Design Research On Improving Value Added For Plastic Furniture Products

Nowadays, the domestic furniture industry in China is in a key transition process that shiftsfrom manufacture dominated to creation dominated furniture industry. Wood and metal, asrelative traditional furniture materials, are sharing rapid development in furniture industry,while the application of plastic in furniture is rather falling behind. The main reason is thatplastic furniture is in a marginalization position in furniture industry. The plastic furnitureproducts are so inexpensive that furniture manufacturers rather not involve in the plasticfurniture market. The remaining companies are struggling with the low profits and providinglow quality plastic furniture products via cutting the cost of mold and avoiding design in thedevelopment process. Furthermore, from the perspective of customers, they were impressedby full of dull and rough patterns of plastic furniture and classified them as unqualified.This paper starts from the point of value added, to improve the value added for plasticfurniture products, build virtuous cycle between producers and consumers. Specifically,tackling it from two layers. To start with, the first layer pays much attention to the substantiallevel. Based on the harsh situation, it is necessary to start with the basic aspects for plasticfurniture design, which are form, structure, color, material and technology. This level is thebasement for achieving value added. Secondly, the other layer focuses on the extension part ofplastic furniture, contains brands, culture, experience&service and creation, for the highervalue added.In the conclusion, based on the present plastic furniture conditions, presenting systematicand specific value added strategies for each process of the product cycle. These areoutstanding the material advantage in the design process, choosing the proper technology forthe manufacturing process, optimizing the resource in general process and improvingcustomers· sense toward plastic furniture in the marketing process. At the end of the paper,proposal plastic furniture design concept by following the four strategies. Testing the designconcept with questionnaire and verifying the usability of the conclusion.