Industry-specific ergonomics guidelines are an important component in the four-pronged approach to workplace ergonomics currently pursued by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The American Furniture Manufacturers Association has taken the initiative of developing such a guideline for its members. The result of this effort is the "AFMA Voluntary Ergonomics Guideline...

Upholstered furniture intended to provide better sleep and rest, especially furniture for disabled persons, require careful design of elastic spring systems. In the majority of cases, when designing new articles, both furniture designers and manufacturers rely on long-term experience and craftsman’s intuition. On the other hand, the accumulated interdisciplinary knowledge of modern medical labo...

Transportation has become an increasingly important part of the Canadian furniture industry supply chain. Even when different furniture companies ship to the same regions, the same cities and/or the same furniture retailers, coordination between two or more companies is rare. Recently, interest in collaborative transportation planning to support coordination has intensified as important potenti...

This report begins with an overview of research relating to the organizational and management issues of integrating CAD/PDM systems into furniture companies. Some of the primary areas where CAD/PDM technology affects an organization are in the areas of: 1) job design, 2) organizational structure, 3) power distribution, and 4) user communication patterns. The technology/organizational interactio...

In 186 cases of nasal cancer diagnosed over the decade 1965-74, in a population of 2-0 million, 114 of 157 ectodermal tumours were found in men. Adenocarcinoma was found in 17 patients, two women and 15 men; 12 of these had a history of occupational exposure to wood dust in the furniture industry. The period of latency was from 28 to 57 years. Among the remaining 99 tumours in men there was occ...