Redesigning the Ideal Work Environment
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- SAP's prompt was to create the ideal work environment that met the needs of each worker in an office at all times. The problem was redefined to be about simply finding what hinders employees in an office from actually being able to do work and feel successful in their office environment. The most consistent and the most problematic issue was the amount of distraction that employees combat in the office every single day. The primary cause of these distractions came from noise from coworkers, be it direct or indirect communication, talking or listening to something on a computer without headphones, etc. The core of the solution then revolved around changing employee behavior to reduce how much they disrupt their coworkers with noise. The specific solution to enable and spark behavioral change was a three part system. First, noise detecting suspended ceiling tiles visualize the loudest areas in an office through each tile's embedded set of lights, which are to help employees realize when they are being significantly louder than their coworkers. The microphones in each ceiling tile send their noise level data to a server in the cloud. The second part of the system is a smartwatch app that collects the data from the microphones. The app determines if a worker with a smartwatch is in the immediate vicinity of the loudest area in the office, and sends the worker a notification offering to automatically book a nearby unreserved room in an effort to have the employee relocate so they aren't disruptive to others. The third part of the system is a sound map, an online heat map overlaid on an office building plan that visualizes the noise levels in every part of the office so that workers seeking a specific noise environment can locate it and then move there. It can also be used to inform managers about noise patterns in an office, possibly to influence future room and building layouts as well as specific worker placement. There is also a management system for facilities managers to easily remove or replace individual ceiling tiles.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Smith, Catherine |
|---|---|
| Author | Goodwin, Walter |
| Author | Schafers, Katrin |
| Author | Schreiber, Sebastian |
| Author | Pereira, Emylie |
| Author | Weckbach, Volker |
| Author | Kolb, Silvio |
| Author | Peiros, Lizzie |
| Advisor | Ford, Chris |
| Advisor | Kohler, Kirstin |
| Advisor | Kaiser, Peter |
| Advisor | Adamow, Wasili |
| Sponsor | Skogstad, Philipp |
| Sponsor | Schmidt, Karsten |
| Sponsor | Christensen, Dwain |
| Sponsor | Oehmig, Romana |
| Sponsor | SAP |
Subjects
| Subject | Product Design |
|---|---|
| Subject | ME310 |
| Subject | 2015 |
| Subject | 2016 |
| Subject | SAP |
| Subject | Mechanical Engineering |
| Genre | Student project report |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/tb139gn2220 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Smith, Catherine and Goodwin, Walter and Peiros, Lizzie and Schafers, Katrin and Schreiber, Sebastian and Pereira, Emylie and Weckbach, Volker and Kolb, Silvio and Ford, Chris and Kohler, Kirstin and Kaiser, Peter and Adamow, Wasili. (2016). Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/tb139gn2220
Collection
ME310 Project Based Engineering Design
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