SB Furniture Industry Company Limited is a leader of Thai furniture innovation and design for over 50 years and has been delivering good-quality products and services to more than one million of households. The company has continued to develop various creative products to be a part of customers’ quality of life and well-being. All products have been manufactured with E1 1 woods, the wood that contains the formaldehyde no more than 0.1 ppm. Since 2003, the company has offered the 3D Pro Designer and SB Interior@Home, the service facilities that make the home decoration more convenient. The company also developed the SB Design Square as the home decoration center with good-quality products and services to meet the living lifestyle of people nowadays.
Mr. Phidet Chawaldit, Executive Vice President of SB Furniture Industry Co., Ltd., said that the company has operated its business for more than 50 years and formerly considered itself a furniture retailer. At that time, the company had various generations of customers, such as the Gen X, the Gen Y, the Gen Z, and the New Gen people. The company, therefore, had transformed itself into a solution provider for all groups of customers to provide consultancy services in furniture and designs, which received good feedback from all generations of customers.
In the beginning, the company had no furniture showrooms and sold its furniture to the customers according to their imagination. Later, it had created a furniture showroom to present its products and various styles of home decoration for the customers to easily decide on purchasing. Currently, the home decoration and the furniture such as tables, cabinets, and beds have been developed to be adjustable in many styles as customers desire. The company had also developed and produced both moveable and built-in furniture, as well as a design and decoration service to satisfy the customers’ needs in all dimensions.
At present, the company has provided a soft copy for its customers so that they can rearrange the position of the furniture, such as the wall and wardrobe door, by themselves. The company, therefore, is not only a product developer but also a room decoration designer that has applied new technologies and materials to create new ideas for the products
“Nowadays, aging society becomes a mega trend around the world, as well as Thailand, in which Thai society normally lives in large families and grandchildren mostly have a responsibility to look after their parents and the elderly. SB Furniture Industry Company Limited as a business operator has aimed to contribute to the society to be ready for the upcoming social trends. The company, therefore, is delighted to cooperate with MTEC research team to develop this Power Lift Bed project to have good-quality and proper functions. This developed product is assured to be readily accessible and useful for consumers.”
Mr. Phidet Chawaldit said that the elderly have recently been the company’s new target group, therefore, the company had adopted “Joey-Active Bed”, the mechanical bed that helps the bodily movement for the elderly and patients for the commercial production. If there are new technologies or innovations to support this development, it will help increase the market opportunity. As a result, the company is interested in receiving a business license of this research result from MTEC.
However, the company doesn’t expect a lot of profits from this product but gives much weight to products that results from MTEC research, as well as cooperation with the research team to create a new image for the organization.
Mr. Phidet Chawaldit said that after received the technology transfer from MTEC, the Joey-Active Bed had been further developed to improve its appearance, functions, and structures. The final design, called Power Lift Bed, didn’t look like a patient’s bed, but it was produced to be more comfortable for patients and the elderly. The function of the bed was easy to adjust to accommodate the bodily movement, and had a charging system for mobile phones. Thus, the bed could be used as home furniture.
MTEC research team had given the company very good suggestions. The company greatly appreciates working with MTEC, and the results are in line with the operation plan and time. Mr. Phidet Chawaldit said that as long as MTEC aims to develop useful research results either with the private sectors or its alliances and if those visions and technologies can be developed with the same purpose, then it will be able to achieve great results.
Lastly, Mr. Phidet Chawaldit said that if there is technological support from the government, the private sectors would be willing to cooperate with MTEC for commercialization of products, whereas benefit is not of highest priority. MTEC has to determine its goals whether to focus on the elderly, agriculture, or others, as long as the objectives are matched then it can be further developed. However, the customer’s behaviors and decisions are also important factors for successful endeavor. The two parties should create an opportunity to exchange experiences through researching their needs from various aspects, such as the budget and purchasing power, before focusing on producing the products.
1 E1 wood is the wood that contains the formaldehyde no more than 0.1 ppm, suitable for use as hospital and nursing home furniture, and children’ toys, as well as health-conscious people,