The Furniture Industry and APS: The Key to Simplifying Processes

Over the last two years, the furniture industry has experienced a significant acceleration in demand for its products. Social isolation led consumers to purchase new furniture, whether to align their homes with new remote work trends or to renovate their living spaces.

This scenario led to an increase in production across the sector, with revenue growing by 9.28% in 2021. However, as life returns to pre-pandemic routines, there is room for a shift in manufacturing perspective. Despite the trend toward a slowdown in domestic production as the pandemic wanes, furniture manufacturers are increasingly looking toward the export market, which has been growing year after year. Sector exports rose by 54.2% in 2021, nearing $1 billion for the first time since 2007. Over the last 5 years, this cumulative export growth has reached 547%. Although Brazil is the world's sixth-largest furniture producer, it currently ranks only 27th among global exporters—a position considered well below its true potential.

Over the years, the furniture industry has taken on an important role in the race to innovate its products. Especially when looking at the sector's international competitiveness, it is clear that consumers are no longer looking for standard furniture, but rather for solutions that fit their lifestyle and meet their specific needs.

The drive to meet these needs, innovate, and make products increasingly technological is one of the most discussed topics at events such as Fimma and Movelsul. Our team was present at the largest furniture industry trade show in Latin America and was able to see some of the sector's projections firsthand. In the race for innovation, the result is the creation of increasingly complex furniture. This leads to more difficult programming and production processes, whether due to high setup times generated by a variety of products or the dreaded lack of synchronization between the numerous operations required to transform each product.

The solution to this challenge? Production Planning and Scheduling software like Siemens Opcenter APS works to simplify these operations. Those who rely on Opcenter APS for planning and scheduling in the furniture industry can expect better synchronization between the operations of a single component. Furthermore, it provides alignment between different components with interdependent production that must come together for final assembly and packaging processes. The result is a reduction in work-in-progress inventory and delays, as well as an increase in productivity and agility, both in scheduling and rescheduling production—a common occurrence in the sector with the arrival of rush orders.

We have already shared how Bartira improved its sequencing rules with the APS solution. According to Fernando Canelas, PPCPM Coordinator at Bartira, Preactor made the processes completely seamless and significantly improved the accuracy of the time spent on simulations. Check out this case study!

Want to know more about NEO's work with the furniture industry and the solutions available for your business? Visit our dedicated page.