On June 29-30, 2023, the large furniture and door business conference FURNICON Rivne took place. During two days, the participants had the opportunity to receive Lean tools for optimization, service, and improvement of their business operations in order to make companies more competitive in domestic and foreign markets.

 

The program of the event included visits to factories in the Rivne region. Excursions to the companies Hjort Knudsen, Epsilon, and Art-light accompanied by a Lean consultant gave the participants the opportunity to see the work of these companies in practice and get acquainted with their successful cases.

On the second day of the conference, panel discussions were held with leading experts and entrepreneurs in the furniture and door industries. Also, the Deputy Chairman of the State Administration of Ukraine, Serhiy Gemberg, joined the discussion and spoke about state business support programs and the activities of the Rivne furniture cluster.

During the discussion, the participants provided answers to the following questions:

• Are furniture and door companies ready to ensure the growth of production and supply of goods in the demanding construction sector?
• How does the implementation of lean production increase production volumes and reduce costs?
• How should producers prepare for participation in tenders?
• How does the furniture and door business compete with the export of goods in the context of international trade and competition?
• How can investments be attracted and foreign markets expanded?
• Do furniture and door companies have enough skilled workers in the current mobilization?

In addition to the direct participants in the discussion, all those present had the opportunity to join the discussion and answer questions in the online survey forum.

As a result of joint work, we received a list of priority steps to increase competitiveness (in order of importance from top to bottom):

1. Development of the company’s development strategy to increase its competitiveness
2. Get professional knowledge of marketing, finance, lead generation, etc
3. Implement lean production
4. Export (participation in exhibitions and trade missions)
5. Involvement in the organization of professional training of personnel for our business
6. Uniting with other businesses within the UAFM, creating consortia, joining a cluster
7. Lobbying and advocacy for dialogue with the authorities within the UAFM

FURNICON Rivne gathered about 75 representatives of Ukrainian SMEs from the furniture, door, and woodworking industries.

We hope that this meeting provided the participants with the necessary knowledge, acquaintances, and business insights that will help to increase the competitiveness of furniture and door products both in the domestic and foreign markets.

The next step towards achieving this goal will be the Refurnication conference and the Lean tour in Transcarpathia.

We do not stop on the way to your improvements and invite everyone who wants to develop their own business and the industry as a whole to join!

We are sincerely grateful to the partners of the event who support the development of the furniture and door industry of Ukraine: Rivne Furniture Cluster, Rivne Oblast Military Administration, KRONOSPAN RIVNE and Kleiberit Ukraine.