Furniture industry shows a young state
Wear VR glasses and choose customized furniture plans; use "smart manufacturing" equipment to quickly turn design drawings into physical furniture; with the help of cross-border e-commerce, large furniture is accelerating its export across the ocean... In recent years, furniture design, production, sales and other links have been constantly refreshing the face of the furniture industry, and the furniture industry has shown a "young attitude".
Tu Qi, vice president and secretary-general of the China Furniture Association, told reporters that furniture companies can only maintain a good development trend if they target new consumer demands, promote digital transformation, and accelerate the expansion of overseas markets.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to May this year, the operating income of furniture manufacturing enterprises above designated size nationwide was 252.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%; the total profit was 10.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.5%.
1. Pay attention to new consumer demands
Furniture companies continue to meet and stimulate new consumer demands through product innovation, giving traditional industries new vitality.
Personalized furniture customization has become a hot topic in consumption. In front of the cloud design platform of Daxin Home Furnishing Industrial Design Center in Zhengzhou, Henan, a couple born in the 1990s searched for new house plans in the system. After the system rendered for 10 seconds, thousands of three-dimensional design plans were displayed in turn. The two put on VR glasses to "immerse" themselves in the new house, "put in" their favorite household items, experience different decoration styles, and choose their favorite decoration schemes.
After screening, the two finally chose the new Chinese style scheme. After the contract is signed, the personalized design drawings will be optimized by the system into the best mass production instructions, transmitted to the manufacturing and distribution platform through the Internet of Things, and can be shipped in 4 days.
"Young people are the main consumers of furniture, and they have high requirements for convenience and experience." Tu Qi said that furniture brands continue to meet the personalized needs of consumers and improve the consumer experience, such as opening AR preview functions in online malls and interacting with consumers through social media.
With the acceleration of the aging process, aging-friendly furniture has become a new consumer hotspot. Products that meet the needs of the elderly, such as massage chairs, health mattresses, and smart bathrooms, are favored by nursing homes and elderly families. In July 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and 13 other departments issued the "Notice on Several Measures to Promote Home Consumption", which proposed: "Improve the level of aging-friendly home furnishings. Formulate and publish a promotion catalog of aging-friendly products, and accelerate the formulation of general standards for aging-friendly design of home products. Support enterprises to increase the research and development of aging-friendly home appliances, furniture, bathroom and other home products."
Green and environmentally friendly products are increasingly becoming the first choice of consumers, and furniture board manufacturers have also increased their technological innovation efforts to improve the environmental performance of their products. Currently, the widely used artificial boards are made of wood chips glued together. Whether the board is environmentally friendly mainly depends on the quality of the glue.
At present, various types of formaldehyde-free (low formaldehyde) environmentally friendly artificial boards are popular in the market. In 2023, the China Furniture Association issued 9 group standards including the "Technical Specifications for Green Design Product Evaluation-Wooden Furniture", which provided more complete standard specifications for green design and manufacturing in the furniture industry.
2. Apply new "smart manufacturing" technologies
In 2023, relying on the Nankang furniture industry intelligent Internet platform, Saint Thiesburg will reshape the traditional production process: after the company receives an order, the order disassembly software automatically analyzes the order production and processing data, schedules production, prepares materials, and issues materials, and then enters the fully automatic production process.
A production line can "turn" 250 wooden boards into 50 customized cabinets in one day, while the traditional production line takes 4 days. "With the help of big data integration and intelligent processing, Saint Thiesburg has achieved standardized intelligent production on the assembly line, making furniture like making cars, and can also support cloud orders and personalized customization," said Xu Bingzhou.
In recent years, furniture manufacturing companies have generally introduced digital and intelligent production lines to promote the transformation of furniture manufacturing to furniture "smart manufacturing".
At the Oppein Home AI Factory in Guangzhou, Guangdong, global orders are sent to the "smart brain" for review 24 hours a day, and after intelligent sorting in seconds, they are distributed to Oppein's five major production bases across the country.
The transformation of the furniture manufacturing industry has received a series of policy support. In August 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Home Furnishing Industry", which proposed: "Focusing on key links such as R&D design, production planning, production operations, warehousing and distribution, quality control, marketing management, and supply chain management, promote the in-depth application of technologies such as 5G, industrial Internet, and intelligent manufacturing to achieve agile demand perception, agile supply, lean production, and precise management." In July 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments issued the "Light Industry Stable Growth Work Plan (2023-2024)", proposing to strengthen digital empowerment transformation, support personalized customization and flexible production in industries such as footwear, furniture, and home appliances, and reshape new product production models.
3. Explore new models of "going overseas"
China is the world's largest furniture exporter, and "going overseas" has become an important way for many furniture companies to cultivate new growth points.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to May this year, the cumulative export value of furniture and parts products was 212.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%. China's furniture exports are showing strong momentum. Industry insiders said that after years of deep cultivation in the European and American markets, many furniture companies have begun to turn their attention to emerging markets such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Chinese furniture companies are exploring diversified "going overseas" paths, both online and offline, continuing to build competitive advantages and open up overseas consumer markets.
In May this year, China's cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress officially entered large-item categories such as home furnishings. For a long time, the products on China's cross-border e-commerce platforms have mostly been small commodities and lightly packaged, and the "going overseas" track for furniture and home improvement is still a blue ocean.
"Cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for furniture companies to go global. More and more e-commerce companies are cooperating with furniture factories to promote product R&D innovation and accelerate the construction of brand product systems." Tu Qi said that in the process of "going global", companies can build overseas warehouses in major target countries, pick up and ship goods from overseas warehouses according to order requirements, thereby solving problems such as large size of furniture products, high transportation costs, logistics warehousing, and after-sales service. This model not only reduces logistics costs, but also saves an average of about 20% of the cost of direct purchases from overseas compared to single-piece direct mail. "Going global" companies can also optimize warehousing, packaging, transportation routes, etc. through supply chain integration, and strengthen communication between multiple countries and logistics nodes.
