This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(May 2022) |
Formerly | Metal Office Furniture Company |
---|---|
Company type | Public company |
NYSE: SCS (Class A) Russell 2000 Component | |
Industry | Furniture |
Founded | March 16, 1912 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States |
Founders | Peter M. Wege, Walter D. Idema, David D. Hunting |
Headquarters | Grand Rapids, Michigan , United States |
Number of locations | 80 (2014) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Sara Armbruster CEO |
Products | Office furniture, architectural and technology for office environments and the education, health care and retail industries |
Revenue | US$ 3.75 Billion (2020) |
Number of employees | 12,650 [1] (2017) |
Website | steelcase.com |
SteelcaseInc. is an international manufacturer of furniture, casegoods, seating, and storage and partitioning systems for offices, hospitals, classrooms, and residential interiors. It is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. [2]
Originally known as The Metal Office Furniture Company, Steelcase was founded by Peter Martin Wege in 1912. [3] Prior to starting the company, Wege had filed approximately 25 patents related to the sheet metal and fireproofing industries. The Metal Office Furniture Company's first products included fireproof metal safes and four-drawer metal filing cabinets. [4]
In 1914, the company received its first product patent for "The Victor", [5] a fireproof steel wastebasket. The Victor gained popularity due to its light weight—achieved through a patented process of bending flat steel at right angles to create boxes—and its ability to prevent fires at a time when smoking was common indoors, particularly in the workplace. [6] [7] In 1915, the company began manufacturing and distributing steel desks after designing and producing 200 for Boston's first skyscraper, the Custom House Tower. [6] In 1937, the company collaborated with Frank Lloyd Wright on office furniture for the Johnson Wax Headquarters. The partnership lasted two years and resulted in some of the first modern workstations. [6] [8]
The name Steelcase was a result of an advertising campaign to promote metal office furniture over wood and was trademarked in 1921. The company officially changed its name to Steelcase, Inc. in 1954. [7] [8]
The company became an industry leader in the late 1960s due to the volume of its sales. [7] [9] Steelcase expanded into new markets during the 1970s, including Asia, Europe, and North Africa. [9] In 1973, the company debuted the Series 9000 furniture line, a panel-based office system that became a best seller and the company's flagship brand. [10] [11] That same year, the company delivered the largest single furniture shipment to the then-new Sears Tower. The delivery included 43,565 pieces of furniture and furnished 44 floors. [8] [9]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Steelcase was working closely with architects and interior designers to develop products as well the company's own workspace in Grand Rapids. [10] The company's current headquarters were built in 1983 on 901 44th St. SE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [8] In 1989, Steelcase opened the pyramid-shaped Steelcase Inc. Corporate Development Center. The center contained ten research laboratories and workspaces meant to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration on product development. [10] Steelcase vacated the Pyramid in 2010, and the Pyramid was sold to Switch (company) in 2016. [12] In 1996, Steelcase became the majority stakeholder in design firm IDEO and the firm's CEO, David M. Kelley, became Steelcase's vice president of technical discovery and innovation. [13] [14] Steelcase sold its shares back to IDEO's managers starting in 2007. [15]
In 1996, Steelcase was found at fault in a patent infringement suit brought against them by Haworth, Inc., another furniture company. Steelcase was ordered to pay $211.5 million in damages and interest, thus ending a 17-year dispute with Haworth. [16]
Steelcase became a publicly traded company in 1998 under the symbol SCS. During the 2000s, Steelcase reorganized its workforce and began integrating modern technologies in its products. [17] In 2000, the company opened Steelcase University, a center for ongoing employee development and learning. [18] Steelcase's wood furniture plant in Caledonia, MI earned LEED certification in 2001, becoming the first plant to receive the certification. [19] In 2002, Steelcase partnered with IBM to create BlueSpace, a "smart office" prototype designed using new office technologies. [20] In 2010, Steelcase and IDEO launched new models for higher education classrooms called LearnLabs. [21]
In January 2016 the company recalled 12 models of Steelcase "Rocky" style swivel chairs manufactured between 2005 and 2015, due to fall hazard. [22] [23]
Steelcase released Multiple 15 desks in 1946, which introduced standardized desk sizing and became a universal industry standard. [6] Series 9000 was released in 1973 and became Steelcase's most popular line of office systems. [10] [11] The Leap chair, introduced in 1999, sold 5,000 units a week during its first year and became the company's most popular release. The ergonomic office chair was designed with eight adjustable areas for users to control, including chair height, armrest positioning, lumbar support, seat depth, and back positioning. The chair was developed over four years, cost $35 million to design, and resulted in 11 academic studies and 23 patents. [24] [25] The company released the Gesture chair in 2013, which is designed to support the way workers naturally sit. [25]
