A Rich Model Menu Offered by Taiwan's Classy High-End Makers

For Taiwan's manufacturers of dining sets, innovative design and unique structures have long been the focal point of their production efforts in the quest for differentiation of product from cheaper items made in developing economies, particularly mainland China and some Southeast Asian nations.

Over the past decade, many domestic manufacturers in this line, especially those specializing in wood-panel furniture, have moved their production facilities to China to take advantage of cheaper production costs there. But some who have insisted on continuing production on the island have been busy transforming themselves into producers of high-end items.

These enterprises are claiming a good deal of success in the international marketplace because of their dedication to designing refined items featuring unique structural specifications. Nevertheless, they advise, they are in need of more systematic help from the governmental and academic sectors in the cultivation of design talent if they are to keep up with market demand for new and innovative models.



The Aluminum-Alloy Project


Choosing to avoid the harsh competition in the lower-end sector of mass-produced items, Project Systems Furniture Co. launched itself in the industry four years ago by concentrating on own-design system furniture made of aluminum alloy. The firm specializes in items protected with anodizing treatment. All its models are easily disassembled, fully in line with international standards requiring the recycling of furniture parts.

The company has a design team of four talented people, headed by president Alex Lee, which develops the firm's unique models with the assistance of advanced three-dimensional graphics software.

"Taiwan has too many manufacturers concentrating on wood-panel furniture," laments Lee. "To avoid the harsh competition in this arena we decided to focus on creating structures of unique design. These types of models incorporate much greater brainpower and production skills, and the happy result is that we haven't seen any competition arising in the domestic market since our inception."

Project has two lines at present--household and office furniture. The office line, including executive desks, public-use chairs, and display racks, dominates output at its production facility in Taishan, Taipei County, but the company is now concentrating significant resources on new "Casa IO" series of household furniture and expects sales in this category to jump markedly.

The Casa IO series "Coin 4" dining tables, featuring a frame made of aluminum alloy, are characterized by the craftsmanship of solid plastic inserted frame.

Another IO series dining table has a top available in maple or oak veneer, in frosted glass, or in stone. The rounded legs are made of anodized aluminum alloy.
"The unique shaping of the legs of our dining tables is also used in other furniture items, such as computer desks, conference tables, and occasional tables," says Lee.

Lee says the anodize-treated alloy legs of the IO series are unusually sturdy, made with no welding spots, and that leg circumference can be increased/decreased in accordance with tabletop size (I.e., weight).

The company says it can supply finished dining sets or the legs alone. Lee notes that worldwide demand for household-furniture items featuring aluminum alloy has grown markedly of late. "In the past, most consumers preferred home-use items made of wood, glass, and fabric; nowadays more and more seek out items made of aluminum alloy because of the unique styling and designs."

Project has licensed its designs to a Taiwanese-invested firm for production in mainland China, but continues to undertake its own production in Taiwan. It is now engaged in talks with one of Japan's top three branded-product marketers regarding the supply of its furniture models, including office desks and conference tables, to that market.

"The Japanese enterprise is a specialized marketing firm with half of its sales coming from furniture and the remainder from computers," Lee notes. "It is extremely demanding in regard to product quality, but has expressed amazement that a Taiwanese manufacturer like us can create so many unique upscale designs. Representatives from that company have toured our plant several times and also inspected our satellite factories to ensure that all production is in compliance with its strict standards. I believe the firm will be placing big-ticket orders with us because of our long-term efforts to assure the quality of our unique-design products."

Lee adds that Project's design ability has been affirmed with its receipt of the prestigious iF Design Award China, sponsored by Hanover Fairs China Ltd. In Shanghai, in September last year. The award was granted for its "A-Plus" series designs. The A-Plus series also brought the firm a silver medal at the11th ROC National Products of Excellence Award competition last year.

The iF Design Award was created by Germany's Hanover Fairs International a half-century ago. Last year was the first holding of the iF Design Award China. The China variant is targeted at manufacturers and designers active in the Chinese marketplace. Winning products were exhibited from Sept. 18-21 at CeBIT Asia 2003 at the Shanghai New Exhibition Center.

