Talk About Integrated Furnture Upholstery Assemblies.............

[baileyuph]

Today I worked on a new couch, warranty work.  In the process of doing the repair, I noted that the entire inside/outside back and the inside back cushions were all sewn into one installation unit.  Integrated system that is.

After looking it over, it became evident that the advantage of manufacturing this way......it significant shortens the upholstery installation to frame time.

The integrated system I am talking about above, after it is off the sewing assembly line, cushions filled, the installer in the assembly line merely pulls the system down over the back and starts stapling.  I don't know how long it takes but anytime that would be amazingly short, I would believe it. Two installers on a line probably can complete a sofa in five minutes?

Custom upholstery has a battle on its hands, there is no way a small shop can compete against furniture like I saw.  In addition to the added efficiency of installing things to the frame, just a very few minutes and presto!  Out comes a couch, the factory has the buying power on materials and fillers that we don't have.

Big time changes, it puts us custom people back to the stone age on efficiency.

Some of you furniture guys on this board, who do warranty work on this type of new furniture will easily identify with the current events in furniture manufacturing.


Doyle  

[kodydog]

Here is the funny thing Doyal. Like you said, two guys on an assembly line can upholster a sofa of this type very quickly. But to do a repair to the inside back could take a half day or longer. And to reupholster it would hardly be worth it.

[sofadoc]

We shouldn't even try to compete price-wise. It's like comparing the cost of custom-built cabinets to "ready made" ones from Home Depot. Different animals.
If the customer's only concern is the bottom line, I never hesitate to tell them that they'll probably be happier just buying new.

[baileyuph]

No, the small shop cannot compete doing work like that, I guess that pretty much leaves our market to items produced by simpler technologies, better known as antiques.

It is a fact, our older ways are not going to produce one of these high tech items where things are done or assisted by computers nearly as well either.

Times are changing,

Doyle

[west coast]

Natuzzi has been making their stuff that way for years and now the rest are catching on. We don`t  get the repairs anymore as its cheaper to throw it in the garbage can than the 2 or 3 hundred it costs to fix. We tried to cheapen the labour to keep the work coming in but that was a loose loose so now I just give the price and forget about it. I replaced a seat about six months ago, it was a six inch cushion and it had about forty pieces of foam glued together to make the cushions. This past week I went out to replace a torn dustcover and discovered a 4 x 8 inch cylinder of cement inside the bottom of the sofa. Why ?, no idea but it was there. The furniture business has changed drastically in the last few years, we hardly get any residential any more its mostly commercial stuff and with the economy the way it is and the new gov. rules on impaired driving going from .08 to .05 the restaurant industry is reeling and so am I.Don`t get me wrong I beleive there should be no tolerance for DUI. I just layed of my service tech, 11 years service great guy single dad and now unemployed. I`m thankful I moved back home last year and got rid of the shop but theres not much left to get rid of now, to get a solid weeks worth of work is a dream. If i sound discouraged I am.

[gene]

One way to tell the quality of furniture is to see how heavy it is (hard wood versus soft wood for example). I have always joked that if I made furniture I would use the cheapest softwood and put a cinder block inside the frame to make the furniture heavier. West coast, maybe someone stole my idea?


Up until now Obama,Clinton, Pelosi, Reed, etc. haven't bothered us much with their Democratic liberal
s o c i a l i m, other than having our taxes raised and more paperwork to fill out.


Most people are finally starting to feel the effects of "everything is given to us by the government" approach to life. And if we have been living, working for, or dreaming of creating a great life for ourselves, or wanting our children and grandchildren to be able to do the same for themselves, then this change in our society can certainly be discouraging.

Try to start a business with a massive amount of personal debt. Or if you have a massive amount of debt now and you did not before in your life, how different is the quality of your life today?

Our grand kids, most of whom haven't even been born yet, already have a massive amount of personal debt from the government.

I am not saying I disagree with the government controlling our lives. I am just making a comment on how our country has changed as the government takes more and more control of what we can do and has taken more and more of our freedoms away from us.

gene

[baileyuph]

Business has changed indeed, many consumers today (47 %) are dependent on the government.  In the furnitue industry, marketing is highly dependent on credit, buy or lease to own.  Those type of vendors are weathering the economic times better than the the high quality furniture vendors.  The latter are the bulk of furniture retailers that have gone out of business the past decade.  

Yes, this debt thing in our country is not good, look at Europe, for example.

It doesn't matter how perfect a candidate is, to beat a social political group in power is not going to happen.  Not likely that the vote to change would come from those living off the current regime.  Understandable, because in their mind, then they would have nothing.

So, going forward, what to expect?  More of the same.

For encouragement, guys we probably should hang in there and try to get more proficient and efficient with these integrated assemblies.   ;)  Old man "can't" never could do anything.   :)  Keep stitching until it is right!

Doyle

[Rich]

I am not saying I disagree with the government controlling our lives. I am just making a comment on how our country has changed as the government takes more and more control of what we can do and has taken more and more of our freedoms away from us.

I think you should disagree with the government controlling our lives! I wish more people would. This country was founded on the idea that government should do the big stuff that the people couldn't easily do (like build roads and fight wars) and then to get out of their way so the population could prosper on their own. Gradually however, more and more folks are learning that there's a government program they can benefit from and the rest of us keep having our taxes raised to pay for it. Look at the entitlement attitude of the people of Greece and it's easy to see where this is all headed.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Rich

[baileyuph]

Greece?  No doubt that is the map for some, live and learn and keep the tension just right!

???

Doyle

Why is it harder to get 69 thread in in poly?  Or is it, I bought two spools, 69 and 92, 69 poly wasn't available at this vendor.  Probably working off what his old stock was, huh?  I will use it for indoor stuff.