Office Furniture Taiwanese Makers Turn to Ergonomics to Add Value

Office furniture manufacturers in Taiwan are rolling out top-of-the-line products with advanced ergonomic designs, marking a further a break from their past dependence on lower-end commodity items.

Like their counterparts in other labor-intensive sectors, most of Taiwan's office furniture suppliers have moved production to mainland China to cut costs. According to the Taiwan Furniture Manufacturers' Association (TFMA), the value of Taiwan's furniture exports has dropped to US$1.1 billion from US$1.5 billion a year ago. More than 60% of the exported furniture is made from metal, and the majority of exports are office furniture.

Those manufacturers retaining production in Taiwan have been diligently developing ergonomic designs and using alternative materials to steel and solid wood. Senior officials at the TFMA point out that local suppliers have made impressive progress in combining different materials into furniture pieces, especially office furniture. Glass, plastic, man-made boards and even carbon fibers are all finding greater applications in new furniture items as a result of this trend.

The ergonomic designs of the new breed of Taiwan-made office furniture can be seen in the chairs' armrests, backrests, and heights, as well as in desk heights. Armrests are increasingly adjustable in height and position, so that users can keep arms parallel to the floor and reach computer keyboards without straining their hands. Office chairs usually come with backrests that can be tilted and lumbar supports that support the normal curvature of the lower back, eliminating pressure on spinal disks. Seat height is also adjustable so that users can keep their thighs parallel to the floor and calves at right angles to the floor.

Refined Design Nets SOHO Buyers

Han Ken Enterprise Co., Ltd.'s office furniture is particularly attractive to small office/home office (SOHO) users with its refined looks and designs. The company is promoting a collection composed of a chair, a mobile pedestal, a desk, a computer desk and a rack. All items but the chair are coated with white painting, a color the company's chairman, James Lin, says is particularly attractive to Japanese consumers.

The furniture pieces are designed to be as ergonomic as possible. A hydraulic-spring cylinder under the computer desk makes the desk adjustable in height, and the main desk is also height adjustable with its foldable crossed legs.

Many of the items in Han Ken's furniture line are made of composite materials, including glass panels, metal tubes and wood panels, reflecting the shift by Taiwanese furniture suppliers away from increasingly pricey solid wood and steel.

"Taiwan has a shortage of wood and steel. So we have to seek alternative materials, which Taiwan is good at making and has an abundance of, " Lin explains. He points out that some local suppliers have begun using carbon-fiber parts, particularly for the connectors of seat backrests. Nevertheless, Lin confesses that carbon-fiber parts are still expensive, limiting them to use in only a handful of furniture items.

In Lin's industry, some manufacturers including his company have equipped some of their desks with designer die-cast legs. He points out that die-cast parts are more versatile in shaped designs than metal tubes, thanks to their mold-based manufacturing method.

Lin's company began focusing on SOHO furniture around five or six years ago after years of producing various furniture items contracted by other suppliers. He points out that SOHO furniture is much more profitable than standard office furniture because the former allows for a more varied range of designs than non-SOHO items. "However, " he adds, "the production risk in the SOHO line is greater than that for the standard office furniture market because you have to be 100% sure that most of your designs will be popular."

Lin says that his company has been spending 10% of its revenue on R&D in recent years, up from 5% previously. It now has three design engineers, but still sells all of its output on an OEM or ODM basis.

His company has moved production of non-SOHO products to mainland China to capitalize on low production costs there. Its mainland factory is ISO certified.

The recent rise in raw material prices has made Lin cautious about predicting future business growth. Still, he is hopeful that his company can continue to build on last year's NT$100 million (US$3 million at US$1:NT$33) performance.

Diversifying

Founded in 1981, Chueng Shine Co., Ltd. Has recently diversified from the production of office chairs to computer desks in order to offer a more comprehensive product line.

