Furniture

Value Chains

About Value Chains

The Furniture Industry Value Chain

Note: Whereas materials used in furniture production include wood, metal, glass, plastic, and rattan, the most common material used by North Carolina furniture manufacturers is wood. Resultantly, the focus of the value chain is on wood as a raw material. However, it should be noted that under the NAIC system, furniture is classified based on the type of furniture (application for which it is designed) rather than the material used. Therefore, the statistics provided for each of the final product markets may include furniture that is not primarily constructed with wood as the base material.

The above diagram describes the entire process of furniture production, starting with raw materials through the final marketing and distribution to consumers. Historically, yet to a lesser degree today, the largest sector within the North Carolina furniture industry value chain is household furniture manufacturing. However, due to increasing global competition, North Carolina has seen a rise in the wholesale, retail, and design portions of the value chain to remain competitive. North Carolina is still an attractive location for the furniture industry due to the presence of strong supporting industries such as upholstery and textile manufacturing and the High Point Furniture Market.1

Map - North Carolina's Furniture Companies, 2007

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Value Chain for Thomasville Furniture Industries

The following information is based on the plant tour at Thomasville Furniture Industries Inc. (Thomasville, NC), on November 19, 2004.

Plant D of Thomasville (see diagram below) specializes in the production of wood furniture. It is one of the older plants of the company. Some of its machines are 40-50 years old, although new machines are added on a frequent basis. In order to increase its productivity, the entire plant focuses on one type of furniture at a time until it completes the order of that specific piece of furniture. Plant D has approximately 280 workers.

The first step of the value chain is to design a piece of furniture. Thomasville hires contracted designers to create furniture designs. This is a fairly common phenomenon, especially in the furniture industry which depends on design to differentiate itself from competition. There are a few superstar designers (e.g. Philippe Starck) who are part of an independent industry. If the design is unique to Thomasville, the company patents the design in the United States. A prototype of the potential design is built and shown to the marketing department. Once the design is approved, the plant will begin building the furniture.

The production process at the plant is vertically integrated, which means that every step takes place in-house. Lumber purchased from local companies is cut into big pieces in order to prepare wood for later use. This process is very labor-intensive and is relatively time-consuming. The lumber is then measured, and cut into required width and length on a machine. The pieces of wood are transferred to the gluing machine, so they can be put together to form wooden boards, which will be used to create surfaces of the furniture.

Once the glue dries, the boards are ready to be molded into different shapes. This is one of the most important stages of the production process, because 80% of the wood goes through one of the four molders of Plant D. If the molders break down, the entire plant will cease to operate. For the pieces that do not require molding, they are cut into desired shapes by a computerized machine, which can work with two pieces of boards at the same time.

After being molded or shaped, the wood needs to be sanded. Sanding can also be done manually, to smooth out the sides, corners and edges of the wood. Precision drilling using the computerized numerical controlled (CNC) router follows sanding. Sanding is the final stage before the wood is ready to be assembled. The work involved in the processes described above are repetitive, however, workers are given the opportunity to take the challenge of different specialized jobs and are willing to be trained in new skills. Based on an interview with a worker at the plant, the worker said he had been promoted from processing on the first floor to sanding where he is now assistant manager. Now the wood is ready to be assembled into final furniture, which is also a very labor intensive process.

The assembled furniture then enters another labor-intensive step - spray-painting. All furniture is spray-painted by hand because it is important that every part of it is coated evenly, especially the compartments and corners of the furniture. The paint should be dry by the time it arrives for clean up and inspection. During this process, the worker adds final touches to the furniture and inspects the furniture to make sure it is flawless. The penultimate step is finishing, which can take upto twenty eight steps and is very labor intensive. Visual details are added to the furniture to enhance the appearance of the furniture. When the furniture is finally completed, it is packaged into customized boxes and shipped to customers.

References

1. UNIDO. Vienna 2003. "The Global Wood Furniture Value Chain: What Prospects for Upgrading by Developing Countries. The Case of South Africa".