Case Study: OpenDesk Furniture

Essential Idea:

Open Source design can provide innovative products and services that meet the needs of designers, manufacturers and consumers.

Introduction

OpenDesk seeks to disrupt the current way of manufacturing furniture. On OpenDesk's website they state:

"Opendesk is an online marketplace that hosts independently designed furniture and connects its customers to local makers around the world. Rather than mass manufacturing and shipping worldwide, we’re building a distributed and ethical supply chain through a global maker network."

OpenDesk seeks to connect digital designers with digital fabricators. Designers can publish their designs on the site. Consumers select a design. They can either download it themselves and fabricate it, or select a local manufacturer to produce it for them.

As designs are manufactured locally, but designed globally, this reduces the shipping costs associated with transporting finished furniture long distances. In this way, OpenDesk connects digital designers with digital fabricators.

Key Aspects of OpenDesk Designs

Global community of designers design for OpenDesk
Connects consumers with local manufacturers
Reduces impact of transportation as designs are manufactured locally, rather than transported long distances
Consumers can decide how involved they want to be in the process: download and make themselves, or commission a local fabricator to produce the design.
Designs are distributed under a Creative Commons (CC) License
Range of products using standardized materials (Baltic Birch Plywood)
Digital designs are manufactured using digital technologies

Digital Design, Digital Distribution, and Digital Fabrication

OpenDesk depends on the digital technologies to successfully design, fabricate and distribute its furniture.

An OpenDesk design being cut on a large format CNC router.

AR and Consumer Engagement

A recent innovation is the use of AR (Augmented Reality) to help consumers visualize the product in the environment. This increases consumer engagement and confidence as they can try out the design before they buy it.

OpenDesk Co-Founder and Co-CEO Joni Steiner says, "I think AR is going to bring peoplecloser to physical things. It's going to empower users to be more demanding, which will lead to better physical products – whether a desk or an entire workspace."

Cost and Pricing of OpenDesk furniture

OpenDesk's pricing model is unique in that consumers have several options, depending on their involvement.

Download the fabrication files and make it themselves at no cost
Download the fabrication files at no cost and negotiate with a local fabricator to make the design
Choose a design from the website and use OpenDesk's network of makers to locate a local maker to produce the design.

Learn more here

Based on a manufacturing cost of $1000.00, additional fees such as a 8% Design Fee, 12% Open Desk Platform fee, and 20% Sales tax are calculated for a total price of $1556.00.

Creative Commons Licensing

OpenDesk designs are distributed under a Creative Commons (CC) License. This is a license that the designer selects that allows them to have control over how a design is used. Most designs on OpenDesk are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. This license means that the end user must (1) acknowledge the designer, and (2) cannot sell or earn any money from the design.

Creative Commons licenses allow the creator more flexibility and control over how their creations are shared, sold, remixed, and distributed.

Learn more about OpenDesk's implementation of Creative Commons licenses here

Under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, you can:

Make the design yourself and use it in your home, office, or school.

However, you cannot:

make the design and then sell it
modify or change the design

This is the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License logo.

Plywood: The material of choice for OpenDesk Products

OpenDesk has settled on plywood, specifically Baltic Birch Plywood, as the material of choice for manufacturing its designs. This materials has a high quality finish, is easily available in most parts of the world., and has physical and mechanical properties that make it ideal for manufacture using CNC routers.

Learn more about plywood here.

Questions and Reflection

1. Describe the scale of manufacture that OpenDesk manufactures its designs.

A) Outline the advantages and disadvantages of this scale of manufacture.

B) Describe how this scale of manufacture allows OpenDesk designs to "disrupt current furniture manufacturing methods."

2. Describe the advantages for a designer in using a system like OpenDesk to distribute their work.

3. Describe the advantages for a manufacturer in using a system like OpenDesk to manufacture and sell work.

4. Describe the advantages for the consumer in using a system like OpenDesk to purchase furniture.

5. Outline the differences between the protection granted to the holder of a regular patent, and a design distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

6. Describe the advantages of using CAD models in the manufacture of a product.

7. From a TBL perspective, outline the advantages and disadvantages of OpenDesk's approach to designing, making and distributing furniture

8. Most OpenDesk designs are designed to be produced using plywood.

A) Outline the advantages of using plywood in the manufacture of OpenDesk furniture.

B) Discuss two negative environmental impacts of using plywood.

9. Identify the category of innovation that best describes how OpenDesk is innovating in the furniture market.

10. Identify which parts are fixed or variable costs associated with OpenDesks pricing structure.

11. Identify some of the Design for Manufacturing (DfM) features of Open Desk designs? How do these features contribute the unique form and shape of the products?

12. Outline how OpenDesk allows sustainable consumption to happen through sustianable production and sustainable design.

Analyzing for Innovation

Design challenge:

What other product categories might benefit from the design, manufacturing and distribution model that OpenDesk uses?

Resources

Resources

https://www.shareable.net/opendesk-a-smart-open-design-startup-is-born/