Unleash your creativity: how furniture design software can transform your business

None of us likes limitations: especially in the business of the furniture industry, where flexibility and unlimited creativity are key factors for success. When we face a constraint in the furniture manufacturing business, we want tools that will smoothly overcome the barriers and prevent us from suffering financial losses and production from stagnating. One of the most important tools connecting the entire process of furniture design and production is software.

The company’s transformation means global changes in terms of industry constraints, the introduction of facilities and action plans. To begin with, it is necessary to recognize the company’s constraints.

What are the main challenges of the furniture industry?

1. competition in the market

Furniture companies compete on price, material type, lead time and production capacity. The number of companies in the furniture business is also a challenge: from local carpentry shops to medium and larger companies and chains. The potential customer has a very large choice of offerings.

2. volatility of furniture trends

The variety of trends, which change from year to year, requires flexibility and being ready to make design and production changes, and thus having a background of appropriate machinery, software and good planning.

3. logistics and multiple stages of production

Producing a piece of furniture consists of many advanced processes such as designing, purchasing raw material, machining raw material, opening, machining, assembling and packaging the furniture. When mass-producing furniture, it is crucial to coordinate all the stages taking into account budget, time and customer expectations.

What is the first step to meeting these challenges?

The first and most effective step is to invest in software to support the design and production of furniture. It is the properly selected software that connects all stages of furniture creation, allows monitoring of production processes and their optimization.

What features does the ideal tool for furniture design and production have?

1. is smooth and fast at work: modeling and documentation execution is maximally automated within a single environment

In the mode of operation without automatization in the software, you separately design a piece of furniture, in another 2D program you dimension all the elements of the design, in yet another you consume the cost estimate, add all the elements yourself, the list of materials, etc. If you are planning a package: you determine the separators, calculate the weight of the package, create documentation. Seeing so many consecutive steps immediately comes to mind: risk of error, long working time and the need for several types of software. In WOODEXPERT, you will generate, among other things, dimensioned 2D drawings and a detailed material list based on the model in a single environment with a single click.

2. it is unlimited: it allows you to create any customised furniture

Having software that allows us to make changes to a design quickly is extremely important in terms of creativity in the furniture industry. When designing furniture for individual clients, rebuilding and changing dimensions in the model is extremely important: we are always dealing with amendments to the furniture design. Furniture for companies or other industries, have strict guidelines for ergonomics, style and to fit the room’s own requirements. Having a tool that adapts to different industries: allows us to get customers from different industries and thus: more orders, netting of customers and creative work.

The advanced rebuilding function in WOODEXPERT, as well as the copying of the project, makes it possible to create an unlimited number of variants on the basis of one model.

As an example, let us use a collection of living room furniture. When creating a dresser, thanks to the copying of the project, I can make a copy and change its color scheme, creating a completely new model with new references and materials for another collection. This is important for documentation: when generating the drawings and material list, the data from the original design will not be in them. I can also change the size of the dresser to the dimensions of the cabinet, without taking a long time to recalculate the model and quickly getting another piece of furniture for the collection.

3. adaptation to our individual design and production needs

Each furniture enterprise, has its own developed ways of describing documentation, technology, machinery, uses manufacturers of materials or fittings selected by it. Changing the software, involves the need to adapt one’s work to the mode of operation of the program. At WOODEXPERT, we believe that it is the software that is supposed to adapt to the enterprise and improve the entire work process. Our team of specialists is able to create individual production reports for a given company and tailor the entire implementation and training to its nature. Several companies have already taken advantage of the opportunity to suggest and receive dedicated functionality within the WOODEXPERT subscription.

An example of customization of reports for a particular company is a report with a list of items and assigned materials from that company’s database. An example of dedicated training and implementation is the adaptation of the library and structure to the upholstered furniture industry.

4. accurately optimize production and costs before production begins

Conducting a thorough analysis of the cost of producing a piece of furniture at the design stage, saves time, minimizes mistakes and thus wastes material. In WOODEXPERT we can perform such analysis in several places: automatic collision detection, simulation in the CAM module, cost estimates in the BOM module, production reports and Nesting. Thanks to this, we make corrections before production with the confidence that the entire process will go according to the design assumptions.

5. it sets our company apart from the competition

Having a unique offering in the furniture industry market is more competitive and noticed by customers. With advanced furniture design software with extensive castomization capabilities, you can analyze your local market and expand your design and production offerings. With a tailored tool, you are guaranteed the ability to act according to your business plan.

With a creative business plan for your company in the furniture industry, you should have the tools to make our elaborate ideas a reality. With limited options to work with: we will stand still or grow more slowly. We have created a tool dedicated to innovators in the furniture industry: test WOODEXPERT in your enterprise and see how many ideas you can realize in a short time.