26
Design computations...................................................................................................................... 27
2
Economic analysis........................................................................................................................... 29
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 30
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................... 31
Introduction
The first men who inhabited earth were seating on the ground. Quickly, came up the
idea to use stone and then to cut tree to make the first comfortable device to sit down. Seat
was born. Since this moment humanity continually improve chairs and seats through their
design, materials, ergonomics and functionality. The main function of a seat was not always to
sit comfortably, in the past it was a symbol of power, for the king per example.
Nowadays, peoples who work in an office are spending 80% of their time seating on a
chair. On average, during a day, we are spending 12 hours in seating position. But men like
animals need to move, as result, 75% of peoples from industrial country suffer from back pain.
In the business area, back pain represents a huge loss of money. Such an example, in Germany
70 million of work stoppage day come from back pain, in this way, Germans company lost 20
billion euro per year because of this widespread disease.
Fortunately, we are now far away from the old idea that comfortable chairs imply a
decrease of productivity. So more than ever, to seat comfortably appear to be a major challenge
for our life in term of money and above all health.
Needs Analysis
The second step of a project after finding an idea is to define the project, for that we
need to know the need of the clients, so first we will get the stated need which represent the
need that the client express to us. And we will transform that in characterized need, so we will
give measurable criteria to the stated needs.
Health of
the client
The client
The chair
Criterions
Values
X 5 hours
40cm < X < 55cm
45 < x < 90
For this need the criterions are the time past sit and criteria about the design of the chair,
because if the shape of the chair correspond with the morphology of the user the comfort will
be better.
Moving freely
The ground
The client
The chair
Moving freely
Figure 4 : need diagram 2
Criterions
Values
Wheels
Force needed to move the chair
x < 50N
Here the criterions are the fact that the chair has wheels and force that is needed to move the
chair, because if you have to get up to move the chair it becomes useless.
Working efficiently
The work
The client
The chair
Work efficiently
Figure 5 : need diagram 3
Criterions
Values
Rotation
Height ( to adapt to the desk)
360
35cm < x < 50cm
Working efficiency is directly connected with ergonomic, so the criterions are in this direction.
We have the rotation of the chair which allows the user easy movement to reach different
things, and the height to be able to adapt to the desk.
In conclusion we started from the stated needs and then characterized them, to get a basis data
for the future design of the seat.
space
budget
comfort
reliability
space
0,5
1
0,5
1
budget
0
0,5
1
0
comfort
0,5
0
0,5
0
reliability
0
1
1
0,5
total
1
2,5
3
1,5
Market
Then we had to the customer, we made three different groups:
- A: Old peoples and workers which work on a computer. (they can stay in a sitting
position for more than 8 hours per days)
- B: Waiting room (Hospital, administration). The time spends seat down is usually less
than 1 hour.
- C: Schools, restaurants. (they do not have so much money to spend on a seat and the
time spend seat down is between 1 and 3 hours)
After that we had to decide of the importance of the previous criterion on the customers.
space
budget
comfort
reliability
A
4
6
10
10
B
5
8
7
6
C
8
5
8
10
9
Target market
Finally with some calculation we can find the target market :
Space
Budget
comfort
reliability
total
A
1,5
15,6
42,5
10
69,6
B
1,87
20,8
29,75
6
58,42
C
3
13
34
10
60
It appears that the target market is the group A which is compose the old people and the
worker. Both of them have different needs, and we finally decide to choose the worker because
after read some documentation we saw that have good seat at work is a matter that is
increasing a lot these last years and it will concern us soon.
General description
The office furniture market is very stable. Indeed companies need to replenish stock
continually to satisfy their workers. Nevertheless commercial offer is higher than demand. In
this prospect, sellers have to innovate and propose new solutions if they want to survive in this
competitive market. Fortunately, office chair that is our target device have the wind in its sails.
As a Proof of that, a study make in US, which show an increase of the sales in the office chair
sector.
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-Anti-transpiration cloth.
Up market or high-class
-Price between 400 and 900.
-Elegant design.
-Synchronised mechanism ensures a wide range of adjustment
option for the users weight and height (we can say that the seat
interact with the users body).
-Quality materials.
Distribution Network
23%
Reseller
51%
26%
Great distribution
Direct selling
12
Current Competitors
Clients' repartition
30%
Private individuals
70%
Professionasl or
companies
The office furniture market isnt dominated buy a small group of companies. Companies
are very diversified and come from every country in the world, as we can see on the following
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diagram. Recently, traditional sellers have to compete against e-merchant who profit from the
new trend, which consist to buy using Internet.
Aestheticism and design are parameters, which become more and more important for
customers. Indeed, a recent survey made in France show that only 14% of French people are
satisfied about their office design. The new trend is aerial and light designs with pale colours. To
stay on course companies have to be very attentive about the design of their new devices.
Environmental aspect and sustainable development. Nowadays clients attach great importance
to environment. Companies do the same; they establish environmental policy to please
customers. In this way, office chair manufacturer should make research about biomaterials to
fulfil clients desires.
Health and wellbeing, its a new fashion in developed country to be very careful about your own
health. As the result, ergonomics to reduce back pain is a crucial point for clients.
Target Markets
Many studies show that potential customers, in majority, are coming from professional
sector.
A closer study about professional customers demonstrates that they are mostly large
companies.
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20%
Large companies
50%
Mid-sized companies
Small companies
30%
Marketing environments
Micro environment:
Office chair manufacturers make a lot of research about ergonomics and design.
Macro environment:
Countries in development need more and more office furniture. And the development of the
tertiary sector also increase this needs of office furniture.
