Global Upholstery Solutions Limited

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TDFKA The Thread

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Remember when Prince changed his name to a symbol and was then The Artist Formally Known As Prince – TAFKA Prince. Well we now have a new name for our digest, which will not be called The Digest Formally Known As The Thread, (TDFKA The Thread) except for in this post.

The original idea for this digest came from a similar post by Bleeding Green Nation – called The Linc. A sports digest specifically for fans of The Philadelphia Eagles. We liked the idea and so wnert about creating a similar idea for our industry. It isn’t the first and won’t be the last, but we liked the idea and thought others would too. But, what to call it?

We came up with the name The Thread during a brainstorm, liked it and went with it.

Then, just before we released the second one, we happened to be looking for something in our email chain from Panaz and came across their digest – Threads. Whether sub-consciously or coincidentally, we had come up with the same name for roughly the same thing. We like to think it was a case of ‘great minds thinking alike’ but Panaz got there first, so we’ll change ours.

Having come up with the original name it was hard to find a new one that measured up – but we’ve finally found something that was relevant and we were happy with.

The Top Stitch.

We hope you enjoyed the first episode of TDFKA The Thread and we hope you enjoy the second episode of The Top Stitch!

 

Upholstery Production Week 14

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On the 01 April we furloughed some staff as order volume has obviously dropped in these difficult times. This will of course be reflected in the volume of work we are shipping, although our team is definitely punching above its weight in terms of output from those who are still working. As stated before, but it bears repeating, we supply into healthcare so we will remain open throughout.

We even had a little bit of time in the run up to carry out a bit of upholstery prep training for our frame assembly team as we thought we might need a bit of cross-skilling in time to come!

The team did a great job last week and has not only retained our 100% record but also improved on our JIT record (Just in Time) from our largest customer who has a slightly more aggressive measure than simple On Time In Full.

Products Shipped – 1236

Number of different product types shipped – 59

OTIF – 100%

Click here to read more about our Commercial Upholstery services

Our 20,000 square foot upholstery factory is designed into manufacturing cells with all our processes built to make our Upholstery Production with an efficient and effective use of resources. This allows our 50-strong shop floor team to produce large quantities of high-quality products in short lead times and deliver on time, every time.

Each cell includes CNC fabric cutting, adhesive spraying for foam, multiple sewing machines and machinists, multiple upholstery benches and quality inspection, packing and despatch benches.

Our team are multi-skilled and experienced so that one day we could be making 1500 identical theatre seats, the next we could make a single banquette seat. Our process is designed to adapt to whatever our customers need from us as we don’t make any of our own products – everything we make is for our business customers that need highly reliable deliveries of a range of products.

Operational Continuity in Difficult Times

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A post we wrote for The BCFA regarding our Operational Continuity during the COVID-19 crisis.

As Global Upholstery Solutions supplies a number of customers in the healthcare industry we are of course duty bound to sustain operational continuity and remain open to support them during this difficult time. All necessary precautions to protect staff are in place.

We have plenty of space and distance between staff members and have changed our operating methods so that team briefings have changed significantly – we don’t gather people close together any more of course and we have stopped some altogether. All communal surfaces, including door handles, are cleaned four times per day. Our recreation room has been spaced out and only one chair per table. Breaks have been split too. Staff are advised to clean all work surfaces before and after use as well as to wash their hands when they arrive and before they leave the premises. We’ve stopped all visitors from entering the factory, although since the lockdown we don’t get anything other than deliveries now anyway.

There are some people who think companies shouldn’t work in these times, but government guidelines are that they should where the work can’t be undertaken at home. As long as business take suitable precautions to protect their staff, and the staff are careful too, then we should all get through this. Many of our customers are following these guidelines, so we feel it is our responsibility to support them. We are a business to business commercial upholstery company and we are an important piece in the supply chain for many of our customers – we pride ourselves on our reliability and we won’t let people down.

operational continuity

As it happens, because we are part of the healthcare supply chain, we need to stay open anyway – our operational continuity translates further up to where it really matters. While we aren’t supplying the NHS, there are companies like ours that are supporting the healthcare efforts in less obvious ways. We just make upholstery after all. Why would we be essential, or even necessary?

Our biggest customer is Stannah Stairlifts. We supply parts for every product that they manufacture. They shared this with us to show our team why the continuation of supply is so important.

In these strange times it’s good to take a minute to remember why we are here, carrying on doing what we do.

While most of our sales teams have been off the road this last week, we are still seeing some urgent cases coming through that illustrate just how important it is we can continue to supply and service our stairlifts.

