Usa Furniture Manufacturing Industry

This paper aims to demonstrate a detailed description of the elements of ‘IKEA’ company based on its famous name in the furniture industry.

Despite being well-established, over the last three years, sales at Atherley Furniture Company have remained the same while profits have declined by almost 24%. Their chair division produces three different types of chairs, the Atherley, the Caledonia and the Parkdale. Each model has its own production plan and production costs. The increasing production costs, alongside the intense competition the company faces, have become a great cause of concern for John Atherley.

Furniture is considered in economic terms as an ‘elastic commodity’ and is very sensitive to economic changes. It is an export oriented industry with 53% of production being shipped outside Canada and 95% of exports going to the US. Canada is the 5th largest exporter of furniture in the world operating at various

Ever since the 2008 recession US automobile companies have been on a steady downhill slide, but actually you can trace this downward trend even further back than 2008. US car companies have been feeling the heat since as early as the late 1980s when Japanese car companies laid claim to American manufacturing plants . Despite a shot in the arm in sales over the past five years, American firms are still on the decline. This case analysis aims to diagnosis the problem, provide analysis of the problem, and propose a viable solution to the problem from the perspective of the US automobile market share leader, General Motors.

Exploring which countries might be a good match for an US based firm who is looking to enter a foreign market, can be a very complex process. Financial resources, competitive products or services, sales and distribution channels as well employee skill levels and talent are all factors which should weigh heavily into choosing the right country for any particular businesses expansion. For purposes of this paper, I will focus on Canada as a target for potential international expansion, examining several pertinent factors which I believe to be critical to a successful expansion project.

In the 1990s the auto industry made up 2.5 % of the GNP and employed about 850,000 people. At the time that was about 4.5-5 % of all manufacturing workers (wong, 1990). Then during the early 2000s labor productivity was increasing greatly, but the American auto-makers failed to produce energy-efficient cars for the energy crisis. When the recent recession hit the U.S. automakers had a major setback causing a cut in employment, production, and huge loss in revenue. After the government bailout the industry improved, by 2012 sales, exports, and employment rose to a new high. It’s now 2014 and we are still getting out of the recession but due to government decisions, deals made between companies, and increase in jobs, sales have increased dramatically.

Furniture is considered in economic terms as an ‘elastic commodity’ and is very sensitive to economic changes. It is an export oriented industry with 53% of production being shipped outside Canada and 95% of exports going to the US. Canada is the 5th largest exporter of furniture in the world operating at various levels like manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

The Second alternative would be geographical expansion, in order to seek new opportunities to create strong presence in the market and gain sustainability.

regulation, cost and availability of raw materials, and cost of labor. A business may have the best idea for

As discussed in Chapter 21 of our text book, any company that is looking to expand globally must make five key decisions. A firm must decide if: a) they really want to expand to the international market; b) they

After the crash of 2008 the automotive industry in the United States of America has had to essentially rebuild. General Motors removed several cars from its line up to include the entire Pontiac line because the government wouldn’t bail them out otherwise. Toyota took over the top spot from GM for many years (2013) with its sales and its quality, but even they found hard times with a slew of recalls and bad press in late 2009 early 2010. With the “smaller” auto companies taking a much larger chunk of the market the Big 3 had to step up and change the game. This weakness let companies like Scion and Hyundai grab a bigger pie of the pie.

The financial crisis starting in 2008 and the following recession hit hard the US auto sector. Traditional car makers had to realise that substantial changes were needed in order to maintain their strong position in the

Ghosn closed plants, laid off workers, broke up long-standing supply networks, and sold off marginal assets to focus on the company’s core business. Nissan was now breaking the cultural norms of keiretsu investments. Cutting down costs was just the first step in Nissan’s recovery. Actually changes were introduced in every corner of the company, from manufacturing and engineering to marketing and sales: update of Nissan’s car and truck lineup; introducing new, dynamic designs; quality improvement. These strategies quickly polished Nissan’s image in the marketplace, and re-established the company in the minds of consumers as a leader in innovation and engineering.

Our target market present great opportunities for company growth, as our niche is not all saturated at this saturated at this point. We will dominate the high-end office furniture market by stressing the quality in workmanship and materials of our product lines, keeping up with and integrating technological advances in the personal computing environment, and by increasing our market research and customer service in order to constantly satisfy our market

The world offers significant business opportunities for every company, however, opportunities are accompanied by significant challenges for managers. Managing global operations across diverse cultures and markets represents a big challenge and opportunity for companies. To compete in the global market and be successful, companies must learn the strategies, policies, norms and technology necessary to conduct international business. The opportunities for global expansion are numerous, and attaining success is a matter of developing the right strategy to win local markets and its consumers.