Engineering Management in High-End Custom Furniture Manufacturing: Improving Project Performance Through Design-to-Manufacturing Translation

High-end custom furniture manufacturing represents a highly customized engineer-to-order (ETO) environment in which each project requires unique engineering solutions before manufacturing can begin. Unlike serial production, project performance depends not only on manufacturing capability but also on the completeness of engineering preparation during project development.

This study investigates the role of an integrated engineering management framework in improving operational performance within a company specializing in high-end custom furniture manufacturing. The proposed framework integrates engineering review, design-to-manufacturing translation, production planning, project coordination, quality management, and installation preparation into a unified engineering workflow. The research was conducted as an industrial case study based on operational performance indicators routinely monitored during project execution.

Implementation of the framework shifted engineering decision-making from the manufacturing stage to project preparation, ensuring that technical solutions were completed, verified, and approved before production began. As a result, workflow stability improved, engineering-related production interruptions and corrective manufacturing were largely eliminated, coordination between engineering and manufacturing functions became more effective, and installation readiness increased.

The findings suggest that, in highly customized manufacturing, engineering completeness before production is a key determinant of project performance. The study contributes to engineering management by demonstrating that project optimization in engineer-to-order manufacturing should focus not only on manufacturing operations but also on the completeness of engineering preparation before fabrication begins. Although developed within the custom furniture industry, the proposed framework may also be applicable to other engineer-to-order production environments.