In recent years, the competition has become increasingly intensified in the low-price furniture market once dominated by Taiwan. Many producers on the island have sobered to the futility of competing with low-cost producers in these markets, and are instead betting their futures on promising new markets where their value-added design and quality lead can give them a decisive edge.

One of the bright new stars is the medical furniture sector, which has grown in step with the world's aging populations and rising living standards. Demand for such furniture is surging not only among hospitals, but also for home-care applications, especially in industrially advanced nations. The home-care segment of the market is likely to continue growing at a healthy pace as more and more countries are subsidizing home-care equipment purchases in order to reduce the need for expensive hospital care.

For Taiwan's furniture makers, the medical market presents both new challenges and new rewards. Such products require advanced manufacturing capability, strict quality control, a major investment in equipment, and strong product-development capability. But this extra effort and cost also means fewer competitors and thus higher margins for those that can make the grade.

Bed of Roses

One company that has successfully expanded into the medical furniture line is Saimay Industrial Co., Ltd., which was founded as a steel-pipe furniture maker, but now generates over half of its revenue from medical furniture. The company expects the ratio to jump even higher in the coming years.

Established in 1979, Saimay has long been a leading steel-pipe furniture maker in Taiwan and is currently one of only a few local companies to use high-end laser-cutting machines to produce such items.

Company chairman Wang Chao-yang says that Saimay's expansion into the medical-furniture segment came by chance, when the company helped a partner manufacture medical beds. Impressed by the high margins to be earned in the segment, the company decided to upgrade its operations and begin full-scale production of medical beds.

After overcoming many bottlenecks, Saimay finally launched its high-end medical-bed production in 1995, Wang says. Saimay invested heavily in developing molds and dies for such products and set up a medical-bed plant in Zhuhai, mainland China five years ago to meet the huge demand there. Wang claims that the mainland plant supplied over 10,000 medical beds under the Acare brand to major hospitals in mainland China last year, making Saimay the top Taiwan-based supplier there.

The new business was so successful in fact that Saimay decided to shift its business focus from steel-plate and -pipe furniture to high-margin custom-made items.

Since debuting its first medical bed, Saimay has gradually diversified its medical-furniture line to include cabinets, trolleys, carts and other items. Its expansion into these new lines has been smoothed by its strong development, design and manufacturing capabilities.



Along the way, Saimay has also pioneered new ground in the industry. For example, Wang claims that his company developed the world's first medical-use full-ABS bedstand with drawers. The model has proven a huge success thanks to its rust-free materials, low cost, and easy assembly/disassembly, inspiring numerous competitors to copy the design.

In addition to making medical furniture, Saimay derives half of its revenue from custom-made office furniture, high-end computer desks, book cabinets, and TV cabinets.

Wang says that investment, technology and constant R&D are all critical to success in the medical-furniture segment. But the most important factor is quality. In order to ensure the best quality, Saimay only uses German-made electric motors on its electric bed models, and every part and component must be made with the highest precision, Wang says.

After gaining a solid foothold in the medical-bed market, Wang says that his company plans to soon set up a new plastic-injection and processing plant in mainland China to help the company further develop its medical-furniture business.

Saimay employs about 50 workers at its plant in northern Taiwan and over 80 workers at its Zhuhai plant. The company sells its medical-furniture products in the mainland China market and other Asian nations.

SARS-buster

Since its spinoff from the Jiou Shing Group in 2001, Sigma-care Development Co., Ltd. Has grown to become one of the top two medical-bed makers in Taiwan. During its 18 years as a business division within the Jiou Shing Group, the company supplied high-end medical beds to Invacare of the U.S., the No. 2 medical-bed brand there, and Equips of Singapore on original equipment manufacturing (OEM).

Last year, Sigma-care shipped about 12,300 high-end medical beds to major markets including the U.S., Singapore, Europe and Taiwan. The company expects to deliver 18,000 units this year, with a growing portion bearing the Sigma brand.

Sigma-care closely cooperates with steel, surface-coating and PU-foam-making companies affiliated with the Jiou Shing Group, sourcing materials and processing services from such partners in order to focus on product design and final assembly. The company produces all of the parts and components used in its products, except the electric motors.

Sigma-care has installed two robot arms at its plant to weld bed frames and it expects to add four such welding machines in the future to reduce its workforce and improve margins.

Sigma-care currently supplies a wide range of medical products, including cabinets, mattresses, trolleys and carts, and 86 types of home-care and medical bed, ranging from top-end models with the most advanced digital weight-scale systems to general but high-quality home-care bed models.

Andy Sung, general manager of Sigma-care, claims that his company's core competitiveness lies in its strong development capability, which enables it to quickly introduce new bed types for different body sizes and uses in various markets. It also prides itself on achieving consistently high quality through its vigorous quality control and abundant manufacturing experience, while charging only about one-third the price of similar models made in the U.S. and Japan.

Sung says that his company's medical beds have other advantages as well. For example, its products are coated with an antibacterial surface material to prevent secondary infections at hospitals. This extra layer of protection has made Sigma-care beds one of the most widely used medical beds in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) isolation wards in Taiwan.

Another innovation introduced by Sigma-care to Taiwan is low-bed-height (LHD) models, which are safer and more comfortable for patients. Such beds rise 27cm to 35 cm from the ground, compared to 45cm for most other bed models. The lower height makes it easier for older and movement-impaired patients to get into and out of the beds, and it also makes it easier for healthcare workers to do their job. In order to pull this off, says Sung, all of the bed-elevation mechanisms had to be redesigned to decrease the load on the motors.

Sigma-care has also been a pioneer in the use of modular designs. The company is able to produce multiple bed models from a few basic bed frames, extending the breadth of its product line and enabling the company to quickly introduce new models.

Sung says that most of the parts can be replaced without tools, and others require only simple tools and a few basic procedures. All of the serial numbers of the bed parts are listed in an illustrated chart included with the bed, helping customers to more easily order replacement parts.

Sigma-care provides a two-year guarantee on all of its beds, one year longer than the guarantees offered by most other providers.

Wens There's a Will….

Wen's Fit Enterprise Co., Ltd. Recently demonstrated a very useful home care item, the MF-218 foldable electric home-care bed. The new bed model features both professional functions and convenience of use, and can be folded up to save space when not in use.

The MF-218 has a wire controller to adjust the head and foot sections of the bed, which can be positioned at angles of 0 to 80 degrees and 0 to 45 degrees, respectively. The frame of the bed is made of high-strength steel pipes with powder coating finish and can withstand a very high weight load. The head/foot frames can be pulled out to facilitate patient washing and other healthcare tasks. The MF-218 also has four flip-lever side rails, making movement easier for both the patient and healthcare workers

The MF-218 is 207cm x 95cm x 78cm in size and can fold up to only 110 cm x 100cm x 40cm. The bed can be easily folded and unfolded without tools, and weighs only about 46 kg. All of the parts used on the bed are made of high-end materials.

Wen's Fit claims that the MF-218 is the best choice for home-care use due to its high-end functions and reasonable price.

Established in 2001, Wen's Fit is a spinoff from the high-end product-design department of Wen's Champion Enterprise Co., a leading maker of outdoor/indoor furniture. Wen's Fit currently employs about 30 R&D professionals and workers at its plant in southern Taiwan's Chiayi County. The company's major export markets are Japan and the U.S.