Food for Thought: Our Remanufacturing Recipe

This time of year, holiday planning naturally turns our attention to food. We look to recipes to help us create experiences that delight friends and family as we gather and celebrate.

Whether it’s the sides on your Thanksgiving table, your family’s favorite Christmas cookies, or the perfect Hanukkah latke, every holiday dish has a recipe and the essential ingredients needed to make it just right.

It actually got us thinking about our own remanufacturing process, and how we use the right steps and ingredients to deliver projects that delight our clients and keep them coming back to our furniture resale business.

What’s our recipe for the remanufacturing process? 

Our remanufacturing process functions much like a recipe, complete with a list of component parts and a clear blueprint for how everything must come together to meet our customers’ exact specifications.

Take workstations as an example. Since TFX specializes in the remanufacture and resale of one of the most sought-after systems, Herman Miller Ethospace, let’s use that as our model.

A typical client moving into a new space may come to us with very specific workstation requirements: square footage, layout constraints, headcount, and corporate design standards for colors and finishes. They want the Ethospace system, but they prefer to purchase remanufactured instead of buying new.

To begin, our design team uses state-of-the-art CAD software to map out the ideal configuration, detailing the component parts and dimensions needed to recreate the client’s vision. (And yes—many will also need additional Aeron chairs to supplement their existing inventory, but more on that later!)

Once the client approves the CAD layout, it becomes the foundation of our component-calculation process, the equivalent of our “recipe” for delivering the customized project.

This breakdown includes:

• The structural components you don’t see like the frames, connectors, draw rods, and corners that form the skeleton of each workstation.

• The exterior finishes, like the laminate, wood, and fabric that make up the worksurfaces and upholstered panels.

From there, we generate a detailed Bill of Materials, identifying which items will come from our warehouse inventory and what our skilled refurbishment and assembly teams will need to build the units.

If a client specifies custom fabrics or specialty paints or surfaces, we source them from trusted suppliers and plan shipping timelines, so everything arrives before reassembly begins.

Think of the Bill of Materials as the “shopping list.” This is where precision matters. Order too much custom fabric, and client costs rise unnecessarily. Order too little, and assembly stalls while waiting for additional materials.

Just like in your holiday kitchen, preparation can’t begin until every ingredient is on hand and in the right quantity. Ever run out of butter on Thanksgiving morning? One missing item can delay the entire dish. And if you buy more of an expensive ingredient than the recipe calls for, that excess simply goes to waste.

And here’s an interesting side note about the components: We source standard hardware like screws, bolts, and clips, new, as part of our regular inventory. But many of the core Ethospace structural components come from workstation systems we decommission that are not being resold as-is. We break those units down and reclaim usable parts for remanufacturing.

This is a real and tangible example of our commitment to the circular economy principles. Our goal is zero waste and extend the useful life of furniture, right down to the metal components that we can reuse rather than recycle.

So back to the recipe and the process.

The component parts that form the skeleton of the workstation, especially within the Ethospace line, are designed for flexibility, provided your team knows how to work with reclaimed materials. The metal frames are standardized in 6-inch increments, allowing them to be reconfigured to fit virtually any workstation layout. At TFX, we’ve also developed our own specialized cutting and welding techniques to ensure structural integrity, no matter the client’s design.

Armed with the Bill of Materials, informally known as our “pull list”, our warehouse team gathers all required components and delivers them to the workbenches of our skilled remanufacturing crew. We’re fortunate to have talented craftsmen and craftswomen, many of whom have been with us for years, whose expertise ensures we consistently deliver on the TFX “as new” promise.

With all the “ingredients” assembled, skeletons are constructed, panels are reskinned, and each unit is carefully inspected, wrapped, and prepared for delivery to be installed at the client’s new location.

And those chairs we mentioned? From our extensive inventory of decommissioned seating, our chair specialists select the pieces needed and refurbish them where necessary, replacing foam and fabric, repairing wheels, and ensuring all adjustment mechanisms function like new. Once complete, they too are wrapped and ready for delivery.

Our recipe for success

Our recipe for delighting clients blends years of expertise, precise attention to detail, deep knowledge of high-end systems like Ethospace, and a commitment to delivering projects on time and on budget.

We hope all the ingredients for a joyful holiday season come together for you and your loved ones. And in the months ahead, if you have projects where our remanufacturing expertise can support your goals, we’d love to talk.

Contact us anytime at inquiry@tfxfurniture.com.