Source | China Whole Wood Network
China's furniture industry has low market entry barriers, and reducing costs and lowering prices has become a killer feature for many small manufacturers who have newly entered the market. With the improvement of furniture product packaging, logistics and e-commerce environment, the competition of furniture brands has expanded from regional competition to nationwide competition. Some brands that take low cost as their competitive advantage find that they can always find similar products that are lower than their own prices. Competitive products, even many high-end furniture brands are also under increasing competition and pressure.
"What should Chinese furniture do?" "Where is the breakthrough point of the furniture industry?" It has become a common question for many furniture companies. There are two classic business quotations that say: "There is no industry that does not make money, only companies that do not make money." "Business owners must walk with their heads down, but also look up at the sky." Chinese furniture brands must think clearly about long-term development. Strategic issues, get rid of short-sighted price wars, don't be threatened by temporary market hotspots and follow the trend, focus on R&D and innovation in line with the development trend of the furniture industry in order to find your own sustainable development path.
Four major trends in the future development of the furniture industry are briefly introduced below:
1. The application of new materials will profoundly change the furniture industry
Throughout the development of the furniture industry, every huge leap in the furniture industry is inseparable from the application of new materials and technology. In the long millennium, wood, bamboo and other easy-to-process plant materials have become the main materials for making furniture. The traditional furniture for nearly a thousand years is mostly wooden furniture; into modern times, steel and alloy materials have begun to enter the furniture industry, with steel-wood structures. The furniture began to appear, and the function, shape and appearance of the furniture have undergone many changes; followed by the large-scale use of polymer materials represented by PE, PVC, and ABS, which promoted the rapid iteration of the furniture industry and brought profound changes in four aspects .
The first is the emergence of new hybrid materials. Macromolecule materials can be used alone in furniture, or they can be polymerized with other powdery objects to form new materials, such as wood powder, rice husk, and straw combined to give birth to wood plastic materials; combined with stone powder to give birth to Stone plastic materials: combined with fly ash, carbon gold materials were born and so on. These various new materials have a variety of different physical properties, and they play an important role in the manufacture of furniture, especially in the manufacture of special furniture used in special environments.
The second is the transformation of furniture materials from consuming natural resources to being green and recyclable. Many new modified materials involving polymer materials have recyclable properties. Once the furniture is no longer in use, it can be crushed into powder and re-pressed into panels to make new furniture.
The third is to solve the formaldehyde problem that has plagued the furniture industry for a century, making it possible to have a healthy zero formaldehyde. The furniture has transitioned from solid wood furniture to modern MDF furniture. MDF is made of wood chips with resin adhesive. The resin adhesive inevitably contains formaldehyde, which is distributed to residents' homes through furniture and decoration materials made of MDF. , Which poses a great threat to human health and becomes a lingering nightmare in the modern furniture industry. The new type of boards made of polymer materials combined with wood chips and other powders, because the polymer materials do not contain formaldehyde, these new material boards and furniture made of these new materials have almost no formaldehyde release, which ensures people's health.
The fourth is to change the standard for judging the quality of furniture from material value to use value. In the era when wood materials dominated the furniture industry, the functions of furniture were all the same. The standard for judging the quality of furniture was not only the workmanship, but also the preciousness of the wood materials. It has practical functions and has been given the function of maintaining value and increasing value. As new materials enter the field of furniture production, furniture has more shapes and more functions, and there are obvious differences in the comfort of use. The main force of furniture consumption is the standard for purchasing furniture after 90s and 00s. Change from paying attention to precious materials to favoring comfort and aesthetics.
Furniture companies should pay attention to the application of new materials in products, and shift the focus of research and development to creativity, shape, appearance, function, and comfort in use, and they will have more room for development.
2. Ergonomics is widely used in the furniture industry
The demand for furniture consumption of modern consumers is changing from "some use" to "good use". All furniture is ultimately used by people, and comfort will become one of the important criteria for evaluating the quality of furniture, especially furniture that people often use such as tables, seats, and bedding. The requirements for comfort are more stringent. Ergonomics (or ergonomics) is becoming more and more closely integrated with the furniture manufacturing industry. It is through scientific large-scale experiments to solve the problem of making furniture more comfortable for people to use, sit more comfortable, and lie more comfortable. problem.