Project says A-Plus furniture helps consumers organize conference areas in a dynamic, versatile, and innovative way. The unusually shaped tables, featuring asymmetrical curving arcs, can be arranged freely to create different configurations.

All A-Plus models, which come in executive and home-office units, feature materials, configurations, and colors that "bring to life futuristic working spaces," with the newest technological refinements incorporated and the most recent market demands addressed. The modular components are fitted easily and quickly.

The series is continuously evolving, says Lee, to suit all needs arising in the modern office, from executive suites to multiple and individual workstations, conference rooms, and reception areas, as well as for professional studios and home offices.



The Embodiment of "Persistence in Advancing Operations"


Based on the operating philosophy "persistence in advancing operations," Tair Wei Enterprise Co., Ltd. Systematically invests in state-of-the-art production equipment to ensure it turns out ever more environment-friendly wood and metal-tube furniture.

With over two decades of experience in the sector, the ISO9001-certified company offers over 500 unit types, including stylish dining sets kitchen racks, bathroom racks, vanity sets, occasional tables, screens, and home-use entertainment centers.

At present, metal-tube furniture accounts for 75% of Tair Wei's total production by value. The company primarily designs and produces its own K/D furniture featuring unique styling, but also accepts orders on an original equipment and design manufacturer (OEM/ODM) basis. "Thanks to the dedication of our talented in-house team of R&D specialists, we can introduce brand-new products more frequently than rival manufacturers," states Lin Chiu-sung, general manager of the company.

To facilitate the production of these innovative products, over the past few years Tair Wei has brought in a full suite of state-of-the-art production equipment, including three welding machines and two automated pipe-bending machines from Japan last year, and will bring in another two--one of each--by the end of this year.

"I have always stressed the importance of employing automated production equipment to ensure specs standardization and consistent high quality in our products," says Lin.
These machines, he states, have helped his company speed up both its development and production. He notes such sophisticated production equipment can help manufactures raise the quality of their products in an effective way.

"While using automated machines to standardize our products," Lin states, "we also pay much attention to the quality of our products by employing strict inspection and testing instruments. All of our products have to pass a strict inspection regimen before they are shipped."

Continuing, he says that, "We have also invested a lot of money in developing sophisticated molds over the past two decades. Thanks to the existence of a very strong local mold-production industry, we can rapidly complete the fabrication of sophisticated molds to meet even the most urgent orders placed by our overseas customers. This is one of a number of reasons why we have chosen to keep our production rooted in Taiwan."

Tair Wei's faith in Taiwan has never been shaken. "The many companies that have relocated production facilities to mainland China or other developing economies in the region are exploiting the cheaper labor in an effort to keep costs down simply because most concentrate on mass-production and thus have no pricing power, rather than focusing on the elevation of product quality," Lin comments. "The exodus has been going on about ten years now, but many foreign customers that for a time procured elsewhere, especially in China, have found the product inferior and are now coming back to Taiwan for assured quality."

Taiwan's government bodies and her industrial associations have worked in concert over the past three decades to create a deep pool of design talent that has proven crucial to enabling Taiwan's manufacturers to develop a constant stream of innovative products that keep the eyes of overseas buyers fixed on the island. "Only with the backing of these experienced, creative, and technologically aware R&D specialists can we manufacturers transform initial ideas into practical products," Lin states. "As the international furniture world steadily becomes more competitive, we furniture makers in Taiwan have no option but to come up with as many products that are supremely practical yet supremely stylish as we can. Focusing on price alone as a competitive strategy means death."

The company develops a spate of new models every year, and has of late picked up the pace of development for a series of new products to be rolled out over the next few years. These will include a novel TV/VCR stand with built-in CD rack and ergonomic computer desks and tables.

"We are currently carrying out a mass overseas mailing of our detailed new-product catalog," says Lin, "and are already receiving inquiries from new contacts the world over. The very positive response has led us to revise our sales expectations upwards for next year."

Many of these new items are made in accordance with environment-friendly principles, he states. "European consumers, especially, seek out so-called 'green' products to help in the protection of their living environment," Lin comments. "To match this strengthening trend we employ, among other things, an environment-friendly foam in our products which domestic suppliers are well able to provide."

