SALNÖ Series

Rethinking rattan

Rattan furniture is popular around the globe, and for good reason! It’s versatile and long-lasting, with a wonderfully tactile expression. But furniture in this material comes with a challenge: how best to transport it? Because rattan furniture is traditionally pre-assembled at the factory, it’s difficult to transport many pieces in an efficient way.

At a first glance, the brief for the SALNÖ armchair 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. 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.

SALNÖ

rattan sofa, rattan ₺
3,999₺
Sepete Ekle
IKEA-salno 10

Production-first design

It’s a hot May afternoon at the facility of an IKEA supplier in Indonesia. All around, co-workers are working with natural fibre materials for different products in varying stages of completion. 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!

IKEA-salno 04
IKEA-salno 06
IKEA-salno 08
IKEA-salno 09
IKEA-salno 11

Rattan, but make it flat!

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. 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."

-Nikolay Nitov, Innovation and Deployment Leader for IKEA

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