Hospitality Design - November 2012 - 67

perspectives

purchasing POV
By Joan Cardy

testing, testing
New products speci ed by interior designers have a tremendous in uence on market and consumer trends. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, manufacturers vie to introduce their innovative designs to these speci ers. It falls to the procurement group to vet the new products’ availability, cost e ectiveness, practicality, durability, and sustainability in a contract environment. Prototypes or mockups are produced, and purchasers thoroughly evaluate them. The missing component for a comprehensive assessment of innovative products is installed use. There may be product testing, but there is no testing of the product in its intended application. It’s a risk for purchasers to introduce new products to owners without this step in place. We tend to think of product development as continuous. Think of cell phone manufacturers’ annual launches of improved variations, or automobile manufacturers who make innumerable changes in each new model of a vehicle. The same evolutionary process from a product’s rst generation through subsequent generations can be seen in certain speci ed design items. For example, rst generation mini-crystal microglass was speci ed for furniture tops as a new and interesting alternative to other durable hard surfaces; however, it provided minimal protection against water and alcohol spo ing and had unsightly production bubbles along the edges. The second generation addressed these issues, but the product was too fragile for commercial applications. The current generation is stable and provides protection for commercial use— and is cost-e ective. The result: a perfect convergence of form and function. It takes many a empts—trial and error—to create an acceptable new product for contract use. Products eventually become dated and have to be replaced, but new products have an element of risk a ached to the initial implementation. Without this risk, though, everything would be the same and nothing would improve. The purchaser’s responsibility is to minimize that risk. A good part of the joy of the process is discovering, researching, and sourcing materials that do not have widespread applications. A product, when introduced in the marketplace, has no track record on performance. An interesting, unusual item is presented by the design team to the client, who

The purchaser’s role in bringing new products to the marketplace

may approve the item based on its look and appeal. But the item may be too expensive. In that case, the manufacturer/designer/purchaser team forges ahead to develop an improved item that achieves the balance between the designer’s vision, the purchaser’s quality and function standards, and the owner’s budget. Providing a new product that meets everyone’s needs invigorates the procurement team and validates a relationship with the client. New product development is timeconsuming and challenging, but it is in nitely more satisfying in the end. Thinking, designing, and developing outside the box is good for everyone. Eventually, a new product will become commonplace as it’s adopted by others. When that happens, it’s time to explore and develop the new next big thing. hd Joan Cardy is president of the Joan Cardy Group in Toronto, and secretary of the International Society of Hospitality Purchasers (ISHP), ishp.org

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - November 2012