Furniture company custom-designed success: mass customization and orders cut on demand have carved a niche for New Liskeard's Three-H Furniture Systems.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: TOP Five EXPORTERS - Three H Furniture SYstems Limited

Mass customization is the key to survive and thrive in a highly competitive North American market for a New Liskeard office furniture maker.

It's the standing order of the day for the 87 employees at Three-H Furniture Systems, which specializes in commercial office furniture built to client specifications.

Brian Conlin, vice-president of operations, says mass customization means having a fully automated production facility capable of doing "customization on the fly," with special programming tools on their CNC machines known as parametric programming.

Allowing customers to customize sizes in furniture within engineered standards is what separates them from their larger North American competitors, he says.

"If you need a 73-inch desk, we allow you to buy it without additional cost or lead time with production. Most of our competitors do not relish the idea of customized sizes."

It's that kind of diversity that has allowed the company to hold its own against larger Canadian and American competitors such as Lacasse, Global, DSI Industries, Hon Industries, Herman Miller and Steelcase.

Operating from a 30,000 square foot plant on Radley's Hill Road, Three-H exports about half of their 15,000 to 20,000 pieces produced each year to United States customers, including a small fraction to Puerto Rico.

The company posts about $12 million in total annual sales and by year's end expects to boost its workforce to 95.

Established in 1973 by founders Heinz Dittmann, Helmut Pedersen and Helmut Moeltner, the company began by manufacturing middle- to high-end European-style residential furniture, along with juvenile and adult bedroom sets and wall units.

Moeltner, who operated a nearby melamine laminating plant, wanted to promote a secondary industry in the North and set up Three-H with Dittman, an experienced cabinetmaker from Germany.

Three-H shifted into office furniture when the recession of the late 1980s hit and the residential furniture market began drying up. They began looking into a stronger and more dynamic sector.

"It's a much larger and simpler market," dealing with commercial institutions and businesses rather than the smaller Mom-and-Pop-type shops, says Conlin.

Today, the company produces a variety of middle- and high-end executive office furniture, work stations, conference tables, wall units, computer furniture, file cabinets and office accessories.

The company prefers to steer away from Big Box stores, shipping primarily to the smaller...