While it’s usually a simple (and sometimes frustrating) process to construct a piece of Ikea furniture, perhaps one area where the Scandinavian company falls short is the durability and strength of its products. And while Ikea remains one of the largest furniture suppliers in the world, its brain trust has still been hard at work over the past few years developing what it calls the wedge wedge. With this new and improved method, not only would the construction of Ikea furniture become even lighter, but it would also dramatically improve its strength. In other words, Ikea’s moving disasters could become a thing of the past.
Before officially introducing the wedge about three years ago, Ikea had been tinkering for several years with the development of something that would affect a wide range of the company’s products. The company saw improving its product line in terms of longevity and ease of use as key to retaining existing customers and attracting new ones. Anna-Karin Sjogren, Ikea’s product development engineer, admits she feels a sense of duty to provide consumers with the best furniture possible.
Ikea
Ikea
“We’re focusing a lot more on innovation than we did in the past,” Sjogren told Fast Co Design. “Innovation in general is about creating more sustainable solutions [a piece] can live longer with the customer. We produce so much furniture that we have that responsibility.”
This responsibility – and a lot of hard work, of course – took the finished form of something resembling a wooden screw. Gone are the days of fiddling with an Allen key as the Ikea wedge dowel requires an incredibly simple assembly process. For something like a table, owners just insert its legs into the table top before screwing in the metal inserts — a four-legged table only requires four screws. The wedge dowel also makes it easy to keep Ikea furniture in top condition in the event of a move.
“This requires modularity and flexibility,” Sjogren added. “That is what we are currently focusing our innovation on. It’s a product that looks simple and easy to understand, but it takes a lot of work to make it beautiful, simple and easy.”
Ikea’s Lisabo table uses its innovative Fast Co dowels. Design
Going forward, Ikea’s engineering team intends to focus on how the wedge can be adapted to different materials – from now on, the wedges only work with wooden furniture. In particular, Ikea hopes to find a solution to the humidity problem in markets such as India or China. Since wood expands and contracts depending on the amount of moisture present, a material (think metal) that can consistently withstand these elements is incredibly important.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn