Best practices for furniture asset management within the government

The team here at The Refinishing Touch has provided refinishing, reupholstery and remanufacturing services to the government sector for a number of years.  Our knowledge and experience has led us to review the U.S. government’s overall spending on furniture assets, and ways in which this spending could be drastically reduced.

In a recent whitepaper submitted to the General Services Administration (GSA) in response to a formal Request For Information (RFI) from the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) focusing on furniture, we made a series of best-practice recommendations for dealing with government-owned furniture and furniture asset management. Yesterday, we caught up with the GSA to discuss our ideas more in-depth and it was great to talk through the value of remanufacturing instead of replacing.

Before deciding to replace existing assets, we encourage departments to closely examine current furniture inventory to analyze what can be repurposed, rather than replaced. We’ve worked in furniture asset management for over thirty years, with a proven budget busting, cost-saving track record for Air Force bases, court houses, federal properties and barracks, the U.S. House of Representatives, and many local government building projects.   Not only have we been able to deliver quality furniture products on time, we’ve delivered within budget, with minimal disruption and downtime and without detriment to the environment.

Perhaps most importantly, we suggested that if and when existing assets have been recommissioned, an ongoing management procedure is set in place. A universal set of standards and best practices to adhere to, alongside a robust inventory in order to maximize the visibility, track cost savings, time saved and environmental benefits, are essential to long-term furniture asset management success.

When it comes to furniture asset management, implementing a correct strategy is as necessary as identifying areas for budget savings.  Ensuring the evaluation process is streamlined and all onsite processes are considered before a project begins is a must, as is compliance with HEPA standards, fire codes and environmental regulations.

If you’d like to learn more about our best practices for government furniture management, please see the full whitepaper here.