Towards an Integrated Framework to Support Contract Furniture Industry

The current worldwide economic crisis pushes all companies, and especially small and medium ones (SMEs), to increase their global competitiveness and capabilities of entering into new, international markets. A promising one is represented by contract furniture that refers to the supply of products and services for large-sized buildings such as hotels, restaurants and retails. From literature overview it appears to be characterized by a multifaceted commitment determined by the agreement among the general contractor, the owner and the architect; short time to market and lead time; iterative design that still remains unstructured and based on traditional methods and supporting tools; participatory design merging product and architectural design issues; complexity of interactions among all involved stakeholders; long negotiation phase; and finally a complex market that is worldwide, involves companies from different countries, addresses diverse target users. Numerous Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are used to support market analysis and SMEs promotion, furniture design, data sharing and project management within companies network.