The fitting out revolution gathers pace

Customization and digital technologies open the way to sweeping changes in the fitting out sector. And the byword is innovation, with products and services that enable craft and jobbing firms to step up their competitiveness.

Maybe before long we’ll stop calling it fitting out and talk instead about “ambience shaping”. That would relate a lot more closely to the ever increasing expectation of customizable finishes, materials, colours, and designs, on top of well-thought-out ergonomics. The fitting-out market is starting to take these requirements to heart.

Does anyone seriously imagine these days buying a car with no central locking or satnav? In joinery and fitting out, we have to get people used to expecting soft-close doors and auto-opening hinges - Proclaims Philippe Jarniat, Markets Manager for the trade confederation l’Ameublement Français.

Innovations from A to Z

Equipment manufacturers are doing their bit by promoting their innovations among fitting out and craft firms and helping these integrate them. That’s certainly the case for Blum and its reseller network, with the emphasis on advice and guidance, and also for LMC, who has set up three “Module Centres” where outfitting professionals can come along and test and touch the products, discuss their projects, develop creative ideas, even receive training.

On the fitting-out side, the advent of new materials like polymers opens the way to high-visual quality, durable surfaces that remain extremely easy to apply, offering craft firms real time savings in pre-assembly. And as Sandrine Sarrat-Behr, Large Accounts & Marketing manager at REHAU, is quick to point out :

We are developing new ranges of finishes, with contemporary, stylish looks. We mean to promote the value of our products to big industrial customers and small outfitting firms alike.

Craft firms, champions of customization

The big issue for equipment manufacturers, outfitters, and machine manufacturers these days is to get innovations through to the craft firms. Those are the people whose job is to make the fittings fit. They are therefore becoming the focus of everyone’s attention. BIESSE offers all-digital prefabrication lines, adapted to meet product customization needs and featuring predictive maintenance to optimize productivity at a controlled cost for joinery items. On the software side too, adaptation is cardinal, with products like those from 2020 Techno, a provider of design software usable by non-specialists as well as a range of more technical modules for configuring machining operations in the production phase.

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