The company's chairs and desks come with many ergonomic features. Its chairs, for example, are seat height and angle adjustable, and armrests can be re-positioned for maximum user comfort. On many of its products, seat height can be adjusted from 990mm to 1080mm with the aid of a gas-spring cylinder. Its CH-6295ASXN chair can rise as high as 1110mm and the chair's backrest can be fixed at a tilted angle.

The company's first computer desk is its CH-3688, which is composed of a computer stand, peripheral stand and main desk. The keyboard tray is fixed on the desk. The desk measures 1, 535mm wide by 800mm deep. Its height can be adjusted between 595mm and 745mm with the aid of a gas-spring cylinder mechanism, making it suitable for users of all ages. The desktop's central part can be propped up as a book rest. The peripheral stand's top and the desktop are made of median-density fiber (MDF) boards. The CH-3688 is patent pending.

The company's desks for the European and American markets are fitted with gas-spring cylinders that have a maximum carrying weight of 400 pounds. Japan-destined models are equipped with a cylinder whose maximum carrying weight is 350 pounds.

Chueng Shine's chairman, Lu Wu-chin, points out that the only way for Taiwanese furniture office suppliers to survive is by producing varied products in small volumes and heeding development work. In each of the past few years, his company, he says, has spent 3% to 5% of its annual revenue developing new designs. "Over the past five to six years, we've won at least 10 patents, " he claims.

The company produces all of its products at its ISO 9001 certified factory in Taiwan. Most items are sold under its client's brands.

Most of the company's products go to Japan, with an average retail unit price of between US$30 and US$40. Although Lu says the fourth quarter is a normal peak season for his company's business in Japan, he is worried that price hikes for raw materials in recent months will dampen procurement sentiment in that market.

Ergonomic and Economical

Voxim Co., Ltd. Knows how to attract consumers. Its strategy is making its office chairs ergonomic and economical. According to managing director Spencer Yao, the company designs its chairs with ergonomic functions that have previously been seen primarily in luxury chairs. Voxim has pared down the production costs for ergonomic features, and, thus, retail prices.

"In 2000, ergonomic chairs were quite expensive because they tended to contain more than 10 ergonomic functions, " Yao notes. His company, considering rising material costs and the lukewarm global economy, has equipped its chairs with seats and armrests that can be lowered and raised, lumbar supports with air cushions that can be adjusted flush with the lower back, as well as with headrests and backrests that can tilt.

Yao says that color is another selling point of office furniture today, as office workers increasingly look for furniture items with a bit more fun and warmth than the standard beige and gray. His company has responded to this demand by rolling out chairs in orange, apple green, navy blue, and pink, among other colors.

Yao says chair colors have varied over the past 20 years in accordance with the shift of industrial emphasis. "For example, in Taiwan industrial emphasis has sifted to tech industries from banking and electronics hardware manufacturing. In the banking-dominance days, popular colors were those that imparted a sense of calm and stability, " he says.

Yao says his company has spent 5% to 10% of its revenue on product development in recent years. The company has an R&D team comprising six specialists and its products have earned the government-sponsored Symbol of Excellence award, attesting to its quality design.

Voxim's products are sold mainly to Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East, where Yao says the average consumer is more budget conscious. All items are sold under the company's Voxim brand.

Like many Taiwanese furniture suppliers, Voxim is seeking alternative materials that can help pare down its production costs, which have increased at least 8% because of recent price hikes.

New Materials

Ofisworld Co., Ltd. Has recently introduced office desks, mobile pedestals and other items made with environmentally friendly boards encased in ABS plastic that have an internal paper honeycomb structure.

"A standard 150cm x 100cm x 100cm desk can weigh as little as 13 kilograms with our boards, " reports George Huang, Ofisworld's president. His company has applied the board to almost all of its office furniture pieces, including mobile pedestals. "In spite of its light weight, such a desk can support a load of at least 80 kilograms, " Huang adds. He attributes this capability mostly to the honeycomb structure, which serves as a reinforcement mechanism supporting the top and bottom of the plastic case from inside. Also, Huang stresses the durability of ABS plastic is another major factor.

