Knowledge No One Wants.
How do you document every style of furniture, mattress, and product you have nowadays? You go digital, that’s how. In our case, our business went digital long before anyone in our industry did.
When our company closed after a battle with the big Yellow and Blue retail GIANT. The largest retailer in the world. I bought the computer that had every frame design and digital asset that we ever produced. This computer has all the CAD files and 3D images for every single solid frame or knockdown frame we had made.
In essence, this computer was the brain of our operations when it came to referencing and design since we were working with SolidWorks. This incredible software allowed us to churn out frames and designs on the screen and give 100 percent accurate files to routers, cutters, and fabric patterns to ourselves and our suppliers.
Much Time and Effort Go into This
Having had Samin, Dindo, and Bikram on our Solid-Works team was amazing. These guys knew how to operate the software, however, none of them knew a thing about furniture.
Having spent thousands of hours sitting and directing them on the design side, they made quick work of the digitizing and assembly of the digital parts. While the furniture industry is not a very high-tech one, we were on the cutting edge of what was available.
Automatic gluing machines, CNC leather and fabric cutters, and even a semi-automated mattress line were in our arsenal. However, all this took patience and effort. In our case, thousands of hours went into modeling the 3DS designs. We could stay on top of tolerances and if the patterns were destroyed or lost, we had backups. Minor adjustments and fixes were also very easy to do.
But No One Wants It.
We have thousands of frames drawn up, along with PDF files and 3D digital assemblies that can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet, it seems people would rather reinvent the wheel than pay out a fraction of the cost for existing patterns. The furniture industry is filled with old farts. Everyone is of the mindset that…
We have always done it this way so why change?
Efficiency, cost-cutting, and recessions make companies rethink their systems. It is a system of necessity and the only time it is absolutely necessary is when you are bleeding cash. At this point, it may be too late to try and save the company. But such is the business of furniture. Filled with simple-minded short-sighted people that would screw you for a penny instead of investing it into tech. So, if anyone wants ready-made designs and SolidWorks files, please do let me know.
