MANUFACTURING
The factory, end to end
THE PRODUCTION HALL, JEPARA
Timber arrives green at one end of a two-hectare site and leaves as a sealed container at the other. Everything in between — drying, milling, joinery, finishing, inspection and loading — happens under one roof and one quality control team.
This page is the whole account of that, in the order it happens. Jump to the part you came for.
01/ 05
TWO HECTARES
The site
The factory sits in Bulungan, Pakis Aji, on the Jepara–Lebak road — the same ground the workshop started on in 1997. Timber comes in green at the north end, moves through the kilns, and leaves as containers from the loading bay at the south.
WHY IT MATTERS
One roof, one quality control team
Everything between the timber yard and the loading bay is under one roof and one quality control team. That is the reason a mixed order arrives as one visual family rather than as the output of five workshops that happened to share a purchase order.
It also means a fault found at packing can be walked back to the bench that made it, the same afternoon. Jepara has hundreds of makers who broker work outward; we deliberately do not, and the trade-off is that our capacity is a hard number rather than an elastic one.
The site
Kiln capacity, not machining, is what limits a month.
WALK IT
From the yard to the bay
See it for yourself
Buyers are welcome on the floor by appointment. We will open a joint and show you the moisture log for whatever is in the kiln that week.
02/ 05
FIVE STAGES
Production process
Sourcing, kiln drying, milling and joinery, finishing, then QC and loading. The same team that grades the log signs the packing list, which is why a fault found at packing can be traced back to the batch it came from.
FIVE STAGES, ONE FLOOR
From log to container
Nothing in this sequence is subcontracted. The same team that grades the log signs the packing list.
- 01
Timber sourcing
SVLK-verified plantation teak, graded on arrival for density, moisture and heartwood ratio.
- 02
Kiln drying
Dried to 12% moisture content and logged batch by batch, because teak that moves in transit is teak that comes back.
- 03
Milling & joinery
Mortise-and-tenon throughout. Cut in our own mill, not subcontracted.
- 04
Finishing
Sanded, brushed or oiled to specification. Left raw where the buyer wants it to silver naturally.
- 05
QC & loading
Every container inspected and loaded on our own yard. SVLK, phytosanitary, fumigation and EUDR paperwork issued with the shipment.
SLOTS, NOT QUEUES
What a lead time actually refers to
Production runs to a slot rather than to a queue. A confirmed specification and a deposit book a window, and that window is what the lead time printed on every product page refers to — it starts at confirmation, not at enquiry, and it ends at container loading rather than at arrival.
The practical consequence for a buyer with an opening date is that the date to protect is the confirmation, not the shipment. Two weeks lost agreeing a finish is two weeks off the far end.
MILLING — SECTION CUT TO SIZE
03/ 05
ON THE FLOOR
Machinery & capacity
Four-side planers, spindle moulders, tenoners and wide-belt sanders, with a jig for every repeat profile. The bottleneck is never the machining — it is the three kilns, which is why drying is scheduled before an order is confirmed rather than after.
WHERE THE HANDS GO
Machines for repetition, hands for the result
Close to eighty craftsmen work the floor. Hand work is concentrated where it visibly changes the result: joint fitting, arm shaping and final sanding. Everywhere else the machine is more consistent than a person, and pretending otherwise would be marketing rather than manufacturing.
Repeat profiles run on the spindle moulder against a jig made for the programme, which is how a white-label client’s two-hundredth piece matches the first. The joinery itself is fitted by hand.
CAPACITY QUESTIONS
What buyers ask before booking a run
03 questions
Usually, if the drying is already done. Ask us before you commit a date — we will tell you what is in the kiln rather than promise and reschedule.
No. Every piece is cut for an order, in the finish and dimensions specified. That is why nothing on the site has a stock figure against it.
Kiln schedules lengthen slightly and finishing slows. We plan for it, which is why quoted lead times do not move month to month.
INSPECTION — A BATCH BEFORE IT IS PACKED
04/ 05
FOUR GATES
Quality control
Moisture is measured at kiln exit, after machining, after assembly and again at packing. Anything above 12% goes back to the kiln rather than into a carton.
THE FOUR GATES
Where a piece can be stopped
- IKILN EXIT
Moisture logged batch by batch. The reading travels with the timber through the rest of the floor.
- IIAFTER MACHINING
Re-measured once the section has opened up. Timber that has moved is set aside, not machined again to fit.
- IIIAFTER ASSEMBLY
Every joint is checked dry before glue-up. A draw-bored mortise that will not close by hand is remade, not forced.
- IVAT PACKING
Final reading and a visual pass on finish and hardware, against the photographs in the loading report.
First articles on a new programme are signed off by the founder before the run continues.
THE POINT OF IT
Teak that moves in transit comes back
A checking rail, or a joint that opens in a dry European interior, is not a cosmetic problem. It is a container of freight in both directions and a hotel opening missed. Every gate above exists because that failure is expensive enough to be worth over-engineering against.
We would rather send a short shipment on time with the doubtful pieces held back than fill the container and settle a claim in March.
PACKING BAY — CARTONS STAGED FOR LOADING
05/ 05
PLANNING
Lead times
Lead time runs from confirmed specification and deposit to container loading, and excludes sailing time. It runs 45 to 75 days: the shorter end for simpler stacking and contract pieces, the longer for sets, daybeds and the indoor programme.
BEFORE YOU PLAN A DATE
How the calendar actually works
04 questions
At confirmed specification and deposit. Not at first enquiry, and not at the point a drawing is still being revised.
No. It ends when the container is sealed on our yard. Add your own sailing time — roughly 30 days to Rotterdam, 18 to Sydney, 35 to the US east coast.
Yes. A repeat programme booked into a slot in advance normally runs at the shorter end, because the drying and the setup are already done.
For hospitality we phase delivery against the opening rather than shipping everything at once, so the zones that need photographing land first.
THE HONEST VERSION
What we will not do
We will not quote a lead time we cannot hold in order to win the order and then reschedule you in week six. If the slot you need is not there, we will say so at enquiry, when you still have time to go elsewhere.
That has cost us orders. It is also why the repeat business runs at the shorter end of the range.
Come and see it
Buyers are welcome on the floor by appointment. We will open a joint and show you the moisture log for whatever is in the kiln that week.