Nowadays, furniture retail sale is a very competitive area and besides large and well-known global brands, a high share of the overall market consists of independent retail shops. The owners and ...sellers of furniture are daily faced with the increasing requirements of the ever more demanding market, to which they must constantly and repeatedly adjust. The choice of furniture stores regarding to some of selling place attributes could affect customer’s final decision about furniture purchase; however, there is little information about the relationship between furniture selling places attributes. In this study, the basic information is given regarding the selected furniture selling place attributes (size of selling area, number of salespersons, storage area, and number of suppliers) in Slovenia, Slovakia, and Croatia.
Decisions for environment-friendly production and environmentally acceptable products are becoming a necessity and one of very important objectives of timber companies next to already existing ...economic criteria. Individual products and their manufacture have different infl uences on the pollution of the environment. Therefore it is necessary to determine the ecological quality of individual products, which means analyzing their ecological suitability during their life cycle. In our research we developed the methodology for establishing the ecological quality of furniture, based on three scientific methods: the method of life cycle analysis, ABC analysis, modified for our case, and the multi-criteria decision-making method. We analyzed the ecological quality of three kitchens of a well-known manufacturer. The results of the research are the basis for developing an optimal business strategy from the viewpoint of determining a production assortment. The used methodology is also suitable for studying other furniture products and for accepting optimal environmentally acceptable decisions in wood companies.
Processing of wood and manufacture of wood and cork products, excluding furniture, manufacture of straw and plaiting goods (C16) and manufacture of furniture (C31) were the most competitive ...activities of the Republic of Croatia in the European market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those activities began losing their market share at the end of 1994, and no significant positive change in market competitiveness has been recorded since then. The question is how to achieve and maintain competitiveness, which is the condition of survival in an increasingly demanding environment. Preliminary and previous research on investments points to the assumption that the problem of competitiveness in the observed economic branch essentially boils down to a problem in the quality and efficiency of the investments of associated business entities. This paper tries to give answers to the following questions: What is the investment policy, is there an internal factor for lagging behind in competitiveness, what the other reasons are and how competitiveness can be achieved. By analyzing the investment in key factors of competitiveness in the period 2007 to 2010, consistently established by this paper, the existing data on investment of wood processing and furniture manufacturing entities will be identified, and an AHP investment model will be proposed that takes into account the simultaneous influence of all of the key factors of competitiveness and is the best indicator of the direction to be taken, with the final aim of achieving competitiveness.
The research goals were to determine how the wood sector companies were insured and which risks were covered by insurance. The following parameters were studied: the structure of insurance, company ...size, technological capabilities requiring insurance coverage, and the overall security of wood sector companies with respect to property and property interests. The results have shown that the wood sector companies use the services of insurance companies but not to a suffi cient extent. It has been shown that companies that had suffered great damage have greater security for the recovery of damage. It has also been shown that insurance models should be applied since the share of insurance premium costs in the total cost structure is almost negligible and that saving on these costs is not desirable taking into consideration that it brings the necessary security to the wood sector companies. By analyzing and comparing the obtained results, insurance models that would be the most effective have been presented and elaborated.
