Modern manufacturing has allowed society to make giant leaps and bounds within the sphere of building. But how much are we sacrificing for this to occur? There is a fine line between a quality product and its counterpart- the quantity product. Who is responsible for maintaining this balance? How can we ensure that the responsible parties are aware of how something will be produced? Designers must be educated in manufacturing processes so that they can act as a quality control buffer and make informed decisions about the product specified. The responsibility of maintaining a balance between quality and quantity (or cost) is a joint one. In some cases, it may fall on the craftsman, who pushes out more product in order to compete in the market today. In others, it may be on the manufacturer, who uses particular methods of building in order to ensure a quality product. However, in most scenarios, furniture is produced to spec, per the intent of a designer. Whether the craftsman or the manufacturer makes the product, some sort of design minded person is behind the order and has the final say on how a piece that they have commissioned will look. A purchase order is issued to a manufacturer or craftsman based on a provided quote. Shop drawings are reviewed by a designer to ensure that the proper materials are used, the proper dimensions are met, and that the aesthetic of the piece matches the designer's vision. In recognizing that a portion of responsibility for the manufacture of product falls onto the designer, who submits a specification to a manufacturer, and approves or denies shop drawings, we can recognize a missing piece of their fundamental education. Newly graduated designers lack basic knowledge about the way things that are used every day are built, how they want them built, and what materials are used to build them. Extensive engineering and labor processes are required to fabricate products; processes that a designer may know nothing about, thereby forfeiting their involvement in quality control. This first section of this paper will strive to address issues of quality versus quantity, and the role of the designer in maintaining a balance between the two. In addition, it will focus on implementing methods to educate designers on manufacturing techniques, essentially creating a quality control mechanism in terms of furniture specification. The second section will consist of a developing course outline addressing the basic knowledge and application of manufacturing techniques for interior designers.

Research has shown that the ability to smell is the most direct sense an individual can experience. With every breath a person takes, the brain recognizes thousands of molecules and makes connections with our memories to determine their composition. With the amount of research looking into how and why we smell, researchers still have little understanding of how the nose and brain process an aroma, and how emotional and physical behavior is impacted. This research focused on the affects smell has on a caregiver in a simulated Emergency Department setting located in the SimET of Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The study asked each participant to care for a programmed mannequin, or "patient", while performing simple computer-based tasks, including memory and recall, multi-tasking, and mood-mapping to gauge physical and mental performance. Three different aromatic environments were then introduced through diffusion and indirect inhalation near the participants' task space: 1) a control (no smell), 2) an odor (simulated dirty feet), and 3) an aroma (one of four true essential oils plus a current odor-eliminating compound used in many U.S. Emergency Departments). This study was meant to produce a stressful environment by leading the caregiver to stay in constant movement throughout the study through timed tasks, uncooperative equipment, and a needy "patient". The goal of this research was to determine if smells, and of what form of pleasantness and repulsiveness, can have an effect on the physical and mental performance of emergency caregivers. Findings from this study indicated that the "odor eliminating" method currently used in typical Emergency Departments, coffee grounds, is more problematic than helpful, and the introduction of true essential oils may not only reduce stress, but increase efficiency and, in turn, job satisfaction.