Production In A Vertical World

(Picture: Steve Ray... exploring new ground)
The characteristics of vertical integration are evident at every level at The FUTON Shop. As the company grew in the late eighties it discovered the many pitfalls of dealing with suppliers in a market that was experiencing projectile growth, i.e. a market that was selling more than the manufacturers could supply. Moreover, even when some products would arrive, quality control was spotty at best. Even though The FUTON Shop was a very important dealer to many of its suppliers they (The FUTON Shop) found themselves in the same position as many other futon retailers at crunch time, short of quality products. They learned early on to go vertical when it made sense.

At the present time The FUTONShop imports futon frames for its stores. Also sells futons at wholesale, manufactures a full line of its own American Oak futon frames, cuts and sews its entire futon cover line and even garnets its own cotton for its own futon mattress plant. “We also have a full custom order futon shop,” Diamond said. The custom shop has its own customer order form which outlines every aspect of a custom cover or cushion order. “Our fabric department makes over 30 futon covers a month from fabric provided by customers,” Ray continued. “Without a good system and well trained staff it could get pretty confusing with size, pattern orientation and tracking.”

The key word here is, once again, the system. “Every aspect of a customer’s order is tracked and is available over the system. That means when a customer orders a custom size cover in a particular fabric the store manager can go to the system and find out if the fabric is available. Before the customer leaves the store they have an good estimate of when the unit will arrive back in the stores for delivery,” Diamond said. Getting the products a customer wants when they want them is the company’s driving force, and is the essential benefit of the telecommunications network.

Futon Mattress Factory

“We make fifteen different futon mattresses by mixing various components of cotton, wool, high density foam, Latex, innersprings and even polyester now. The goal is to give our sales people and customers the ultimate in options. No matter what use or level the customer comes in looking for we have a range for them. Customers can come in saying they want inexpensive occasional use, or everyday sitting or every night sleeping; at each level we can offer a good, better, best choice for them to make sure they walk away educated and happy with our futons,” said Steve Ray.

(Picture: Marilyn Diamond... part of the office team)
As we move into the factory proper, the noise levels rises. The FUTON Shop has its own garneting machine. “We decided to be absolutely sure that we can consistently meet the requirements of both California Technical Bulletin 117 and the Federal FR cigarette test as well as control the quality and consistency of our futons and futon mattresses. Garneting our own batting was a logical solution,” Diamond said. The FUTON Shop put the machine in last year and it has been operational since August of 1997. Every week the company garnets around 50,000 lbs. of materials, which include gin motes and staple cotton, pure wool, and polyester. The FUTON Shop utilizes the NCBI Quality Assurance Testing method for testing the FR treated cotton so it will always pass Cal 117 and the cigarette test. GM Steve Ray is a member of the Futon Association Board of Directors, and heads up the Flammability Task Force committee. The company also spearheaded the first FAI Conference on Flammability Issues called FUTONS AND YOU, which took place last year at the Winter Market in San Francisco. Being a major manufacturer in California has given The FUTON Shop the opportunity to be a leader in establishing an open and professional dialogue with the California Bureau of Home Furnishings, which views futon furniture as an upholstered furniture product rather than a mattress.

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