Steelcase innovates the industry with the 1945 Metal Office Furniture Company [26] path in an attempt to be more sustainable. The idea started when Steelcase saw the need for furniture to be personalized for custom size spaces with the ability to be able to fix a broken part if necessary. This series then came to be over 200 compatible arrangements for tables and desks. The process for this simple assembly of parts for the new design was to repair, replace or recycle as many times as the user needs. [26]
Subsidiaries include AMQ, Coalesse, Halcon, Orangebox, Smith System, and Viccarbe, as well as several other brands such as Steelcase Health and Education. [7] The company established an office accessories brand called Details in 1990. [27] In 1993, Steelcase launched Turnstone, a line of furniture designed for small businesses and home offices. [17] Designtex, which produces interior textiles and upholstery, was acquired in 1998. [28] Nurture was founded in 2006 to create products for the health care industry, including furniture and interiors for waiting rooms, offices, and clinics. [29] The brand became Steelcase Health in 2014. [30]
Steelcase merged three of its subsidiaries (Brayton International, Metro Furniture and Vecta) to form Coalesse in 2008. Coalesse products are meant for what the company calls "live/work" spaces, a result of the frequent overlap of home and office in modern working habits. [31]
In 1985, Steelcase purchased the Meyer May House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and restored it, opening it to the public in 1987. [32] [9] A corporate art program has resulted in a collection including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Dale Chihuly. [33] [34]
The company employs a research group called WorkSpace Futures to study workplace trends. [35] In 2010, Steelcase underwent a three-year project to update its Grand Rapids headquarters to promote employee productivity and employee well-being, including redesigning a cafeteria into an all-purpose work environment that provides food service and space for meetings, socializing, and independent work. [36] [37]
Steelcase's sustainability efforts have included reducing packaging, using regional facilities to reduce shipping distance, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and a goal to reduce its environmental footprint by 25 percent by 2020. [34] [38] [39] As of 2012, Steelcase had reduced its waste by 80 percent, greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent and water consumption by 54 percent since 2006. [39] According to the company's WorkFutures group, the company also analyzes its supply chain and materials chemistry to determine product sustainability. As of 2014, the company led its industry in Cradle to Cradle-certified products. [34] In 2016, Steelcase employees volunteered 38,913 hours and the Steelcase Foundation donated more than US$5.7 million. [40]
Steelcase became Carbon Neutral on August 25, 2020, with the plan of becoming Carbon negative (eliminating more carbon than they produce) by 2030. [41] As a company they have a focus on green chemistry and have stopped manufacturing with many chemicals like Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). [26]
As of March 2020, Steelcase has been manufacturing equipment for health care providers and medical facilities in response to COVID-19. Solutions include PPE, [42] masks, face shields, and social screens. [43]
Steelcase is also redesigning offices layouts that can adapt to the ongoing Covid regulations. To continue interaction in the workplace, they have installed social screens to divide desks/workspaces and are planning to implement more technology to enhance communication whether the staff is in the office or working from home. Desks will be six feet apart as per the United States CDC guidelines [44] and there will be a focus on sanitization stations. [45]
IDEO is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 500 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environments, brands, and digital experiences.
A cubicle is a partially enclosed office workspace that is separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually 5–6 feet (1.5–1.8 m) tall. Its purpose is to isolate office workers and managers from the sights and noises of an open workspace so that they may concentrate with fewer distractions. Cubicles are composed of modular elements such as walls, work surfaces, overhead bins, drawers, and shelving, which can be configured depending on the user's needs. Installation is generally performed by trained personnel, although some cubicles allow configuration changes to be performed by users without specific training.
An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is an earlier usage, as "office" originally referred to the location of one's duty. In its adjective form, the term "office" may refer to business-related tasks. In law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of a storage silo, for example, instead of a more traditional establishment with a desk and chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon, including small offices, such as a bench in the corner of a small business or a room in someone's home, entire floors of buildings, and massive buildings dedicated entirely to one company. In modern terms, an office is usually the location where white-collar workers carry out their functions.
