Lean is used for continuous improvement in the wood furniture industry, reducing waste, improving flow, implementing standard work, and reducing setup time. 

We’ll look at four case studies that employ this methodology using a variety of Lean tools. Finally, we’ll reference an example video of wood chair production.

Using it to Implement Standard Work

In an article titled “Applying standard work in a paint shop of wood furniture plant: a case study”, L. Ribeiro, A.C. Alves, J.F.P. Moreira, and M. Ferreira apply Lean techniques in order to stabilize processes so they could implement standard work. This was at IKEA’s Swedwood plant in Danville, VA.

You can access the article here.

Implementing Flow-line Technology

In an article titled “Wood furniture components: Implementation of flow-line technology based on lean manufacturing concepts,” the authors W. D. Motsenbocker, P. H. Steele, S. L. Hunter, Steven H. Bullard, and A. Schuler discuss its use to implement flow-line technology at Airline Manufacturing Company, a wood component manufacturer for the furniture industry. 

You can access the article here.

Coupling Lean with Green Manufacturing

In another article titled “Best practices with lean principles in furniture green manufacturing,” K. Rajesh, J. SriLakshmi, and T. Ramarao cover the its use to implement green manufacturing. As part of the article they list the similarities and differences between Lean and green manufacturing.

You’ll find their article at the following link.

Using SMED and Short Interval Control in Wood Furniture Manufacturing

Authors Sudipta Chowdhury, Kazi Aminul Haque, and Musabbirhasan Sumon discuss Lean tools in their article “Implementation of Lean Strategies in a Furniture Manufacturing Factory”. They applied Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) and Short Interval Control in a Bangladesh furniture factory. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) was used to document improvements after the implementation.

You can access their article here.

Wood Chair Manufacturing Video

Finally, let’s see a video  of wood furniture manufacturing from Fenabel, a Portuguese firm specializing in chair manufacture. You can view the video here.