We currently have a rush order for a curved product going through the system. Our customer is a terminally ill cancer patient who has been sent home to free up bed space in the hospital. I don’t think most of us can begin to imagine how that must feel but we should be proud we are able to support this lady by giving her access around her home at a time when she is dealing with a heart-breaking personal situation against a background of the coronavirus turmoil. Huge thanks to everyone who will be pushing this job through as fast as they can.

Another job we have taken is an order for a gentleman with prostate cancer. He and his wife have been considering getting a stairlift for a while but, like so many, have kept putting it off. However, Mr S collapsed at home last week. A kind neighbour has been coming in to help Mrs S get Mr S up and down the stairs but clearly there’s no chance to observe social distancing in that scenario and it isn’t really a sustainable solution. Mrs S phoned us at 4.50pm on Thursday and by 1.21pm on Friday we had done a sales call remotely, one of our sales consultants popped in just to complete a survey – observing all the required hygiene and social distancing protocols – and we are now processing an order that will give Mr S much needed independence and Mrs S some much needed peace of mind.

Falls in the over 65s are the biggest single cause of emergency hospital admissions. The more people we can keep safe in their homes at any time, but particularly now with such pressure on both health and social care services, the better for the battle against coronavirus.

The Thread Issue #1

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The
Thread

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

Architects and designers “absolutely vital” in shift to circular economy says Ellen MacArthur – dezeen

Circular economy champion Ellen MacArthur has called on designers to help transform the global economy along sustainable lines.

The British former round-the-world sailor and founder of circular-economy charity Ellen MacArthur Foundation said she wanted architects and designers to join her fight to eradicate industrial waste and pollution.

“The design fraternity is absolutely a target for us, because designers build the world,” MacArthur told Dezeen. “So they’re an absolutely vital fraternity in designing something that fits within the [circular] system.”

Q&A: SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS – Design Insider

Design Insider announced earlier this year that we would dedicate a selection of articles predominantly focusing on the area of Sustainability. Within this new series of article’s, Design Insider will be following The BCFA’s members-only event – an event which brings sustainability leaders together, to discuss ways in which we can all help combat the environmental issues occurring.  With this, we will provide exciting Q&A’s with industry experts in sustainability that have spoken at the BCFA event(s).

For our first Q&A, we sat down with Lee Ness, the General Manager of Global Upholstery Solutions and a leader for Sustainability to find out more about his journey…

COLOUR SOAKED SPACES – Mad About The House

I wanted, this week, to look at some deeply colour saturated rooms. While I may not use lots of different shades in one room – tending to variations of around three with an occasional fourth thrown in – that’s not to say that I don’t love deeply colour soaked rooms. And here are some that I found this week.

10 Best Furniture Stores Online In the UK – Furniture in Fashion

The trend of online shopping has enhanced to a great extent in the UK. People search for online stores to buy their desired items. Specifically, online furniture stores have impacted the buying decisions of the people. Now, they can explore different online stores to purchase furniture and décor items.

Are you looking to buy furniture online in the UK? To ease your decision, we have come up with a list of 10 best furniture stores online in the UK.

Hotels that are self-isolating in style (part 3) – Hotel Designs

The editorial series continues with part three, as editor Hamish Kilburn mentally checks in to some of the best hotels that are self-isolating in style…

The weeks are starting to feel like years. As the number of cases of COVID–19 increases day-by-day, so too do our social restrictions. From our new-found goldfish bowl perspective on the world, travel is beginning to feel like a distant memory.

Watch the Just Released Trailer for The New Bauhaus Documentary – design milk

2019 marked the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, the early 20th century art and design movement founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany. One of the most influential members of the time was Hungarian-born artist László Moholy-Nagy, who eventually landed in Chicago and founded mid-century design school, The New Bauhaus. The innovative artist and educator maintained his signature optimism through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and Nazi persecution, always relying on his creativity to get through.

Design in 2020 – what will furniture design look like? – Design Week

As part of our series of design in 2020, Ruth Wassermann, design director at Made.com looks at what will happen in furniture design in the next 12 months.

Top 8 Workplace Trends for 2020 – Spacestor Insights

This year we’re taking a holistic view again. All of our trends are interconnected. They all affect one another, and can all be combined into a great workplace. Here are our Top 8 Workplace Trends for 2020.

One of the recurring themes at hospitality shows and conferences is what the Hotel of the Future will be like. On occasion actual mock-up guest rooms have been fabricated to demonstrate the kinds of environments we can expect to see in years to come.

These events and exercises are always fascinating and thought provoking but do tend to generate as many questions as they give answers. I suspect this is because no one can really predict with certainty what is likely to happen.