Haworth Inc. is a privately held, family-owned office furniture manufacturer headquartered in Holland, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1948 by G. W. Haworth, the company designs and manufactures seating, tables, movable walls, panels, storage, and wood casegoods. Haworth's furniture pieces, combined with interior design and technology, are intended to create a focus on “organic workspaces that help people perform their best.” Haworth employs 7,500 workers and has 650 dealerships in more than 120 countries. 2021 global sales reached $1.96 billion, a 6.2-percent increase from 2020.
American Seating Inc. is a company specializing in the production of chairs and other seating, including seats for rail transport and public transportation, schools and churches. Founded in 1886 as the Grand Rapids School Furniture Company, the company is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. The company gives its name to the American Seating rule, based on a lawsuit it participated in.
Fellowes Brands, Inc. is a privately held manufacturer of office equipment based in Itasca, Illinois. The company was founded as the Bankers Box Company to manufacture the company's namesake Bankers Box record storage boxes. Since the 1960s, the company has diversified its portfolio of products, changing its name to Fellowes and becoming a market leader of paper shredders and record storage products in the United States.
The Meyer May House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in the Heritage Hill Historic District of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the United States. It was built in 1908–09, and is located at 450 Madison Avenue SE. It is considered a fine example of Wright's Prairie School era, and "Michigan's Prairie masterpiece".
Knoll is an American company that manufactures office systems, seating, storage systems, tables, desks, textiles, and accessories for the home, office, and higher education. The company is the licensed manufacturer of furniture designed by architects and designers such as Harry Bertoia, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Florence Knoll, Frank Gehry, Charles Gwathmey, Maya Lin, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, and Lella and Massimo Vignelli, under the company's KnollStudio division. Over 40 Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
A Hoosier cabinet or Hoosier is a type of cupboard or free-standing kitchen cabinet that also serves as a workstation. It was popular in the first few decades of the 20th century in the United States, since most houses did not have built-in kitchen cabinetry. The Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana, was one of the earliest and largest manufacturers of this product, causing the term "Hoosier cabinet" to become a generic term for that type of furniture. By 1920, the Hoosier Manufacturing Company had sold two million cabinets.
The Metal Office Furniture Company (Steelcase) Plants No. 2 and 3 are historic manufacturing plants located at 401 Hall Street SW in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Grand Rapids is a city in and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,893, making it the second-most populous city in Michigan, after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the central city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,087,592 and a combined statistical area population of 1,383,918.
Carl Gustav Magnusson is an industrial designer, inventor, design juror and lecturer.
The Pace Collection was a high-end contemporary furniture company in business from 1960 to 2001. The company was founded by Irving and Leon Rosen in New York City. The showroom was located in Manhattan on East 62nd Street to offer its fine furniture and services to the contract interior design trade. The Pace Collection advertised in numerous architectural and interior design periodicals. The Pace Collection furniture designs were all distinctly different from those offered by Knoll (company), Herman Miller, Steelcase and other contract furniture companies.
Coalesse is a United States–based furniture company founded in 2008. It is a division of Steelcase and creates products with the goal of encouraging collaboration. Coalesse is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with their design headquarters in San Francisco and their main showroom located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.
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Turnstone is an office furniture company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a division of Steelcase and was founded in 1993. The brand was created with the intention of reaching younger businesses with budgets too small to afford a dedicated facilities manager and offices with a small number of in-office employees. As of January 2006, the company employed 30 people.
The Hoover desk, also known colloquially as FDR's Oval Office desk, is a large block front desk, used by Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office. Created in 1930 as a part of a 17-piece office suite by furniture makers from Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Art Deco desk was given to the White House by the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association during the Hoover administration. The desk was designed by J. Stuart Clingman, and was built by the Robert W. Irwin Company from American lumber and faced with Michigan-grown maple burl wood veneer. After Roosevelt's sudden death in 1945, Harry S. Truman removed the desk from the Oval Office and gave it to Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. She displayed it at, and later donated it to, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. The desk has been on display there ever since. The Hoover desk is one of only six desks to be used by a president in the Oval Office.
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Rowac was a hardware factory founded by Carl Robert Wagner in 1888 in Chemnitz, Germany which most notably produced furniture for industrial use. Carl Robert Wagner is regarded as the inventor of the steel stool, which among other things was chosen for the workshops and classrooms of the Bauhaus Dessau. Today, mainly stools, chairs and cabinets carrying the Rowac name are traded as antiques.
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