In addition to all the competitive advantages enumerated above, Lin boasts that Tair Wei delivers products faster than its rivals. "Our raison d'etre is to satisfy all the demands presented by our customers," he says, "so as in every other area of our business we have expended significant resources to ensure speedy delivery to our customers, thereby enabling us to move our product into their market as quickly as possible--and faster than competing products."



Another Face in the High-End Crowd


Another domestic manufacturer which has done well in high-end furniture is Cheng Chieh Metallic Co., Ltd. Established in 1991 and with its home in Changhua County, central Taiwan, Cheng Chieh has recently unveiled a variety of new iron-pipe-frame models for a number of home-furnishing lines--dining sets, bedroom furniture, flower stands, coat hangers, indoor ornaments, and kitchen utensils.

Thanks to its dedication to offering high-quality dining sets at reasonable prices, the company says, it has obtained a solid reputation in the international marketplace by word-of-mouth. At present, computer desks account for 40% of the company's total production value, dining sets take up 20%, and the remainder is made up of small-sized items.

To keep production costs down, in 1998 the company moved most of its production lines from Taiwan to Huizhou in mainland China's Guangdong Province, where it has a 2,000-square-meter factory. The company still, however, produces high-margin and specialty products in Taiwan.

"We concentrate on large-size furniture items in the mainland, and medium/small-sized items in Taiwan," says Yu Yen, president of the company. "Skyrocketing labor costs has rapidly altered Taiwan's operating environment over the past several years, pushing us to find an appropriate site in the mainland to handle mass-production items. We use our original production facility here on the island for the small-batch manufacture of high-end products."

Cheng Chieh designs its own models and can supplies on an OEM/ODM (original equipment/design manufacturer) basis. "In recent years we have found that cooperative production with foreign buyers helps us develop lines that most precisely match demand trends in the global market for contemporary furniture, and have significantly upped our proportion of production undertaken on OEM and ODM bases," says Wu Lu-yun, export manager of the company.

Recently the company inaugurated a new plant near the existing facility in the mainland to accommodate production of wooden furniture made of medium-density fiberboard. The new plant is expected to begin mass production at the beginning of next year.

"Currently wood is in greatest demand with furniture items, especially computer desks, which account for 40% of our output," says Yu. "The new plant will help us quickly ratchet up production of wood models to complement our wide and constantly growing selection of iron-pipe models. The new plant will also make wood panels to accommodate the production of wooden computer desks at the original China plant."

"The new plant will focus on high-end enameled wooden furniture," Yu adds. "Production of enameled wooden furniture can be conducted on a one-process basis. We have imported sophisticated enameling equipment from a leading brand that is the first of its kind installed by a furniture maker in all of Asia."

Yu states that enameled wooden furniture features the same colors and visual appeal as coated metal furniture while offering superior moisture resistance, and that enameled wood panels can also be used in flooring, decorations, and kitchen utensils.



Powering Well Along Path to Success


With a factory in Tianjin, mainland China, Well Power International Corp. is a well-managed firm led by experienced Taiwanese expatriates dedicated in their pursuit of perfection in the fabrication of both indoor and outdoor metal furniture. The company has been competing in the sector for 10 years.

Markets penetrated to date include the U.S., Britain, and various nations in continental Europe, accessed through importers, trading companies, wholesalers, and designated sales agents. The company's products can be easily found in major specialty furniture shops, department stores, and discount stores in these areas.

The company's products, says management, are very price-competitive. Its team includes rigorously trained mainland Chinese quality-control managers, supervisors, and workers, who over the past decade have inculcated advanced techniques transferred from the parent operation in Taiwan.

The Tianjin facility is just a 30-minute drive from the nearest international airport and just 15 kilometers away from the major port of Xingang. The company now employs 200 permanent full-time workers at the plant.

Well Power has already developed more than 24 unique furniture-item series, including kitchen and dining sets, bedroom sets, indoor/outdoor furniture, and occasional furniture. Management boasts that most of the furniture items it produces are designed in-house, but it welcomes and has deep experience handling orders on an OEM/ODM basis. Management says the firm is a frequent exhibitor at important international exhibitions, including events held in mainland China, Thailand, the U.S., and Japan.