A product design study on improved table and chair design for prep to grade 2 students of De La Salle Zobel

Executive Summary. School furniture plays a vital role in enhancing learning activities inside the classroom such as reading, writing and drawing. Hence, to serve this purpose, ease and comfort in using these tables and chairs should be incorporated in its design.In the case of the furniture used in Division 1 in De La Salle-Zobel, dimensional and qualitative analysis of the existing design shows the following findings:(1) at least 60% of the current design do not conform to the anthropometric measurements of the users.(2) from RULA, an Action level of 2 (i.e. further investigation is needed and changes may be required) was required for the present design.(3) from calculation of the biomechanical moment (tendency to rotate) there was a deviation of 3.32 from ideal moments of zero.Research shows that anthropometry compliance of the furniture utilized by the user is detrimental to the comfort and positive postural formation. The latter fact coupled with other significant needs of the students was accounted for in deriving alternative designs in replacement of the current table and chair.Two designs were developed to address the given problem at hand. The first is a resized table and chair and the other is an armchair. Both were designed according to the purposed dimensions based on appropriate percentiles with an addition of other ergonomic features such as sloping seat pan and slanted table. To evaluate which of these would best solve the given problem, criteria on safety, ease, aesthetics and physical arrangement were assessed using the most suitable tools and gathered weights. The result of this quantitative assessment reveals that the resized table and chair will give 32.48% improvement compared to the armchair which garnered only 11.14% increase in terms of the mentioned criteria.It has been determined in this study that the principal benefit that would be experienced by the Division 1 students upon use of this redesigned table and chair will be increased comfort followed by the safety associated with prolonged use of the furniture.