Sit Down a Spell

CASE STUDY

A retailer had furniture placed outside of their storefront that was meant to serve as visual props as well as function as a place for customers to sit and relax.  The furniture was secured to the floor by a system that was easily disengaged, consequently allowing the pieces to move around and damage the painted floor.  The client wanted to eliminate the movement as well as minimize any risk of theft.   The new system needed to be virtually unseen by the casual observer.  Resicom was contacted to develop a solution.    

Scope

The scope of work needed to execute this project included:

1. Complete reconnaissance work to gather information on the construction of the furniture as well as the floor.
2. Develop and test a prototype system that kept the furniture from moving and helped prevent theft.
3. Install the prototype at a location to monitor the success of the system.

Challenges

The constraints of this project included:

1. The system needed to be hidden from the customer’s view.
2. The system needed to serve both purposes – prevent movement and deter theft.
3. The modification of both the furniture and the floor needed to be kept to a minimum.
4. The prototype needed to be fabricated.
5. The prototype had to be initially tested offsite before it could be installed and tested at an actual store.

Solution

Resicom understands the importance placed on the storefront by our clients, as prospective shoppers often make their decision whether or not to enter the store based on visual assessment.    The system we were developing needed to be unobtrusive and remain virtually unseen by the customer, yet the functionality of the securement must be to the standards of the client. Our solution for the project included:

1. Purchased a piece of furniture for testing purposes similar to the one the client was asking us to secure for testing purposes.
2. Developed drawings and worked with a metal fabricator to develop (2) different prototypes.
3. Developed a system to supplement the fabricated prototypes to help deter theft.
4. In our Training and Test Facility we installed each prototype on the test chair and documented the installation process (written with photos).  We also installed the exact flooring of the porch used at the client’s storefront so that the test was consistent with actual conditions and specifications.  
5. We then performed several tests reenacting the types of everyday use and abuse the furniture was likely to receive and documented how well each prototype performed.
6. We provided all data to the client for their review and for decision. 

Summary

The client felt confident in our abilities to design a solution that could be easily installed and meet all of the objectives, thus allowing us the creative license to devise a solution without pre-determined parameters.  Resicom leveraged our Training Facility in order to reenact real world scenarios and thoroughly document processes to provide thorough information to the client.  By providing this information to the client we were able to put them in a position of choosing the best option to implement as an “in-store” test thus keeping their project cost to a minimum.  The prototypes have all been installed and the test continues to operate successfully.  Resicom expects the client to roll out the solution to all facilities nationwide in the near future.