Five Reasons a Furniture Planner is a Win-Win for Project Managers

For project managers responsible for a company’s workplace relocation strategy, including a furniture planner in the office move planning can save time, resources, and money. Here are five reasons why hiring a furniture planner is a big win for project managers and the project overall.

Furniture Planners Save You Money

Ed Bowerman is the corporate managing director of project management at Savills, a global real estate services provider. He met kimiko designs’ Dianne Murata through a project they both worked on for a law firm.

When it came time for his company’s move, Bowerman had seen enough of Murata’s work to know the value she could offer as a team member.

Murata is the founding principal of kimiko designs, a consulting firm in the business of transforming the people, processes, and products (hey there, furniture!) that enrich environments across the commercial, healthcare, and higher education sectors.

“The kimiko designs team is very detail-oriented,” Bowerman says. “This was a complex move, and they did a lot of analysis, finding errors that saved tens of thousands of dollars. They pointed out things that we didn’t think even think about.”

Bowerman said that he finds a furniture planner with Dianne’s expertise helpful when there is a lot of new product, complex reconfiguration, or a big investment in a new location.

“The cost to hire kimiko designs is part of your capital investment, and there is a lot of value added,” he says. “It really is the little stuff that makes a big difference.”

Furniture Planners Save Time

Bowerman described the move as a Rubik’s Cube of sorts and said that while he was pleased with his architect, having a subject matter expert to review the layout, selections, and options was greatly beneficial.

“There was so much involved,” he says. “It was another layer of oversight to have her double-check everything.”

When it came time for the installation, the work that kimiko designs did with procurement, the finalization of orders, and the punch list saved time.

“During these moves a fraction of an inch matters,” he says. “You are paying movers by the hour, and you have to know how everything fits. Doing the installation right saves both time and money. There’s less damage.”

Bowerman remembered one instance where kimiko designs noted from the measurements that a planned piece was not going to be able to fit in the elevator.

“We could cut it [to bring it up], or we could buy a different table,” he says. “Either way it wasn’t a surprise.”

Furniture Planners Focus only on Furniture

Bowerman found great benefit in the fact that kimiko designs was able to focus solely on the furniture.

“We were paying them to take their time with it,” he says. “Most firms may have one person [who knows furniture]. [At kimiko designs] they all have that level of expertise.”

With a team of expert designers and planners distributed across the United States and Canada kimiko designs has worked with over 90 furniture dealer clients across the country, logging over 58,000 hours for over 2,700 projects. That experience allows them to respond quickly to client needs by assembling the right team for each project, including a dedicated design contact for each project.

Furniture Planners Apply Design to Help Clients See Potential

In addition to their ability to play devil’s advocate in the selection of furniture, kimiko designs’ knowledge of furniture trends and what is available on the resale market is a bonus.

Brandi Sikes, Principal and Senior Advisor at SVN | J. Beard Real Estate, hired kimiko designs for an oil and gas client who was moving into a new company headquarters.

Sikes said that since the company had been with their furniture for 15 years, much of it was dark and bulky.

“They wanted a fresh contemporary look but with a warm traditional feel,” Sikes says. “Dianne helped them understand what the options were, took them on furniture trips, and sent images of different styles.”

Karen Yale, Senior Manager, Property — Americas for Worley, an engineering services company, said that kimiko designs was extremely helpful, not only in purchasing new furniture but identifying existing furniture inventory and helping to repurpose it.

“They helped us consolidate and reconfigure to be more modern,” Yale says.

Furniture Planners Provide Confidence in High-Stakes Projects

Bowerman said that as project manager, he guided the weekly meetings with the architects, engineers, vendors, and kimiko designs to keep the project running smoothly.

With so many players involved, it was important to use the time well and make it productive. Bowerman said that Murata’s skill and acumen during these meetings helped move things along.

“If Dianne only had a short time to speak, she made that time count,” he says. “When she talked, people listened.”

And when there were difficulties with the move, as is customary with any project of this scope, Bowerman didn’t have any qualms about Murata’s abilities.

“I could introduce Dianne to a difficult situation, and she would always handle it with finesse,” he says.

Hiring a furniture planner empowers the project manager to leverage specialized knowledge, save time and resources, manage the budget effectively, and ensure a successful and aesthetically pleasing office space that meets the client’s requirements and exceeds expectations. A win-win across the board!

Amanda loves to solve problems and is highly skilled at collecting information, organizing details (most likely with a color-coding system), and evaluating options. Amanda’s background is in interior design and her passion for technical details has made her a highly skilled furniture guru. She has an uncanny ability to be detail-oriented but not lose sight of the big picture. Her latest passion is keeping commercial furniture out of landfills. Download the kimiko green playbook here. Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn.