Australian Furnishing Community of Practice Network Update

Check out the latest edition of the TAFE Futures Magazine In this edition read about Continuity and Change: AFA Members and Australian employers’ training practices and partnerships with training providers A year of challenge and opportunity for TAFE and the VET...

Aligning Business and People Strategies

Business leaders spend considerable time and energy developing business strategies and seek to align all business activities to ensure optimisation of effort, business growth and sustainability.  This should always include the people within a business. For example,...

Sure you can buy direct from China!

This is an article from Graham Smith CEO Innova Group that he wrote in a LinkedIn forum we thought we would share with you –  Keeping costs low and profits high have always been fundamental in business. One source of low-cost furniture items is buying from...

Pantones colour of the year – Greenery!

In keeping with a green theme have you incorporated Pantones colour of the year into any of your designs? If so we would love to see them…in the interim here are some thought starters from our friends at dezeen...

Green Interior Awards Open for submissions

Thank you to the green Interior Awards for their contribution to todays enewlsetter. The AFA is proud to be associated with the Green Interior Awards, which are now open http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bd04e0d033c6be47b454e3519&id=4109cb82f0

CEO News November 2017

I am excited to lead a delegation of Industry Leaders, Designers, Educators and Buyers to Malaysia for the EFE and MIFF 2017 events. Whilst my role will be to present on the importance of complying with Australian standards, testing, certification and legislation, the...

HOW DOES A GENIUS BILLIONAIRE ENTREPRENEUR HANDLE PRICING STRATEGY?

  …and what you can do to improve your pricing strategy     This week we received a great thought provoking piece from Ron Wood, Founder and Managing Director of Pricing Insight. He highlighted the email shared with the world for a very specific and clever...

Late Payments are crippling Industry

An inquiry investigating payment times and practices in Australia is in full swing with preliminary findings confirming that big businesses and some governments are taking longer than ever to pay small businesses. So far 60 percent of small businesses are reporting an...

The Lady of the House’

Understanding the purchasing decision process of your customers is imperative in today’s competitive market. Customer profiling has been used in the fashion industry for over 3 decades and has been a driving tool in establishing market share. Knowing and determining...

A Handy Reference Guide to the 20 Greenest Materials

Have you ever wondered what the greenest materials are…we found this handy go-to list of the friendliest materials that have our planet covered. http://ecosalon.com/a-handy-reference-guide-to-the-20-greenest-materials/

Advantages of buying “Upcycled” furniture

Have you noticed a rise in people being interested in upcycling? Have you heard the word more often than usual? It’s a thing! So what is all the fuss about upcycling? And what is it all about? Upcycle Magazine says “Upcycling is taking an item that is no longer needed...

Grey Fleet

Many businesses operate a vehicle fleet and will, no doubt, have well-developed policies and procedures that apply to the operation of that fleet. These policies are designed to deal with safety and well being responsibilities of both the business and employees. To...

ISO guidance on product safety

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) publishes standards on a wide range of topics, including consumer product safety. Members may be aware, for example, of the ISO standard for high chairs – ISO 9221. But ISO also publishes a range of standards and guides...

Top Tips To Protect Your Furniture Designs Under Australian Law

This article provides basic tips for protecting your furniture or homeware designs under Australian law.   We’ll begin with a case study. Imagine you have just developed a new design for a lamp. It features an unusual shaped base and a distinctive holder for the...

Australia’s ‘five pillar economy’ – manufacturing

Manufacturing has changed the world and is itself changing, more fundamentally than at any time since the industrial revolution. Does this spell the end of manufacturing in Australia, or a new beginning? Our immediate challenge is that the resources boom has ‘hollowed...