Cheung Shine Focuses on Green, High-end OA Chairs

Cheung Shine started out in 1981 as a hardware processor, and transformed its southern Taiwan operation into a maker of OA chairs in 1988. Since then it has developed into one of the island's few specialized manufacturers of high-end OA chairs.

The company now has integrated production-line facilities that enable it to achieve a 70% in-house content rate. This means that it does not have to subcontract critical manufacturing processes such as steel shearing, forming, and processing.

To meet the needs of environmental protection, however, Cheung Shine contracts such pollution-prone processes as electroplating and spray-painting to other suppliers that have their own pollution-control facilities. And, in line with the global trend toward environmental protection, the company has worked hard to develop OA chairs that are environment-friendly.

"All of the products that we make are recyclable and reusable in compliance with the green rules of the industrially advanced nations," stresses Cheung Shine's president, Lu We-chin. "For instance, we use environment-friendly PP (polypropylene) instead of toxic PVC (polyvinyl chloride), and we minimize the use of formalin in wooden sheets. At the same time, we use specially designed mechanisms to reinforce the structure of our products."

The company's constant efforts to improve the processes for manufacturing high-quality green products led to its winning of ISO 9001:2000 certification three years ago.

As part of its quest to produce high-end products, Cheung Shine has invested in sophisticated testing gear and automated production equipment. Its factory now boasts four robots, six computerized numerically controlled (CNC) pipe-bending machines, 30 pressing machines, and torque-, loading-, durability-, strength-, and pressure-testing equipment. Four R&D specialists handle the development of innovative products to fill the specific needs of customers.

Because of the company's emphasis on upmarket, innovative OA chairs, the president says, he has not followed his competitors in moving production to China in search of cheaper costs. "Taiwan is an ideal place for developing and producing high-end OA furniture," he explains, "because of its large supply of intelligent R&C technicians who can turn out the innovative products we need." Many of its innovations are patented in Japan, the United States, and Europe.

Among the most recent results of the firm's R&D is a series of executive chairs with adjustable backs, seats, and armrests, along with other functions.

Most of Cheung Shine's products are made on an original design manufacturing (ODM) basis, with only about 15% left for original equipment manufacturing (OEM) production.