Rethinking rattan

At a first glance, the brief for this assignment seemed simple: develop a rattan armchair to suit the flatpack philosophy deeply rooted in IKEA DNA. But in practical terms, it was a massive challenge. Not only had it never been done before, but the available engineers and product development team were spread across different countries in Southeast Asia and Europe. Add in a global pandemic marred with national legislations, travel bans and lockdowns to make things even more difficult!

With many years of experience within IKEA, deployment leader Nikolay Nitov was up for the task. Nikolay started working for IKEA in 2004 in Sofia. In 2005, he moved to Bucharest, Romania, where he continued his journey within IKEA for nine years as an engineer and manufacturing developer. Today, he is an innovation and deployment leader for IKEA in Southeast Asia.

For this assignment however, he knew that he could not do it alone. The key to success depended on bringing different competences onboard and joining hands, which was easier said than done in the middle of a pandemic. “The team for this project was unique,” explains Nikolay, “and everyone involved had enormous experience within IKEA and represented different parts of the business - from design and construction to manufacturing where we needed to work close with our supplier. The challenge was that we needed to make this happen through digital meetings during Covid.”

It’s a hot May afternoon at the facility of an IKEA supplier in Indonesia. Travel restrictions have finally been lifted and day-to-day life seems back to normal. All around, co-workers are working with natural fibre materials for different products in varying stages of completion. Inside in the shady manufacturing hall, Nikolay shows where the armchair is manufactured and shares a little about its development process.

The development of a new IKEA product can have many different starting points. When developing and evaluating new products, IKEA uses a tool called Democratic Design. It has five dimensions, which are function, form, quality, sustainability, and low price.

“For this project, we needed to start with the design of the chair and its construction,” explains Nikolay. “To be able to create a flat pack design, we needed to innovate a new special joint and fitting which we developed from scratch. Then, we developed machines to be used in the manufacturing process.”

Rattan grows in the wild like canes and lianas, but with very long and sharp thorns. The thorns are removed with a machete before it is harvested by hand. The collected rattan is then cleaned and peeled, with the core of the rattan cane used for products and furniture.

Just like any other natural material, rattan has unique characteristics. For example, the density of rattan is lower compared to wood. There are natural differences and variations in diameter between different pieces of rattan and the individual rattan cane also varies in diameter on different parts of the cane. Rattan is also much softer compared to other more commonly used wood materials in IKEA products. This makes the manufacturing process highly challenging and was the reason that Nikolay and his team needed to come up with a new special joint for screws with deeper threading to get a better grip on the soft fibres.

Traditionally, manufacturing of rattan furniture is done by hand, and assembled by professionals on site. Hand production means that differences in quality between production batches or individual pieces can be accommodated by small manual adjustments during assembly.

A chair that will be assembled by customers at home, however, requires more precision during production. For the IKEA SALNÖ armchair, Nikolay and his team wanted to combine traditional hand-craft techniques with a more modern and largescale manufacturing process. By developing new, more precise machinery specifically for the SALNÖ armchair, it’s now easy enough for anyone to assemble – no handcraft experience needed!

The innovation and development of this flatpack rattan armchair has resulted in a more efficient transport chain, where 80% more pieces can fit in one container. This means a dramatic reduction in shipping costs, which in turn will help to make rattan furniture more accessible for the many people.

“This flatpack solution opens for the possibility of making rattan furniture more available in an omni channel environment and to be sold online,” concludes Nikolay. “This will potentially give more people an opportunity to explore furniture made from natural fibres. And a more efficient transport chain is, of course, always something to aim for from a sustainability perspective."