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Recently, at the 2021 China National Furniture Association Vice-Chairman Meeting, Tu Qi, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of China National Furniture Association, gave the title "Unbounded·Future Trends of the Furniture Industry", starting from "Globalization", "Industry 4.0" and "Digital Economy" Starting from the four key words of "sustainable development", we will deeply analyze the future development trend of the furniture industry.

In this era full of challenges and opportunities, in the face of the general trend of the global furniture industry, Tu Qi called on furniture entrepreneurs to transcend national boundaries and break the industry's courage to promote systematic changes in the world furniture industry.

CHAPTER 01

Keywords-globalization

Tu Qi said: “The global economy is seeking a high-quality recovery, and a new era is coming. I have read Jack Welch’s autobiography. He said this passage: As the market opens up, the concept of the country is at the geographic level. Gradually, globalization is no longer a goal, but a must."

The first key word she shared was "globalization". In 1600, the British East India Company was established, and later developed into the world's largest trade organization, and it was also the most prominent representative of the early stages of economic globalization.

With the rapid development of transportation and information technology, globalization has developed six mature models. The more complex the value chain, the higher the degree of participation of developed countries, and the furniture industry belongs to the intermediate processing and manufacturing category.

my country's industry started late and the per capita resource level is not high. In recent years, the furniture industry has undergone some changes in the process of globalization. First of all, due to the decline in the domestic demographic dividend, the tightening of natural resources, and the intensified market competition, the traditional comparative advantages of exports are facing challenges, which requires us to transform into the mid-to-high-end value chain;

At the same time, in some important exporting countries, the rise of local industrial protectionism, the failure of World Trade Organization governance, and the obstacles to cross-border trade. This requires the Chinese furniture industry to change from the current single product export model to the export of brands and management. Changes in the direction of factors such as, technology, etc.;

In addition, the new crown epidemic has brought a black swan-like impact, and the problem of weak links in the global industrial chain has become prominent, which has caused the price of raw materials to rise sharply and the logistics operation is not smooth. This requires us to improve our ability to resist risks.

To adapt to these changes, it is imperative to further deepen globalization, so how can the furniture industry achieve globalization? There are two directions here: First, supply diversification.

Not long ago, the United States built a large number of new houses, and there was a shortage of timber in the country. As a traditional timber exporter, the United States began to import large amounts of timber. Due to tight supply, U.S. timber export prices continue to hit new highs. At its worst, the timber price index released by the Federal Reserve Bank soared to 125, the highest level in the past three decades. This has had a great impact on Chinese furniture companies that rely on American wood.

Similar problems exist for other production materials and production factors such as designs and technologies that need to be imported from abroad. This requires companies to look at the world in their supply chain layout, and use the respective advantages of different countries to achieve supply diversification and improve risk resistance.

Second, the direction of globalization is to carry out overseas operations. The globalization of business operations presents three advantages: reducing costs, reducing risks, and expanding markets. These goals can be achieved by exporting production capacity and brands overseas.

There is also a set of data. In 2014, my country's foreign investment has exceeded the scale of foreign investment in the same period and achieved net capital output. This shows that foreign production and market advantages have attracted domestic companies to go out.

In recent years, there have also been many cases of foreign investment in the furniture industry. Among them, some companies have been able to grow against the trend of the epidemic because of their overseas deployment. For example, Mengbaihe has started its global deployment in 2013, and has established an overseas industrial chain through investment projects such as five major factories and overseas warehousing, maintaining a high growth trend.

Gu Jia, Yongyi, Man Wah and other vice-chairman companies of the China Furniture Association have all chosen to invest in Vietnam. Vietnam’s economic development trend has been relatively good in recent years, and its geographical location and international trade agreements are obvious.

At the same time, companies can also focus on the global furniture industry. Poland, Turkey, and Mexico are all places with great potential. These fast-developing countries have advantages in terms of regional markets, production costs, and trade policies.

Globalization will be a major trend in China's manufacturing industry. Whether it is from a cost, risk, or market perspective, formulating a reasonable and effective globalization strategy will help the company's long-term development.

CHAPTER 02

Keywords-Industry 4.0

The concept of Industry 4.0 was first officially launched by Germany at the Hannover Messe in 2013 and quickly attracted worldwide attention. In 2014, China signed the "China-Germany Cooperation Action Program" with Germany, and reached a number of consensus on the joint development of Industry 4.0. Today, China has become a global leader in key industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Studying the development strategies of various countries in the world on Industry 4.0, we can see that digital technology is the core part of the strategy. The World Economic Forum launched a project called "Lighthouse". They collected the world's leading industry 4.0 transformation enterprises and analyzed their successful experiences.

Germany's Siemens has carried out a systematic digital factory upgrade, using smart robots for production, artificial intelligence control processes, algorithms for early warning of equipment failures, and successfully increased production capacity by 40% when the product complexity is doubled, without increasing power and other The cost of resources.

Johnson & Johnson uses digital twin technology, industrial robots and high-tech traceability systems in the consumer goods industry with strict supervision and rapid iteration to increase output, shorten product development time, and reduce sales costs.

