HOMAG INTELLIGENCE: When data becomes a bottleneck

Why the furniture industry needs to rethink end-to-end processes

Modern furniture production is highly digitalized. Design, work preparation, production and logistics are often supported by software applications. However, there is a particular problem that companies often encounter during their day-to-day business: Data is stored in a variety of systems, is logged multiple times or has to be transferred between different applications.

When working with customized furniture configurations, small batch sizes and short delivery times in particular, media discontinuities like this can cost valuable time. Sales and planning information is not always available where it is needed in production. In addition, the effort to keep data consistent and to track changes throughout the order process increases.

The challenge is by no means a new one. What is new, however, is a pressure to which many businesses are currently exposed. The shortage of skilled labor, rising costs and growing customer expectations are forcing companies to consistently simplify workflows and make information flows more efficient.

From order to machine

Furniture manufacturers have invested extensively in automating their production workflows in recent years. Machines and systems are now more precise and networked than ever before. However, the actual bottleneck is often no longer on the shop floor itself, but rather in the upstream processes.

Sales, configuration, design, work preparation and manufacturing generate a wealth of data that needs to be referenced repeatedly during process of a customer order. The more systems involved, the greater the coordination required.

This is exactly where HOMAG INTELLIGENCE comes in. Instead of introducing yet another standalone solution, HOMAG's approach is to use a cloud-based platform that makes information available throughout the process chain. The aim is to populate data only once and then continue to use it throughout the workflow.

A consistent flow of data is now a must in almost all businesses, regardless of their size — carpentry businesses, medium-sized furniture manufacturers, industrial production operations. The differences are generally limited to the complexity of the processes.

The next step in the digitalization journey

For a long time, digitalization projects focused on the machines themselves, but today the emphasis is increasingly on ensuring information is networked.

The crucial factor is to make sure the required data is available in the right place and at the right time.

This is why the digital connection between sales, planning and production is becoming increasingly important. If you can use information centrally and disseminate it through the business smoothly, you create the foundation for faster processes, greater transparency and more flexibility.

The future of furniture production is therefore determined not only by machine performance, but increasingly also by the quality of the underlying data streams.