National Program to Upgrade Taiwan's Furniture Design Innovation

Chen Chi-hsiung, chairman of the Department of Industrial Design and director of Graduated Study of Industrial Design, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, has helped cultivate around 600 furniture-design specialists and has helped nearly 10 Taiwanese furniture suppliers to develop innovative product designs under a government-funded program over the past two years.

The government worked out its "Creative Industry Development Project" after garnering ideas from Chen and other experts about how to help domestic industries boost product value. "This program is particularly important to the island's furniture industry, " Chen stresses, "since the industry has contracted severely here due to the migration of manufacturers to low-cost areas such as mainland China."


Chen goes on to note that Taiwan was recognized throughout the world as the "kingdom of furniture" about 20 years ago because of its high production volume and excellent quality. "At that time, " he recalls, "there were 1, 000-worker furniture factories all over the island. "Then, in response to surging production costs at home and tight restrictions on wood exports by major supplying countries, they began to move offshore.

Thinking about how furniture makers can stay at home and continue to survive, Chen says that, "The domestic furniture industry should give up its long-term addiction to the mass-production model and switch to a pattern of refined production." He urges them to stop turning out single-material products and start using a combination of materials, which require greater skills to give the products a harmonious look.

"Fortunately, " Chen states, "Taiwan has well-developed glass, metal, and synthetic board industries, and our industrial design sector started out much earlier than mainland China's. Today, Taiwan has quality home-made steel and less expensive but high-quality parts." He reports that local furniture manufacturers have recently invited Taiwan Glass, the island's biggest producer of glass products, to join their supply chains.

All of the manufacturers who joined Chen's design-assistance program in its first year, however, were makers of all-wood furniture. "In the beginning, " he explains, "domestic furniture suppliers were suspicious of our ability to design furniture using a combination of materials. Soon, however, they noticed how satisfied our first manufacturers were, and they began to come to us."

To implement its program, the government chose National Taiwan University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and National Chiayi University, along with Chen's university.

Boasting of Self-Brilliance

Chen claims that his own school was chosen in large part because of his own academic background and experience. He won his first degree in furniture design from the institute that is now the National Taipei University of Technology, about 20 years ago. When he was still in school he won a gold medal in a domestic woodworking competition, after which he represented Taiwan in an international competition.

After five years of work in the furniture industry, Chen went to the United States and earned a bachelor's degree in furniture design and a master's in industrial design. Returning to Taiwan, he went for a Ph.D. at National Taiwan University's Graduate School of Forestry, where he majored in marketing. Few other people, he claims, have such a comprehensive background in the field of furniture.

In addition to heading up his own school's institute of industrial design, Chen also serves as consultant to the Taiwan Furniture Manufacturers' Association. Seventeen professors within his department offer their services to industry and academe; in addition, he says, "We've invited many international design heavyweights to lecture in our domestic programs."

Chen's program has been attracting more and more interest ever since it was first offered, and more manufacturers than the stipulated number have applied to join the design-assistance programs every year. To limit the number of participants, the school sets stringent conditions for applying companies. Chen says, "They must have good business, and they must lack their own R&D capability." When each program ends, Chen's team tracks the sales record of the subject products and the number of patents they have won. Each supplier gets help with a maximum of three products.

In addition to its training and assistance projects, the national program also includes the establishment of a design databank and the extension of the results of the design efforts. The databank offers both image and text files, including design information collected from more than 30 countries. The team has created its own website, www.2008cif.yuntech.edu.tw , to disseminate information on furniture design.

The national program will come to an end in 2008, by which time, Chen comments, "We hope that the manufacturers that have received assistance from us will have their own self-sufficient design capabilities. That's the main import of our program." (June 2005)