You’ve seen countless sofas, chairs, and other pieces from Temple Furniture and Parker Southern. The finished product looks so cohesive that it’s hard to believe that there was a whole team of individuals working together on completely separate parts of it. Temple Furniture now has around 110 employees and Parker Southern has about 20, each of them playing a vital role in the entire production process. And that’s not even including the 25 sales reps who help generate the orders for each company. In this article, we offer a glimpse inside the production process to give you an idea of just how much labor actually goes into each and every style we make. As the familiar saying goes, “team work makes the dream work!”
WHERE IT ALL STARTS
Inside the Office
“Order in the house!” is a phrase commonly echoing the halls of Temple’s main office building. Once an order is received (usually via fax or e-mail), it is then keyed into our system and scheduled. Each scheduling ticket has little stickers that are distributed to the factory workers which provide the details pertaining to their individual jobs. As you can probably guess, it is very important for the orders to be keyed correctly so that each part is produced according to what the customer ordered.
WHERE IT ALL STARTS
Inside the Office
“Order in the house!” is a phrase commonly echoing the halls of Temple’s main office building. Once an order is received (usually via fax or e-mail), it is then keyed into our system and scheduled. Each scheduling ticket has little stickers that are distributed to the factory workers which provide the details pertaining to their individual jobs. As you can probably guess, it is very important for the orders to be keyed correctly so that each part is produced according to what the customer ordered.
FRAME WORK
Inside the Router Room
Perhaps one of the coolest parts of production is preparing the frame. This all takes place in the router room, which is a big factory with a machine what will essentially “print out” the parts of a frame needed for a sofa (or whatever style is being made). Those parts are then assembled by skilled craftsmen to produce the finished frame.
FRAME WORK
Inside the Router Room
Perhaps one of the coolest parts of production is preparing the frame. This all takes place in the router room, which is a big factory with a machine what will essentially “print out” the parts of a frame needed for a sofa (or whatever style is being made). Those parts are then assembled by skilled craftsmen to produce the finished frame.
CUTTING AND SEWING
Inside the Plant
Another essential step in furniture production is cutting the fabric. Each piece needs to be cut accurately in order not to waste material and for the sewers to have the correct pieces they need. The fabric is cut with the aid of a cutting machine. Then, sewers are given their cutting bundles so that they can stitch together each piece to form casings for cushions and pillows. Once casings are cut and sewn properly, they are then stuffed with cushions. With each step, it is very important for workers to read their tickets. Sometimes, customers request patterned fabrics to be applied a certain way or cushions to be upgraded, so employees must make sure they are paying attention to the details.
CUTTING AND SEWING
Inside the Plant
Another essential step in furniture production is cutting the fabric. Each piece needs to be cut accurately in order not to waste material and for the sewers to have the correct pieces they need. The fabric is cut with the aid of a cutting machine. Then, sewers are given their cutting bundles so that they can stitch together each piece to form casings for cushions and pillows. Once casings are cut and sewn properly, they are then stuffed with cushions. With each step, it is very important for workers to read their tickets. Sometimes, customers request patterned fabrics to be applied a certain way or cushions to be upgraded, so employees must make sure they are paying attention to the details.
MAKING IT STURDY
Inside the Sofa Seat
One of the most important parts of furniture manufacturing is making it strong and sturdy enough to hold a signifi cant amount of weight. Temple Furniture and Parker Southern have mastered the art of “eight-way hand tying”, a technique that invoves tying the springs together in a way that provides superior support.
MAKING IT SOFT
Inside the Sofa Frame
There is a lot of work that goes into “adding the meat to the bones” if you will. The frame represents the “bones” of the sofa, the foam represents the muscle or “meat”, and the upholstery is like the outer “skin” that covers it all. Staging is the process of adding foam to the out arm and back of the frame, and upholstering is covering that foam with precut fabric. This makes the sofa look and feel very nice.
MAKING IT SOFT
Inside the Sofa Frame
There is a lot of work that goes into “adding the meat to the bones” if you will. The frame represents the “bones” of the sofa, the foam represents the muscle or “meat”, and the upholstery is like the outer “skin” that covers it all. Staging is the process of adding foam to the out arm and back of the frame, and upholstering is covering that foam with precut fabric. This makes the sofa look and feel very nice.
THE FINISHING TOUCHES
Adding the Details
Once the sofa is mostly upholstered, cushions are put in place to check for proper fit. The feet of the sofa ar e also applied at this time. This is also the stage where decorative nails would be applied if requested. Depending on how production is going, some of these steps may be done in a slightly different order to prevent a bottleneck effect in the plant.
WRAPPING IT UP
The Final Steps
After the finishing touches are added, the sofa must pass final inspection. At this stage, the sofa is elevated and thoro ughly examined to make sure it meets desired quality standards. Once approved, the piece then moves on to the wrapping stage. Every inch of the sofa is wrapped thoroughly to protect it from damage during the shipping process. This brings us to the final step, which is shipment. Each carefully wrapped piece is stored in a warehouse until it is time for it to be shipped.
~THE TAKEAWAY~
Seeing a finished product is so much more satisfying when you actually know a little bit about how much work went into creating it. From order processing to frame production to cutting, sewing, upholstering and final details, there is a great deal of labor involved in the manufacturing of all of our furniture pieces. From order entry to shipment, most pieces take about 2 weeks to prepare for both Temple and Parker Southern. The end result could certainly not be accomplished without our dedicated employees doing their specialized jobs. We hope this article has given you a better understanding of how our furniture is made and more importantly, an appreciation for the process. To the employees of Temple and Parker Southern: thanks for all you do!