At Danske Mobler all our New Zealand made furniture is expertly handcrafted by our very skilled on site workshop team and this includes one of our best selling ranges, Meluka. We pride ourselves in providing quality New Zealand made products, delivered with outstanding customer service. This is something we couldn’t achieve without our exceptional behind the scenes team. So we thought we’d give you a step-by-step insight into how our furniture comes to be and the people we couldn’t do it without!
Woodwork manufacturing is run by Richard and Kevin, and it’s always buzzing! They work hard to ensure all our New Zealand made furniture is to the highest standard and that quantities don’t run low. This involves a variety of tasks, ranging from people management to the vast amount of procedures and paperwork required for the smooth running of the factory.
Stage 1
Once an order is placed it goes to Richard or Kevin who start the ball rolling by creating a bill for materials. This is then passed to Charlie, who docks the timber to the specified size and then sends it to the Machine Shop.
Stage 2
Once in the Machine Shop our great woodwork team carefully crafts the timber. Imogen is in charge of ripping the timber and gluing the panels together. While Mike usually takes care of our custom orders and prototypes, having been hands-on in our Woodwork manufacturing process for 8 years. Once Mike receives the pieces from the rest of the team, he cuts them down to the required size to create beautifully crafted pieces of furniture.
This method isn’t possible for all our products however. Some of our more detailed products, for example the Meluka COSYbunk and TIDYboy, have to be produced using the Computer Numerically Controlled machine, aka the “CNC” operated by Terry and Neville. The precision and accuracy that is possible with the CNC machining allows us to efficiently add features that would take hours to do by hand.
Stage 3
Neil and Simon in the Cab Shop are the next stop. Neil has been with us for 42 years and is therefore a pro! Their duties include adjusting, trimming, fitting parts and inspecting the quality of the timber. Once they have assembled the pieces into an item of furniture they test it to make sure it’s structurally sound.
Step 4
The Polish Shop is lead by Nitesh, his team consists of senior polisher Ravi, qualified polisher Andrew and Brandon, and apprentice Jayden and Illona. The furniture carcasses come to these guys from the Cab Shop and it is their job to spray them. The majority of our Meluka pieces are painted white and it takes a huge amount of skill and precision to get a flawless, silky smooth finish in a special white colour. But there’s no need to worry with these guys, they know what they’re doing!
Stage 5
Tash and Jordan are our hard working pair responsible for our Meluka quality control once it comes out of the Polish Shop. They take the carcasses and turn them into full Meluka pieces ready for your personalisation. This includes screwing the castors onto the bases, stapling backs onto items such as Drawer-robes, hanging doors and fitting drawer boxes. Once assembled Tash and Jordan give the items one last check over before they are wrapped up ready to be shipped out to you, our wonderful customers!
From creating a bill for materials in Stage 1 to the final quality control checks in Stage 5, this whole process can take over 4 to 6 weeks. It is therefore important to have foresight as to what products are popular, and produce enough stock so that the customer doesn’t have to wait too long for the furniture to get to their home, this is something we pride ourselves in as well as the quality furniture we have produced over the last 63 years.
Without this team Danske Mobler and Meluka would not function, and we are super thankful to have them as part of the company!