Investigating the relationship between furniture and accessories manufacturers in new product development processes in Turkish furniture industry

With the help of technologic advances, intercontinental communication oppurtunities have increased greatly and this situation has changed the lifestyles of humankind and the perception of commerce. Trade is no more restricted by the borders of the nations and every passing day it becomes more global. High-tech products and manufacturing possibilities have emerged by this technological progression and the emerged countries has directed their investments to these kind of products. Emergind countries such as Turkey, tend towards to low-tech products in order to gain a strong position to themselves in the global competitive environment. Furniture industry has a strong position with the help of its labour intensive structure for the emerging countries. Furniture industry secure's its position day by day as the furniture products are essential for human life, not necessitating a critical know-how and having relatively low investment costs compared to high-tech industries. Companies gain competitive advantage with their quality, design and cost management abilities in the low-tech industries. Therefore, the companies in such industries operate their actions by focusing on quality and low-cost, they try to be differentiated from their rivals and gain a secure positio in the market with their design competencies. At this juncture, furniture hardwares which are composed of decorative handles, hinges, fasteners, lighting accessories and such, contricute to design characteristics of furniture products highly and become more and more important. Despite the fact that traditionally, furniture products used be produced in small ateliers under favour of craftspeople's savoir faire, today these products have turned into a complex structur that are consisting of multi components. Furniture manufacturers deal with so many component suppliers in order to supply the requisite materials, components and raw material until they deliver the products which they design and produce to the market. It can be observed that the general attitude in the industry is designing the furniture and furniture parts distincly by different agents. These products which are designed by diversified designers and diversified design perceptions, ultimately merge into one on a furniture product in order the constitute the final product. Both parties who are willing to utilize the design as a competitive advantage, occasionally condemned to fail because of the inharmoniousness among their design language. In this respect, it is important for the furniture and furniture hardware manufacturers to play an active role in the new product development and design phases together. In the literature, it draws the attention that manufacturers and suppliers play and active role in new product development and design phases together in the industries which are emerged and rooted such as automotive, electronics and textile. There are intensive academic studies regarding to this subject in such industries both domestic and foreign. These academic studies, practised successfully in the field of application and open a road for the companies with positive impact. These positive impacts might be presented as increase in the profit, decrease in the delivery time, better product-component adaptation, beside with the help of customer satisfaction it contributes to create a gratifying brand perception for the customers. However, this subject is quite neglected in the furniture industry. This study investigates the relationship between furniture and accessories manfacturers in the Turkish home furniture industry in new product development processes. The past and current situation of the industry has been presented throughout the research process, and the importance of the industry for both global and Turkish economy is emphasized. The research has been conducted by literature review and field study. Furniture and furniture accessories manufacturers have been interviewed during the field reseach in order to gain understanding of both parties perspective. The literature is reviewed under four titles: Furniture and furniture industry in general, Turkish furniture industry, furniture hardware and industry and manufacturer – supplier relations. The first part of the study is related to the fundamentals of the research, the aim, importance, scope, method and the structure of the study are discussed in this chapter. The first part is the introduction chapter which gives the reader an insight about the study basically. The second part is the literature review about the furniture and furniture industry generally. This chapter starts with the definitions and classifications of the furniture and furniture products. After defining it, the furniture industry is taken into account. Past, present and future projections of the furniture industry is presented in this chapter. Furniture industry is evaluated in the global borders of the international economy. Foreign trade transactions, import and export values of the furniture industry in global scope is presented in this chapter. The volume and the importance of the furniture industry is emphasized. The third part is related to the Turkish furniture industry. In this chapter the general situation of the Turkish furniture industry is presented and the importance of the industry for Turkish economy is emphasized. Number of company and employees are given and the import and export figures have been presented for the last ten years in order to present the evaluation of the industry in Turkey and also the importance of furniture sector for Turkish economy. As the study investigates the relationships between furniture and furniture accessories producers, the fourth part is related to the furniture accessories and its industry. In this chapter the definition and classification of the furniture accessories is presented. The manufacturing techniques and used materials are emphasized in order to give reader an insight about the industry. In the fifth part manufacturer-supplier relations are taken into account in the manufacturing sector. The references are mainly related to the automotive industry as this subject is fundementally researched and analyzed for this sector. The new product development processes are mentioned and the techniques, method, advantages and disadvantages of the supplier integration in the product development processes are tried to be presented. Finally a case study related to furniture industry is represented. The field research is gone through interviews with the design managers of large-scale furniture manufacturers and furniture accessories manufactureres. The method of the research is semi-structured interview method. With the help of predetermined questions, the interviews are done face to face, and when necessary the interview is deepen with additional questions. The findings show that, there is a relationship between furniture manufacturers and accessories manufacturers regarding to design to a certain extent. But this relationship is weak and it is done mostly unintentionally by both parties. This relationship is needed to be supported by some agencies, institutions or state institutions. The companies in the both side tend to develop strong partnerships with their suppliers and customers. However the difficulties of the process and the lack of experience in the field restrain the companies motivation for further breakthrough. Therefore, activities such as university-industry collaborations and governmental incentives would motive the industry actors to come up with a new approach to their new product development processes and their perception of partnership in the relations.