Some Assembly Required - The pitch

Don’t get frustrated with confusing and cryptic instructions for furniture assembly, there is a better way. Companies that partner with Some Assembly Required have products that tell you how to assemble them one step at a time, even telling you which of those two pieces that look nearly identical you want to use next!

Some Assembly Required - The fun part

Extensive testing with real people would be required to iterate on the design of the software. Small changes in assembly instructions and procedures could have significant impacts in construction time and frustration. Ironing out all of the problems and making a truly smooth assembly experience would be fun.

Some Assembly Required - The growth potential

If SAR partnered with IKEA (which has $35 billion a year in sales) it would have $700 million a year in revenue. There are many other companies that could be partnered with, which would make it possible to exceed one billion dollars in annual revenue.

Some Assembly Required - The monetization

Some Assembly Required (SAR) would work with furniture, electronics, and toy designers to put the RFID chips in their products, design the assembly instructions, and develop the software. SAR would take a percentage of revenue from the product, say 2%.

Some Assembly Required - The idea

Assembling furniture requires sorting dozens of pieces and fasteners, reading a 10+ page instruction manual, and incredible patience.  DIY assembly needs to move into the 21st century.

Instead of getting a manual with the furniture pieces, the consumer would get a RFID scanner that can connect to a smartphone or tablet. The RFID scanner and the companion app would be used to scan the embedded RFID chips in the different pieces.

The user would start by quickly running the scanner over all of the pieces in quick-scan mode. If any piece was missing it would be immediately clear (not a last minute surprise). Once the quick scan is finished, the app would instruct the user on the first pieces that are needed for assembly (with pictures). The user would then scan the pieces to verify they are the correct ones. Next, the app would describe how to combine the pieces together. This process would repeat throughout the assembly process.

It’s easy to see how this could make the frustrating process of furniture assembly much better, but it could also enable people to put together different products that would otherwise be too complex. This same idea could be applied to home assembly of some home electronics and children’s toys.  The task of assembling a toy that is made of 100 pieces is pretty daunting unless it’s made completely simple and straightforward.

Some Assembly Required - The motivation

Assembling furniture can be a pain. Trying to keep everything straight can be especially difficult when there are nearly identical pieces that serve different purposes. A little technology would go a long way to make this painful process easier.