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美国西弗吉尼亚大学留学生供应链论文定制DECLINE IN THE U.S. FURNITURE INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY OF THE IMPACTS TO THE HARDWOOD LUMBER SUPPLY CHAIN
Shawn T. Grushecky
Assistant Director
Appalachian Hardwood Center
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV 26506-6125
Urs Buehlmann†
General Manager
Enkeboll Designs
16506 Avalon Blvd.
Carson, CA 90749-1096
Al Schuler
Research Economist
and
William Luppold
Research Economist
USDA Forest Service
Forestry Sciences Laboratory
Princeton, WV 24740
and
Ed Cesa
Deputy Director
USDA Forest Service
Wood Education and Resource Center
Princeton, WV 24740
(Received April 2005)
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the wood household furniture industry has accounted for a sizeable portion of totalhardwood lumber use in the United States. However, for more than a decade, imports have gained an
increasing share of the hardwood furniture market, and lumber consumption by this industry has declineddramatically in the last 5 years. We used a case study methodology to investigate the impacts of thisdecline on the hardwood lumber supply chain. Eleven companies within the hardwood lumber supplychain were chosen as cases: 3 furniture manufacturers, 5 primary producers, and 3 components manufacturers.Seven core questions were asked during each interview and primary producers were asked twoadditional questions. Questions ranged from the impact of lean manufacturing techniques to the effects“green” certification may have on the industry. Furniture manufacturers appeared to be more optimisticregarding the future of the domestic furniture industry compared to the primary and components manufacturers.Furniture market declines have been quickly replaced by the cabinet and solid wood flooring
sectors; however, the supply chain must continue to strategically develop new markets in the event of ahousing sector slow down.

Keywords: Furniture industry, hardwood markets.

INTRODUCTION
The United States furniture-manufacturingsector has suffered from increasing imports
over the last decade (Fig. 1). Domestic marketshares have been impacted by increased globalization,
lowered transportation costs, a robustU.S. economy, and lower labor and environmentalcosts in other parts of the world(Buehlmann and Schuler 2002; Bumgardner etal. 2004). This situation has left domestic manufacturerslittle choice but to enter the importbusiness themselves, through outsourcing productionBy 2004, at least 54% of the wood
household furniture consumed in the UnitedStates was imported (Anonymous 2005a). As aresult, U.S. furniture manufacturers have closeddomestic plants and shifted the focus of theiractivities to import components or completelines of furniture (Buehlmann and Schuler2002).While the impact of imports on the U.S. residentialwood furniture market has been especiallypronounced, wood office furniture, upholsteredfurniture, and kitchen cabinet importshave also increased (Buehlmann et al. 2004).
Likewise, domestic furniture manufacturers’ investmentin technology to increase productivityand lower costs as well as efforts to improve
innovations proved to be insufficient. The viabilityof the domestic wood furniture industry is
important to many entities including employees,suppliers, forest owners, and state and local officials,to name a few (Bumgardner et al. 2004;
Buehlmann 2005).Recently, increased attention has been focused
on improving domestic competitiveness inthe本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。