Literature Review On Chinese Furniture Industry

As previously stated the buyers in the furniture manufacturing industry are furniture retailers. Therefore they will require furniture to continue business. There are no substitutes that provide the same use as furniture. In relation to the furniture industry as a whole, there are still very little substitutes to furniture aside from a higher use of closet space or unorthodox measures by consumers. An example of this would be one's choice to live without furniture, which in most cases is very unlikely. Furniture has become a household necessity and consumers have little or no desire to change their lifestyles by eliminating that need. Therefore the threat of substitutes to the furniture manufacturing industry is very low to the point where it is almost non-existent.

• The enormous surplus of labor in China imperils workers worldwide as international competition puts incessant downward pressure on wages and working conditions, leading the apparel and textile industries to favor the cheapest and most Draconian producers.

The household wood furniture industry is healthy and growing. Total industry sales in 2007 were estimated to be $31 billion at manufactures prices. Three categories of furniture divide the industry. First upholstered furniture which makes up 50% of sales, Secondly wood furniture at 40% of the industry market share which has grown 2.5% in 2007 and is projected another 4% in 2008, this second category includes dining room and bedroom furniture. Third and last is the other category at 10% this includes ready to assemble and casual furniture. Haverwood has established themselves as a medium to high priced furniture company through 1,000 carefully selected high

One of the hallmarks of china’s socialist economy made a statement promise of employment to all and job-security with virtually lifelong tenure.They were overstaffed to fulfilling socialist goals and job-security lower the workers ‘motivation to work.This socialist policy was called the iron rice bowl.China’s employed labor force is rarely over 800

Today’s world is facing strong influence of globalization in each and every aspect of our lives. It is expressed through: free trade agreements, foreign direct investments, international trade, facilitated movement of labour, capital and resources, as well as a strong competition that eventually gives more power to customers. In addition, it resulted in the economic boom of the developing countries, with substantial dominance of China that mainly benefit from their massive labour force, its low cost and high comparative efficiency. This phenomenon has impacted all industries around the world. In particular, furniture production is going through a trend of moving to China that “in 2002

Trading is very important economic factor. Trade between different countries depends upon different factors. There are some factors due to which bilateral trade between two states is enhanced. On contrary, there are some factors which restrict or reduce the trade between two countries (Meyer, 2011). Factors which enhance trade include different cultural, political, geographic and economic aspects which are common between the 2 countries involved in bilateral trade with each other. While trade is reduced or restricted, if two countries are completely different culturally, politically, geographically and economically (Siegel, 2011). For example, trade between two countries, having common boarder, currency, per capita income et cetera, will be lot more high than those countries which do not share these factors common with each

In the few recent years, China has replaced United State to become the world largest economy. This Economic situation has opened an enormous number of opportunities for most industries to expand their operation from domestic market to international market. Shanghai, which is the China’s largest commercial and industrial city, focuses on 6 major industries which are information technology, automobile, large-scale electromechanical equipment, petrochemicals, heavy manufacturing and biopharmaceutical products (http://en.people.cn/200207/20/eng20020720_100055.shtml). With the virtually unlimited well-educated labour resources and the unique international location, Shanghai is

According to the case we know that labor costs in china may have a big increase in the next 10 years, from 40% totally to 10% annual increase to even 40% annual increase.

China is one of our biggest labor competitors. The reason many US companies go to China for outsourcing is again, because of their workforce’s willingness to operate at low costs. Michael Zimmerman describes this as a disparity in worker “tolerance”. Where the low wages found in China are “far lower than U.S.

Labor is one of the largest and in certain sectors the most expensive component in the production of goods. Outsourcing acknowledges the labor cost to produce a particular product is cheaper if the manufacturer were to produce the same product in-house where the cost per unit is significantly higher. Stable labor costs are important for long-term revenue projections to be relied upon by managers because they are a precursor of where a company is trending financially. It is this efficiency-in-scale that confirms the benefit of the division of labor memorialized by Adam Smith. As a result of the wage disparity between the costs of American workers versus Chinese workers, hundreds of U.S. based firms relocated all or part of their operations to China, taking advantage of the inexpensive labor market and the many cost-saving incentives offered by the Chinese government.

The main advantage of doing business in China is the fact that China has emerged as one of the world’s strongest economic forces, driven by the shear number of

the China market IKEA China has been allowed to exceed and expand its sourcing of

Growth in exports and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was extremely important to China’s economic success. During Mao’s last years in power, China was inaccessible to the outside world and this was costing the country growth-wise. Other countries such as Japan and Hong Kong were experiencing rapid growth from exports as shown in Exhibit 6, and China wanted to follow in their footsteps. The country has hard-working and educated people who could help make this a reality and Deng knew this was the next step in helping the country to be among the most advanced and most improved4. The United States has always been a wise contender and is always looking for ways to better its

IKEA established itself as the largest furniture retailer in Sweden by the early 1970s by reinventing the wheel of furniture manufacturing at that time. Majority of furniture manufacturers in Sweden produced expensive products with designs that were basic or passed down generation to generation, additionally other manufacturers stores where located in downtown congested areas. IKEA’s strategies which consisted of low cost low priced furniture, brave intricate designs, self-assembly,

Since Somerset has the machinery to make the custom furniture, part of the agreement should include requiring their Chinese manufacturers to use them. They also need to find other manufacturers so that they can mitigate the risk if their primary manufacturer experiences a problem meeting the deadline or there is a problem with the shipping deadlines.