The board has earned quality approvals from test organization SGS Taiwan Ltd. The organization gave a thumbs-up to Ofisworld's AP-01 and RP-01 pedestals, both made with the special board, for stability, rebound, out-stop, lock and extendible member cycle, and latch static performance.

Huang's company spent two years and around US$1 million developing the board as a replacement material for metals, whose prices have recently gone up sharply. The board has been patented in the U.S. and mainland China.

The earth-friendly qualities of the board include the use of recyclable materials as well as the use of paints mixed with ABS plastic material, eliminating the need for the use of poisonous coating or electroplating processing.

According to Huang, an American furniture designer has approached his company with the idea of working together on designs for furniture built with the boards. The U.S., Huang says, is a major market for such items since budget and fashion are usually the priority considerations of U.S. consumers. "Compared with metals, the board is much less expensive, " he explains.

Huang opened his business in 1997 to specialize in movable cabinets, drawing on more than 20 years of experience in the office furniture industry, including two years with steel maker Yieh Loong Co., Ltd.'s furniture unit.

"Over the past few years, sharp hikes in metal prices have considerably hurt our competitiveness. So, we have begun using composite materials that can replace most of the metal in our products, " he says.

To ensure business growth, Ofisworld has been working hard on attractive products in cooperation with its supporting suppliers. According to Huang, Ofisworld has spent around US$500, 000 in each of the past few years to develop 10 to 20 new products with strategic partners. "That's why we have been able to maintain business growth at a pace of 20% to 30% annually over the past several years, " Huang says.

The company's other attractive products include a movable cabinet with a patented hidden fifth wheel for anti-tilt purposes and a board interior latticework structure. The cabinet has an arched front. "We ship more arch front movable cabinets than any other manufacturer in Taiwan, " Huang claims.

Europe accounts for 80% of Ofisworld's business, according to Huang. From this year, his company will put more effort into developing the U.S. and Australian markets as part of a market diversification plan. Huang says that European consumers consider quality and design more than cost, whereas cost is the top consideration for American consumers.

When asked about Ofisworld's advantages over its domestic rivals, Huang says that his company has completely focused on the production of office furniture and has contracted many foreign designers to design products for his company. Also, Ofisworld has invested in production facilities in mainland China, where production costs are very competitive. He says his company has an output capacity of 1, 000 desks and 4, 000 chairs a day.

Convenient Design

Sun White Industrial Co. specializes in computer desks for office workers and individual consumers. The company is adept at building products with composite materials including glass, metal tubes and artificial wood boards.

The company's products are mostly noted for their convenient designs. For example, one of the company's desk models has a desktop that is illuminated by an LED lamp and that has a sliding keyboard shelf, and another model has jacket ports for holding computer peripheral cords.

The LED desk lamps give off five to 15 lumens of brightness and are embedded in aluminum pipes flanking the left and right sides of the desktop. The desktop and keyboard stand are made of sheet glass.

The desks with jacket ports provide a welcome solution to cable tangle while also making it possible to plug peripherals directly into the back of the desk. "We're planning some new designs that can hold more peripheral wires as computer peripherals have grown more in number, " says company president Tseng Ren-ju.

Tseng, a design veteran, points out that in computer desks, function always comes before looks. "Our observations tell us that computer users usually prefer a convenient desk to a flamboyant desk, " he notes.

Tseng's company has recently taken design awards at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology and won several patents in the U.S., Germany, Taiwan, mainland China and Japan for its products. His company spends around NT$10 million (US$303, 000) on product development every year.

Diligent design work has kept the company's products popular in the market. "So far, we haven't felt the business recession, although some of our competitors complain that business is tough, " Tseng reports.

Computer desks now account for around 70% of the company's revenue. The ISO 9001:2000-certificated company ships most of its computer desks to the U.S., Europe and Japan. (Sept. 2005)