In recent years, additive manufacturing has become a regular process in various industries, and consequently there is an increasing need to evaluate the environmental aspects of this technology and ...its associated materials. In this paper, comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessments between a conventional product and a 3D-printed alternative made of polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA-wood material were investigated based on the standard ISO 14044:2006. The environmental impact of each product was quantified for 18 categories. The goal of life cycle assessment (LCA) was to determine whether the use of 3D printed PLA/PLA-wood products can be a sustainable alternative to traditional metal products. The paper presents a case study in which a comparative LCA was conducted. The results show that a metal part manufactured using conventional subtractive processes (milling, drilling, welding, etc.) has a higher environmental impact compared to 3D-printed alternatives made from renewable materials. However, there are many sub-issues that need to be adequately addressed. KEYWORDS: life cycle assessment; 3D printing; environmental impact; carbon footprint; wood-PLA composite Posljednjih je godina aditivna proizvodnja postala redoviti proces u raznim industrijama, a posljedicno se pojavila sve veca potreba za procjenom ekoloskih aspekata te tehnologije i s njom povezanih materijala. U ovom su radu ispitane i usporedene procjene zivotnog vijeka konvencionalnog proizvoda,,od kolijevke do groba" te 3D isprintane alternative izradene od polilakticne kiseline (PLA) i PLA-drvnog materijala na temelju standarda ISO 14044:2006. Utjecaj svakog proizvoda na okolis kvantificiran je unutar 18 kategorija. Cilj procjene zivotnog vijeka takvih proizvoda (LCA) bio je utvrditi moze li uporaba 3D printanih PLA/PLA-drvnih proizvoda biti odrziva alternativa tradicionalnim metalnim proizvodima. U radu je prikazana studija slucaja u kojoj je provedena komparativna procjena zivotnog vijeka - LCA. Rezultati pokazuju da metalni dio proizveden primjenom konvencionalnih subtraktivnih procesa (glodanja, busenja, zavarivanja itd.) ima veci utjecaj na okolis nego 3D isprintane alternative izradene od obnovljivih materijala. Medutim, u vezi s tim postoje i mnoga potpitanja koja se moraju adekvatno rijesiti. KLJUCNE RIJECI: procjena zivotnog vijeka; 3D printanje; utjecaj na okolis; ugljicni otisak; drvo-PLA kompozit
The significance of wood and paper products originating from certified sustainable sources has been increasing worldwide during the last two decades paralleling overall interest and concern for ...global sustainability issues. Forest certification is a voluntary verification tool that has been gaining importance not only as an independent verification tool in the wood processing industry but also as an influencer in private and public purchasing policies and as a component of emerging wood harvesting and trade legality schemes. There are two main types of certification, forest certification for forest management and chain-of-custody (CoC) certification which tracks certified wood through the manufacturing supply chain. This study focuses on the chain-of-custody component. A multinational survey of CoC certificate holders in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia was conducted to identify the general understanding of certification concepts as environmental, economic and social tools, to determine incentives for CoC certification implementation by companies, and to identify difficulties in existing certified wood product supply chains. Results indicate that respondents demonstrated a high level of understanding of the chain of custody certification concept. Respondents also link forest certification mainly to the issues of legality, tracing the origin source of supply and prevention from illegal logging. The main expected benefits are linked to the improvement of external company image followed by business performance factors such as penetrating new markets, increase of sales volume, expanded market share and the increase of profit margin. The key problems connected to certified supply chains relate to the overpricing of certified material inputs, while respondents reported none or minimum price premiums for their certified products over non-certified alternatives.
The number of senior citizens is rapidly increasing, which consequently signifi es an increase in the number of people having sight, hearing or memory diffi culties, people with hampered mobility, ...and people who find it increasingly diffi cult to process information. Elderly persons experience a greater degree of risk whilst performing daily tasks in their kitchens. Moreover, they are more susceptible to infection and illnesses, necessitating greater care to achieve hygienic conditions within their kitchens. The goal of our research was to determine whether people are generally content with the functionality of their kitchens and whether the degree of dissatisfaction increases with the age of the users. The study aims to pinpoint any major problems facing elderly people whilst working in their kitchens and to establish criteria for kitchen furniture design that could be tailored to senior users’ interests, with the focus on safety. This research was carried out via individual surveys at the respondents’ homes. 204 respondents participated in the research. The results show that most users do not realize that, with more appropriate kitchen equipment, they could perform daily tasks faster, safer, and with less effort. Common shortcomings include insuffi cient lighting (32 %), inappropriate sequential composition of work surfaces (56 %), ease of hygiene maintenance (68 %), inappropriately - shaped furniture (72 %), and tasks that become troublesome because of declining memory (75 %). We believe that it is necessary to design kitchen equipment specifically adjusted for the needs of the elderly.
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