The Making of a HAY Chair – A Co-operation Between Kvist Industries And Q-System
This is the story of the making of a chair – but not an ordinary chair; a HAY chair.
Today, the brand of HAY is synonymous with durable furniture of excellent design for both the home and the contract market. The company of Hay was established in 2002 and is today a global enterprise with roots in the Danish town of Horsens.
Probably only a few know that Kvist Industries of Denmark make several HAY chairs every week – with a little automation assistance from Q-System.
The Birthplace of Branded Furniture
Kvist Industries dates back to 1967. The factory produced one mainly wooden furniture and classic FDB furniture designed by Børge Mogensen. The cartoons have since been in custody Kvist Industries and launched in Denmark by the Danish food chain Coop.
Kvist Industries has three production companies, two of which are located in Kvist Industries Denmark and the third, Kvist Industries, in Latvia. In Kvist Denmark is about 120 employees who are engaged in development, logistics, sales, customization and countertop production; Kvist in Latvia is about 600 employees specialising in veneer and massive production.
Kvist Industries still produces a wide range of world famous classic designs and works closely with its partners, which include Fredericia Furniture, Stefan Diez and HAY.
Optimisation of the Production Through Improved Logistics and Automation
But how do Q-System enter the picture? In an effort to optimise the production through additional automation Kvist Industries had in 2016 a Q-System conveyor system installed.
This plant comprises 5 rows of non-driven roller conveyors along which are placed workstations where the chairs are manually assembled. When the chair is assembled, it is placed on a baseboard on the roller conveyor and pushed onto a driven conveyor leading the chairs to the packing dept.
During the travel to the packing dept. the chairs run onto a belt conveyor taking them from normal working height to floor level, which is the ergonomically right working height for packing the chairs in cardboard boxes.When the chair is packed in the box it continues down the driven conveyor line and through a tape and strap machine. The box is now ready to be sent to HAY’s central store from where the chairs are distributed worldwide.
The baseboard, on which the chair was transported, must be returned to the production dept. When the chair is removed from the board to be packed in the box, the baseboard is immediately transferred onto a small chain conveyor, which delivers the board to a wheeled trolley placed on a lifting table in a pit. Each time a baseboard lands on the trolley the table will lower a bit so that it is in position for receiving the next board. When the trolley is full, it is taken back to the production dept.
Unexpected but fruitful effects of the new conveyor system
“The reason why we decided for the conveyor system from Q-System was, first of all, to improve the production flow and thereby achieve an increased capacity”, Svend Holmgaard and Eva Chrestensen of Kvist explain, “but of course we had also ergonomic issues such as improved working postures for our staff in mind.
Besides, the conveyor system has led to unexpected side effects: an improved team spirit and job satisfaction. Before, each staffer worked at a separate workstation facing a wall. Now they face their colleagues when assembling the chairs at the 5 conveyor lines. This has led to an increased job satisfaction and happier staffers.
”We have a long-time co-operation with Q-System so we contacted them for advice when we started the process,” he explains. “The new conveyor system now installed meets all of our wishes and requirements so we are very happy with the result” Svend Holmgaard concludes.