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Strength
Weakness
Ergonomics
Well design
Ecological
Innovative device
Price
Congestion
Weight
Opportunities
Threat
Competitive market
Market in perpetual change
Further to this analysis, we can guess that our product can be viable on the market. His
profitability will depend on our faculty to adapt quickly at the market. Namely, we have to really
conceive ergonomics, well design and ecological products. Without this, because of
competitors, our device will disappear and collapse for sure.
Conception:
It is done by computer on CATIA with all the strength of material studies.
Production:
The production is ensuring by SOKOA every pieces are done manually. The leather comes from
DECOCUIR in France.
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Marketing:
In this phase of the life cycle the product will be sold in internet like Amazon and in great shop
like DARTY. It will be advertised on internet and on TV.
In use:
A user is sitting comfortably on the chair and can move without standing-up
Environment
The environment is an office with a desk, maybe some tables, printers and furniture.
The principals risks are the food and drink that the user can consume while sitting and the
shocks with the desk or other furniture of the office.
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In use
To represent this function we used a functional analysis diagram, here is the result:
USER
GROUND
FP2
Work
activities
FP1
Swivel chair
DESK
FC6
NORME
ENVIRONMENT
At rest
For this phase it was easier because there is no big difference between the two phases. Actually
only CF3 come back to allow the user to put away the chair under the desk.
19
20
FT2
FT3
FT4
FT5
FT6
Expression
Ensure chair Stability
Criteria
1. Number of wheels
Level
Limit
5 (to have an hyper
static
mechanical
joint with the ground)
3. Mechanical
strength for each
wheels
(+/-) 5 %
1) Axial pressure
P > 1 bar
(+/-) 5 %
2) Seat width
w [ 450 ; 500 ]
3) Seat depth
d [340 ; 440]
4) Seat height
compare to the
ground
Ensure the backrest 1) Back angle
inclination adjustment
2) Backrest width
h [390 ; 450 ]
3) Backrest height
h [450 ; 500 ]
Ensure the
adjustment
4) Elastic resistance
armrest 1) Width between the
two armrests
[0; 31]
w [350 ; 480 ]
=175 Mpa
w = 450 mm
h= 200 mm
h [10 ; 30]
21
Numerical calculation
Here are explained all the calculations that we made to size the chair.
FT1 calculation
We consider that the normal speed for the chair is 4 Km/h:
So thank to this formula =
We choose r = 2,5 cm
We find = 424 rpm, with the rotation speed of the wheel
We use a security coefficient s of 2, so finally, we find = s = 824 rpm
We consider a maximum weight on the chair of 300 Kg, so each wheel has to support 60 kg. Its
represented a normal force of 600N in each wheel.
Or, =
2
4
We choose d= 6 cm, so S = 28 2
We found P = O, 5 bar
We apply a security coefficient equal to 2 so P = 1 bar
Hypothesis:
We model the seat plate as a parallelepiped (P) with these dimensions:
H=10 mm
L=450 mm
l=340 mm
22
To use the bean model, we make a strength material study only on a section (P1) of this part
with these dimensions.
H=15 mm
L=450 mm
l=10 mm
We consider a maximum weight on the chair of 300 Kg, So on the seat there is a total load (W).
With:
F = 3000 N
= = 0,153 2
We obtain W = 19608 2
We convert this surface load in linear by multiplied by l so we obtain W = 8823 N/m
For P1 its represent a load of 260 N/m (P1= P/34)
So finally we have W = 260 N/m
We choose E (Young module) = 210 Gpa
The bean section is a square:
Here a = 15 mm
=
= ,
23
=
= ,
( )2
2
=175 Mpa
The seat plate Material must have an elastic resistance > = 175
We can also calculate the deformation f:
2 (2 2 + (2 )2 )
=
24
24
3
=
= 0,7
8
25
Manufacturing process
Now came the question of the way to get the parts (buy or made them by ourselves).
The wheels and the actuators are standards parts, the arms rest and the wheels shelf are made
by foundry and are subcontracted, the steel plate is made in our workshop. And the seat, the
backrest and the head rest are also subcontracted
Then we made the process of assembly of the chair that we are making at our workshop:
Assembly
Arm rest
Assembly
Back rest
Assembly
Seat
Steel plate
Assembly
Bending
Actuator
Packaging
Assembly
Product
Wheels
shelf
Assembly
Wheels
Figure 13 : Assembly process
26
Design computations
Here is the final design of the chair; we obtained it by using all the data that we got from
the service function analysis and technical analysis.
The chair is composed of 7 parts (Pictures come from our CAO model):
Wheels
27
Wheel shelf
Actuator
Seat
Backrest
Armrest
28
Head rest
Economic analysis
Finally we did an economic study to see if we will be profitable. First we search the price of each
standard parts and we approximate the one that we are making.
Components
Price TTC
Wheel
Arm rest
Plate
Vis CHC 10
Actuator
Wheel frame
Seat
Back rest
7.5
17-21
7.36
0.44
16.5
13
43
67
Sells volumes
0
100
200
300
0
100
300
600
Production volumes
200
200
200
400
300
700
300
1000
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July
August
September
October
November
December
350
350
400
400
350
400
950
1300
1700
2100
2450
2850
400
400
400
300
350
350
1400
1800
2200
2500
2850
3200
moneys (euro)
1000000
800000
600000
400000
expenses
200000
benefits
0
0
-200000
10
12
months
Conclusion
This project shows us that it is hard to carry a project; here we are still really far from the
first prototype. But in another hand it also shows us that you do not need a complicated idea to
come off with a profitable project.
30
Bibliography
Analysis of the market of offices furniture suppliers:
http://www.chefdentreprise.com/Chef-d-entreprise-Magazine/Article/Fournitures-de-bureaufaites-JOUER-LA-CONCURRENCE-23922-1.htm
Ergonomic study:
http://www.kloeber.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/brochures/Ergonomie_fra_201008.pdf
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