Dependable People Building Dependable Products
Spectrum Industries Inc., headquartered in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, innovates tech-ready, quality furniture. As the premier manufacturer of school furniture products, Spectrum values its customers, their feedback, and each product is designed with the customer’s needs in mind.
For over 50 years, Spectrum has been serving customers with their products such as its AV-ready lecterns, carts, tables, chairs, and desks. Since 1968, Spectrum’s product development process has evolved to meet the needs of their customers and for the company to live up to its standards of creating high-quality, durable furniture.
In Spectrum’s product development process, designers, engineers, and many more individuals work together as a team to innovate the perfect product. A wide variety of research is conducted to evaluate what is trending in the field of education, especially makerspace, STEM, and STEAM.
“Hundreds of people have contributed to the thinking and development of these products,” said David Hancock, CEO of Spectrum Industries Inc. “I’ve always believed the success of the organization is your team, not a certain individual. It’s the team that wins.”
Every product is designed to ensure Spectrum customer expectations are met and represented. One important stage in the product development process is testing. All products are sent to Spectrum’s performance lab and endure rigorous testing to ensure their customers that they are receiving durable, safe products. For example, Spectrum’s Flex Active Flip Table was designed, tested, and evaluated to ensure it would be safe for their customers.
“We use the ANSI-BIFMA test format for durability to make sure the flip mechanism for our Flex Active Flip Table works continually throughout its life cycle without falling apart or threatening to injure anybody,” said Travis Edinger, a R&D Technician for Spectrum’s Quality and Safety Department. “We are also testing the latch mechanism at the same time to make sure the latch has the durability we require for our products. Through our testing, we can ensure our customers that our product is the best and that we build them to last a lifetime.”
Spectrum’s product development process is nothing short of extensive. Every single step is meticulously planned out and designed to meet customer needs. “We’ll make it right for you” is a slogan Spectrum implements into its product development process as well. Listening to customer feedback and designing quality products is one of Spectrum’s top priorities.
“Quality is the first aspect we look at when designing products,” said Jon Riggs, one of Spectrum’s Designers. “Often, customer comments inspire changes or a new product design. Since they are the ones who are using our product the most, we take those suggestions seriously. In the end, we want our customers to receive a strong and reliable product, even strong enough to stand on, that is flexible enough to provide years of trouble-free service.”
From design, to development, and all the way to manufacturing the end product, Spectrum’s thorough product development process is their way of ensuring their customers that they are in safe hands. Spectrum continues to value customer feedback and innovate furniture that connects people with technology for the ultimate learning environment.