Hotels – What does the future hold? – Hospitality Interiors

Our Fabric Supply – Proud, But Why? – Global Upholstery Solutions

Chieftain Fabrics and Global Upholstery Solutions Ltd have a long-standing fabric supply relationship; one of which we’re extremely proud.

Chieftain supply many of the fabrics used by our group partner Stannah Stairlifts, the world leading stairlift manufacturer, and so we use hundred’s of metres of Chieftain fabrics every week. Most of this is from their extensive Just Colour range. Stannah, in partnership with Design Agency blackswan has also just launched a premium range of upholsteries which includes the Chieftain Ravel and Lionella ranges.

New upholstery selection for Stannah – blackswan

When Stannah Stairlifts needed to improve their customer choice through a new range of premium upholsteries, they turned to blackswan to define their upholstery selection.

Frey, Frank and furniture: Highlights from Modernism Week, February 2020 – Film and Furniture

Modernism Week’s signature February festival in Palm Springs, California has now wrapped and what a plethora of architectural and design riches it presented! We were treated to blue skies and gleaming sunshine, and every view framed by palm trees and imposing mountains.

Here are our highlights and where you can listen to Film and Furniture founder Paula Benson’s Modernism Week talk.

Upholstery Production Week 13

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In these unprecedented times we had to consider whether it was appropriate to keep issuing these upholstery production week updates. However, as we supply into the healthcare supply chain with a number of customers, not least our biggest customer Stannah Stairlifts, we are remaining open. It is therefore just as important that we deliver the products on time.

Later this week, a large proportion of our team will go onto furlough as production slows, and again, this means that we need to do everything possible to deliver products on time with a skeleton staff. We aren’t going to shy away from our delivery performance at this time, so we will continue reporting it.

Of course, numbers on this report will drop significantly, as they have this week, but th OTIF % is the important number.

Products Shipped – 1477

Number of different product types shipped – 58

OTIF – 100%

Click here to read more about our Commercial Upholstery services

Our 20,000 square foot upholstery factory is designed into manufacturing cells with all our processes built to make our Upholstery Production with an efficient and effective use of resources. This allows our 50-strong shop floor team to produce large quantities of high-quality products in short lead times and deliver on time, every time.

Each cell includes CNC fabric cutting, adhesive spraying for foam, multiple sewing machines and machinists, multiple upholstery benches and quality inspection, packing and despatch benches.

Our team are multi-skilled and experienced so that one day we could be making 1500 identical theatre seats, the next we could make a single banquette seat. Our process is designed to adapt to whatever our customers need from us as we don’t make any of our own products – everything we make is for our business customers that need highly reliable deliveries of a range of products.

Our Fabric Supply – Proud, But Why?

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Chieftain Fabrics and Global Upholstery Solutions Ltd have a long-standing fabric supply relationship; one of which we’re extremely proud.

Chieftain supply many of the fabrics used by our group partner Stannah Stairlifts, the world leading stairlift manufacturer, and so we use hundred’s of metres of Chieftain fabrics every week. Most of this is from their extensive Just Colour range. Stannah, in partnership with Design Agency blackswan has also just launched a premium range of upholsteries which includes the Chieftain Ravel and Lionella ranges.

Through the ever-changing demands of the customer and the Industry, and necessity of our delicate planet, they maintain a high level of achievement when it comes to Sustainability, a subject close to our heart.

fabric supply

Any supplier of any type of fabric will know that it’s not easily achievable and months, even years, of trials, testing, and market research is involved.   But Chieftain Fabrics have achieved just this and continue to strive with further developments and improvements to their products: “It is not an easy task to produce a high quality, high performance vinyl fabric that has little impact on the environment.    Here, at Chieftain Fabrics, this is our goal.   Through making small frequent changes to our ingredients and production methods, we hope to eventually manufacture a coated fabric that is PVC free and yet fulfils all the requirements of a high-performance contract fabric”.

Chieftain Fabrics have implemented several changes – organic cotton backing cloth, switching to organic pigments from naturals sources such as plants, plant products or other carbon-based life forms, and use recycled polyester thread.   They use pallets from recycled wood, sourced from FSC approved mills and in addition reuse the pallets too.   All cardboard is recycled and sourced from FSC approved sources.  Even in the office, they stay as paperless as possible, separate waste and use energy efficient lighting.   I could go on, but you get the gist.   But if you’re interested in knowing more, take a moment to visit their website and go to the Blog tab…

So, I go back to my opening line and reiterate how proud we are to be one of Chieftain Fabrics customer’s and now you know why.   Their ethos is aligned with ours (take a look at our Sustainability Ethos here); we want to be a part of their fabric supply journey – discovering what is possible, bringing it to market for all to adorn.

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Lindsay Watson-Jones

Materials Manager