In China's furniture industry, some companies have already begun the exploration of Industry 4.0: Shangpin Home Delivery integrates workshop robots with real-time data from customers and automated logistics systems. It only doubles manpower and triples output and productivity. Increased by 40%.

Xilinmen has developed a lean manufacturing system with completely independent intellectual property rights and built an industrial Internet of Things based on 5G. There are also many customized companies that have carried out multi-directional construction.

Tu Qi believes that the transformation of "people" is the foundation. Deloitte has interviewed forty companies that have successfully transformed themselves and pointed out that one of their common points is to put people at the center of the Industry 4.0 era.

It mainly includes three aspects: one is to formulate a transformation strategy, consider the actual needs of front-line work, and realize effective human-machine collaboration; the other is to unify the thoughts and actions of various departments, reach a consensus on transformation, and give full play to the initiative of employees;

The third is to pay close attention to professional and technical talents, and form a stable talent transfusion mechanism through school-enterprise cooperation, support for research and development, and regular training, so as to maintain the company's advantages in transformation for a long time.

The reason why Industry 4.0 can greatly enhance the competitiveness of enterprises is that it has formed a new organizational model to better display the value of people.

A new generation of industry is taking shape, and early deployment can seize the first-mover advantage. It is hoped that the Chinese furniture industry will achieve corner overtaking in this round of reforms and lead the development of the global furniture manufacturing industry.

CHAPTER 03

Keywords-digital economy

The third key word shared by Tu Qi is "digital economy". Since the last century, the information industry has made great progress, which has greatly changed people's production and lifestyles. The emergence of the Internet has further promoted the spillover of digital technology from the information industry, affecting all aspects of society. Now a brand-new social form is beginning to emerge, and the era of digital economy has arrived.

In recent years, the digital economy has played a significant role in promoting consumption through digital industrialization and data value, which are also two aspects closely related to the furniture industry.

First, data creates value-added space. As an important new production factor, the effective development of data can increase the added value of products and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in the market. E-commerce platforms and self-built malls of enterprises conduct trend analysis through data research, guide product development and advertising and marketing strategies, thereby improving the problem of matching supply and demand.

Second, technology enhances the consumer experience. The technology of the digital industry has become increasingly mature and has begun to be integrated into the physical industry, especially virtual reality, visual search, and 3D printing have been widely used.

In the furniture industry, design software such as Kujiale and Sanweijia integrates virtual technology to allow consumers to more intuitively see the effects of products at home and speed up purchase decisions. At the same time, some new technologies have broad prospects, including service robots, AI, automatic distribution, etc., which have already been tried in other industries, and companies can pay attention to them.

In addition, social has subverted brand channels. With the rise of major social media, the mass characteristics of these platforms make them the most promising commercial channels. A McKinsey survey shows that the market created by social e-commerce has seen triple-digit growth within five years. The reliance of brand influence on advertising has declined, and content output has become an important trend.

There are some examples outside the circle that everyone is familiar with. For example, the video blogger Li Ziqi, who has created a lot of hot food production videos on overseas platforms to attract a large number of fans, thus driving the products of the same name to sell more.

Facing the future, the digitalization of people's production and life continues to deepen, and the digital economy will also become a long-term research topic for enterprises. Only by actively embracing digitalization can we seize the opportunities of the next era.

CHAPTER 04

Keywords-sustainable development

The last key word shared by Tu Qi is "sustainable development". As early as the last century, people saw the limitations of blindly pursuing economic growth, especially after the end of the two world wars, which caused the world to deeply reflect on the shortcomings of the modern model. As social and natural problems become more prominent, seeking a sustainable development model has become a common concern of the international community.

After decades of exploration, countries around the world jointly proposed sustainable development initiatives at the UN General Assembly in 2015 and formulated 17 global sustainable development goals. China has always been a pioneer in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, has made important contributions to world peace and prosperity, and has pledged to continue working in this direction.

At the same time, consumers and investors are paying more and more attention to the sustainable benefits of enterprises. In terms of resources, employment, education, urbanization, energy, poverty reduction, etc., the furniture industry will face higher levels under the framework of social constraints, laws and regulations, etc. Request. Companies that damage the environment, affect society, and threaten human development will not be able to survive. Meeting sustainable development goals is a necessary condition for future success.

In my country's furniture industry, there have been pioneers in sustainable development and transformation that have achieved initial benefits. In the "Household Social Responsibility Report" released in 2019, Qumei systematically formulated a sustainable transformation strategy, with clear indicators from corporate governance to partners to social welfare, and continued to improve the sustainable process through external feedback , Significantly improved in terms of brand and international influence.

Tu Qi said that sustainable development is a global strategy facing the future and provides clear guidance for creating the common well-being of mankind. In this challenging era, the problem of survival is more urgent and profound than ever. As an important contributor to the global furniture industry, every entrepreneur present here should transcend national boundaries and break the industry to promote the systematicness of the world furniture industry. Change.