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FIRA to host European seminar

A seminar to promote standardised data exchange throughout the European furniture supply chain is to be held at FIRA’s Stevenage office next month.

Manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, interior designers and specifiers all need to share information electronically, but to date there has been no widespread adoption of a common electronic data interchange (EDI) solution for the industry.

This seminar marks the culmination of the five year European Commission funded Innovafun project [Applying open standards to INNOVAte FUrNiture business processes], which has built support for the funStep standard 10303-236, established in 2006 after more than a decade of work involving over 600 interest groups mainly drawn from the European furniture industry.

The funStep standard is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of European companies in the face of competition from overseas, to build business partnerships, to help the development of products and to cut administration costs. International data standards will extend business opportunities throughout the global supply chain.

One of the key benefits of funStep is that data only have to be entered once, eliminating the possibility of human error caused by manual re-entry and also the duplication of effort involved. Therefore it becomes much easier for everyone in the supply chain to share product designs, catalogue information and specification criteria.

“The furniture industry is currently characterised by a diverse range of IT systems which restrict the development of trading partnerships and inhibit the development of products,” said Maria Jose Nuñez Ariño of AIDIMA [FIRA’s Spanish counterpart], co-ordinator of the Innovafun project. “The funStep standard is a foundation for data exchange, so all the software involved in manufacturing, designing and selling a product has a common vocabulary, allowing industry partners to easily share information.”

This free one day seminar will be held on Thursday 16 October, with lunch provided. Speakers will include Carlos Agostinho of Portugal’s Uninova (Institute for the Development of New Technologies).

Click here for a case study from UK software house Factory Control Systems on how they use funStep in their business

To book please call Catherine Boyd at FIRA on 01438 777784, email

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