To address market concerns and to provide clarity regarding conformance with BIFMA industry standards, the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) is developing their own conformance program and mark for the industry to use. Entitled “BIFMA Compliant”, this conformance program will be a way to identify and distinguish furniture products that comply with the BIFMA industry standards, from those that might not. The program will officially launch on October 1, 2020.
In May 2018, BIFMA released BIFMA PC-2018, which is essentially a set of rules specifying the minimum expectations for when a product claims conformance to a BIFMA standard. This BIFMA PC-2018 document is a major component of this new conformance program.
The BIFMA Compliant program will cover nine of the BIFMA mechanical standards that focus on safety & durability. These standards are the following:
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.1 General-Purpose Office Chairs
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.4 Lounge & Public Seating
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.5 Desk / Table Products
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.6 Panel Systems
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.9 Storage Units
- ANSI/BIFMA X5.11 General-Purpose Large Occupant Office Chairs
- ANSI/BIFMA X6.1 Educational Seating
- BIFMA X6.4 Occasional-Use Seating
- ANSI/SOHO S6.5 Small Office / Home Office
To be eligible for the program, in addition to some administrative tasks with BIFMA, companies will need to have product tested in an ISO 17025 accredited lab with the relevant BIFMA standards included in the scope of that accreditation, to ensure compliance with the appropriate BIFMA standard(s) as well as meeting the expectations specified within BIFMA PC-2018.
Starting in early 2020, BIFMA anticipates that it will begin executing agreements with manufacturers regarding this program, and by mid-2020, BIFMA may start loading information onto their new website registry for compliant products. Again, the registry will go live on October 1, 2020 concurrent with the formal program launch.
Bureau Veritas is a member of BIFMA and actively participates within some of the technical committees that maintain these testing standards. Bureau Veritas has testing labs located throughout the world that are capable and experienced with testing furniture to the BIFMA standards.