Michigan-based furniture manufacturer Haworth was, during the boom in the late 1990s, the second biggest furniture manufacturer in the world, before an economic setback during the dotcom bubble caused them to slip in the marketplace.
However, it was finally an overhaul of the company's supply chain that led to massive gains being made in closing the gap between revenue and costs.
Through a series of reassessments to the company's warehouse and delivery operations, Haworth has managed to turn around a great threat to the business.
"You take a standard workstation like this," said Michael Moon, vice president for global information services, in a demonstration of just how tight the operation now is.
"You've got the walls, the desk, the overhead files and so forth. All these may come from different manufacturing sites, all coming together at a distribution centre and then to the customer site in a sequence that allows them to install it.
"And maybe the customer wants to install his furniture over the weekend. You can't have missing parts off the truck, or he may not be able to move in on Monday."
To increase productivity it may be worth outsourcing supply chain management to a third party.
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