LONDON -  Opendesk, a London office furniture manufacturer, says it has now launched Opendesk Express, which uses a global network of CNC manufacturers to deliver customized office furniture to local buyers within 14 days of order.

The furniture on demand option is based on open-sourced designs that can be manufactured locally and delivered flatpacked to consumers. Opendesk relies on a global network of local manufacturers with CNC machining capability.

FURNITURE Start-up OpenDesk aims to do to IKEA, what Airbnb did to hotels Opendesk office furniture start-up plans to use local CNC's to do to IKEA what Airbnb did to hotels.

While normal the lead times for furniture can take 8 to 12 weeks, the Opendesk Express. The new Express collection, which is rolling out in London first, will allow customers to choose from four designs available in birch plywood or arctic white laminate on a baltic birch core and receive their order in a much shorter time frame.

The four open-sourced designs, which are tweaked from the company's orginal collection include:

• Studio Desk - a minimal design with discreet cable management for single-person workstation
• Lean Desk  - a spacious four-person workstation, popular for its generously sized work surface
• Team Desk - a slimmed down workstation, great for nimble teamwork and hot-desking
• Lift Desk - an adjustable height workbench, lifting from sitting to standing desk height to cater for varied working needs

Opendesk is working with three of its London makers to offer the Express collection and it hopes to eventually expand this option globally.