Finishing Framework in the Irish Furniture Industry

Abstract

This thesis originated from the desire of the author to develop a tool to assist Irish furniture manufacturers in meeting the requirements set out in the volatile organic compounds (voc) directive. The introduction of this directive has resulted in Irish furniture companies seeking advice and assistance in order to comply with the pertaining rules and regulations. There is a need for the development of a support mechanism for these companies to deal with the challenges that the legislation poses. The overall objective of the thesis is to provide a framework for these companies within the Irish furniture industry who are affected by the legislation.

This body of work initially takes an in-depth look into the Irish furniture industry, the VOC directive and also the theory of finishing. Once a greater understanding of the industry is developed the focus of the thesis moves onto examining how the legislation is affecting companies within the industry. This occurs through the use of case study analysis. Eleven case companies are used to develop a greater appreciation of the level of awareness of the directive in the industry and how each company is proposing to deal with the situation. This gives the author the ability to develop a set of requirements that need to be addressed in the generation of a framework. Once these requirements are identified, solutions are proposed and the framework developed. In order to test the validity of the framework, it is necessary to test and verify the elements of the framework. This is achieved by mapping the framework against 3 further case companies. By applying a set of predefined validation criteria the framework is validated.

The developed framework is both a practical and functional tool and will assist companies in complying with the legislation thus being very beneficial to the industry.