Whether residential furniture or office furniture is rarely used by one person, it is shared by multiple people. Even if it is used by one person, the size and height of the furniture are constantly changing as children grow up. People of different heights, fats and thinners, and usage habits also have different requirements for the same kind of furniture. If they are separated from the specific users, the so-called engineering design of the furniture is like a castle in the sky. Therefore, more and more furniture incorporates the mechanical adjustment function into the furniture design, so that a piece of furniture can be adapted to the specific needs of each person through reasonable adjustments, so that each user can experience the comfort as tailor-made. Feel.
This adjustable functional design is more obvious in table and chair furniture. The traditional fixed furniture is transformed and upgraded in terms of adjustable functions to meet the needs of customers in terms of engineering comfort. It will be a breakthrough for furniture products. One of the important breakthrough points.
3. Meet the needs of customers for customized furniture
With the improvement of people’s living standards, the awakening of a new generation of young people’s personality awareness; with the wide application of new materials, new technologies, and new processes, the increasingly short and flattened sales channels such as e-commerce, the cost of personalized furniture production The cost of circulation continues to decrease. Meeting the needs of customers for customized furniture has become an important breakthrough point in the transformation of many traditional furniture companies.
There are two main ways to meet the needs of custom home furnishings.
The first is that the customer provides house data or specific needs for a certain kind of furniture, and the furniture factory issues design drafts and renderings. After the customer approves, the factory conducts customized production. The material, style, structure, appearance and color of the furniture can be individually customized. With the help of digital color printing technology, it is even possible to print patterns or photos required by customers on the furniture. The characteristic of this furniture customization method is that the factory has undertaken almost all the work in the customization process, and the labor cost and time cost are high.
The second way is to develop modular furniture. Modular furniture refers to the furniture that consumers can freely assemble and adjust the style of basic furniture modules with different functions, specifications and colors according to their actual needs and creativity to meet the individual requirements of different spaces and different functions. The manufacturer only needs to carry out the production of standardized furniture modules, and hand over the work process of personalized customization to the customer or assist the customer.
Modular furniture has long been used in wooden furniture. Some furniture factories produce wooden lattices of different types and colors. Consumers can assemble various small wooden formats into larger storage spaces with connectors, door panels, handles and other accessories. . However, due to material limitations, customers still need to use screwdrivers, hammers and other installation tools and hardware accessories to complete the installation. The weight is heavier, and the disassembly and assembly are more complicated.
4. The era of intelligent furniture is coming
Traditional furniture is a fixed structure, there is no soul, people can only passively adapt to existing furniture; more and more modern furniture incorporates ergonomic adjustment functions, people can manually adjust various indicators, making the furniture more suitable for personal use In the not-too-distant future, with the enhancement of smart chip functions and the reduction of costs, data transmission becomes more and more convenient, and information receiving and processing terminals increase. We can foresee the emergence of intelligent furniture. Intelligent furniture will collect and calculate data. Process, self-regulate and actively adapt to the various needs of the owner.
Let's imagine the future of intelligent furniture.
Future smart beds will generally have a built-in carbon fiber infrared heating system. The smart bed will heat the quilt to a suitable temperature in advance before the owner needs to go to bed, and remind the owner to go to bed at a fixed bedtime. The smart bed monitors various physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, and sleep status during the owner’s sleep. Together with the smart bracelet worn by the owner during the day, the data is traditionally transmitted to the community doctor’s smart terminal, and the doctor’s health advice is sent to the mobile phone, PC and other terminals. Real-time feedback to the owner.
The future smart bookshelf will automatically enter information about the owner's books, count reading frequency and preferences, and recommend new book information to the owner by connecting to the mobile phone APP. If the owner sets a plan to persist in reading, the bookshelf will also remind the owner to read through the terminal at a fixed time.
The future smart student desk chair only needs parents to input the child’s height, leg length and other basic body shape information, it will automatically adjust the height of the seat and desk according to the principles of ergonomics, and will also adjust the height of the child’s writing, reading, or drawing. The activity automatically adjusts the tilt angle of the table, and promptly reminds the child to maintain the correct sitting posture when the child has bad postures such as forward leaning, eyes too close to the book, tilted head, etc., if the child is still sitting incorrectly after repeated reminders, the smart table and chair will use the mobile phone Wait for the terminal to report to the parent.
The organic combination of mechanical systems, control systems, information processing and transmission systems and other technologies with traditional furniture will produce a wider application imagination space. Maybe in the future we think that it is normal for modern furniture to drag a power cord.
