Furniture manufacturers form a clearly defined community within Estonia’s production landscape. They play an important role in employment and demonstrate strong export capabilities – yet they all face their own unique challenges. Interestingly, many of these challenges are quite similar across companies.
Before diving into the challenges of the furniture industry, let’s take a look at some data.
According to more recent industry data, the Estonian furniture manufacturing sector has continued to grow since the late 2010s. Today, the industry comprises close to 1,000 companies engaged in soft, wooden, and metal furniture production. The sector remains a significant employer, supporting thousands of jobs directly as well as a wide network of partners, including suppliers and logistics providers. Furniture manufacturing continues to be strongly export-oriented, with foreign markets accounting for a substantial share of total turnover. While the industry consists largely of small and medium-sized enterprises, a notable proportion of companies generate annual revenues exceeding €1 million, and a smaller number employ more than 100 people. Over recent years, revenue growth has been moderate and closely linked to broader economic conditions, while labour costs have continued to rise, increasing pressure on operational efficiency.
This makes the furniture industry an important sector in Estonia’s economy, contributing significantly to regional employment and exports. However, rising costs are forcing companies to continuously seek efficiency improvements.
What Challenges Do Furniture Manufacturers in Estonia Face Today?
OIXIO Digital AS has carried out multiple digital diagnostics and business requirement analyses across Estonian furniture companies of various sizes, turnovers, and specializations.
The main challenges identified include:
- Complex manual configuration of product variations (accurate BOM setup, price calculation, stock availability of finished products, modular linking, and delivery time estimation).
- Difficulty calculating accurate product costs due to numerous variations.
- Complicated price list management (mainly due to product variations).
- Product information management, including production drawings, is not fully digital or easily accessible, nor properly linked to product changes.
- Inaccurate stock reservation according to BOM.
- Complex fabric management in production recipes (by roll and meter).
- Difficulties in tracking production batches.
- Challenges in consolidating production orders based on shared attributes (e.g., fabric).
- Manual linking of complaints to specific invoices and products, as well as manual root cause recording.
- Complicated differentiation of stock items by color, size, and dimensions.
It’s very likely that every furniture manufacturer reading this list recognizes at least some issues affecting their own business. Some pain points can be alleviated through process adjustments, but the best results usually come from combining process improvements with digitalization. While process improvements can sometimes be managed internally, the common denominator – a software solution truly designed for furniture manufacturing – is harder to solve without industry-specific technology.
For example, if you are producing a sofa model X with one frame, but with 20 different leg types and 20 fabric options, the number of variations grows significantly. This creates challenges in ordering materials, which in turn makes delivery time predictions more difficult – and the daily cycle of problem-solving begins.
The Right Software Solution for Furniture Manufacturing
This is where a furniture industry–specific software solution makes the difference, making it much easier to manage product variations.
One such solution is TRIMIT, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
TRIMIT is developed by a Danish software company specializing in product configuration and industry-specific solutions for furniture and fashion manufacturing. With years of experience, they have created software that directly addresses the unique needs of the furniture sector. The solution helps manage and grow the business – from product configuration with versatile material and dimension variations, to production and sales.
Want to know how TRIMIT solves challenges in product configuration, production, inventory, logistics, and more?
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OIXIO Group