Who’s the customer?
With over 20 years’ experience, Global Design is a key player on Romania’s furniture market. Based in Suceava, the company produces and markets furniture and furniture components nationwide, serving both small-scale producers and industrial customers. It defines itself as the ideal partner for personalized and made-to-measure furnishing solutions, ensuring optimal delivery times and an excellent price-quality ratio.
The challenge
In Cefla Finishing, Global Design found the perfect partner, allowing it to grow and position its innovative products on the market. To meet the far-ranging needs of that market - made up of both small businesses and large companies - it was essential to acquire technologies that allow highly flexible production.
The Cefla Finishing solution
The first industrial coating system supplied by Cefla proved to be a huge leap forward for Global Design. It allowed a switch from manual, small-scale processes to automated ones that are well-suited to the production of batches small and large. Excimer drying technology didn’t just deliver flexibility: it also meant Global Design could offer products with better surface performance, creating a unique competitive advantage.
Results
In just a few years Global Design has grown from a small-scale workshop into a full-blown factory with a floor space of over 30,000 square metres. Cutting-edge industrial processes and advanced technology have made it a key player in Romania’s furniture industry, a company renowned for quality, reliability and price competitiveness.
Global Design: from workshop to factory thanks to Cefla technology
“At present, Global Design has 350 employees. We produce and distribute furniture and furnishing components for both small-scale and industrial concerns, nationwide.”
Florin Croitoriu, Founder of Global Design
Every great company is defined by crucial moments that shape its history. In the case of Global Design, one of these key moments occurred in 2010 when the company - then still a small workshop - was invited to attend an event at Cefla's headquarters in Imola. From that point on, Cefla Finishing became a source of inspiration and, subsequently, Global Design’s main technological partner. Marinela Croitoriu, owner of Global Design, states: “Cefla has been an inspiration for us since 2010 when, together with our business partners, we visited their main plant during the Cefla Live event”.
The Cefla Finishing LAB: where innovation takes shape
The visit to Cefla or, rather, the Cefla Finishing LAB, was a pivotal moment that shaped the future of Global Design.
But what is the LAB?
Our LAB is a facility dedicated to studying machines, experimenting with new solutions, performing productivity tests and calculating the ROI of finishing processes. Thanks to close collaboration between customers, Cefla technicians and industrial partners - such as coating manufacturers - the LAB is the ideal place to develop innovative, customised solutions for each company, ensuring excellent results.
For those not yet familiar with Cefla’s know-how, the LAB offers a valuable opportunity to test solutions and see the results delivered by the most modern technologies. Here, you can observe over one hundred Cefla Finishing machines in action, design complete processes and plan your company’s future.
The goals of the new finishing plant
What was Global Design's approach to its future? The company immediately focused on innovation and flexibility, key concepts that became tangible parts of the new finishing plant.
The driving force was innovation: Gabriel Nimitan, Technical Director of Global Design, points out: “Thanks to teamwork with Cefla, we’ve succeeded in internally developing unrivalled lacquered panel production technology”.
Furthermore, flexibility has guided the entire design of the new plant, yielding results that are unprecedented in Romania. “Today we have the only technology in Romania capable of delivering maximum flexibility”, observed the Technical Manager.
Thanks to Cefla technology, Global Design can process 12,000 panels a day in a wide range of decorations, sizes, shapes and models. Productivity is ultra-high, as is the variety and manufacturing flexibility provided to their customers.
Cefla technology: merging efficiency and customisation
While the company has grown considerably thanks to investment in technology, the outstanding flexibility of Cefla-supplied solutions has allowed Global Design to continue providing their customers with a made-to-measure service. This has expanded the range of finishes and removed production limits: it’s also strengthened a core element of the company's business, namely consultancy and design.
But which technologies have allowed this combination of customisation and efficiency? Firstly, those that minimise machine downtimes related to maintenance and colour changeovers. Having to stop the line to produce numerous customised small batches can have a huge impact on manufacturing efficiency. This is why optimising the colour changeover process was crucial to obtaining a flexible, efficient line.
The solutions delivered to Global Design include iBotic, a Cartesian coating robot with interpolated axes, perfect for high output capacities and maximum quality. What makes iBotic so special is that it can work simultaneously on pieces of different shape and thickness, with the conveyor either at standstill or moving, in tracking mode.
Surface durability: the new frontier of finishing
In 2021, Global Design decided to expand its range by introducing matt finishes with a soft-touch feel that offer exceptionally high surface resistance to scratching and wear, launching INFINIT-MAT on the market.
The finishing line was therefore upgraded with the Exydry excimer oven. This solution adopts new, patented, sustainable drying technology. This not only ensures a finish with outstanding aesthetics and durability: it’s also suitable for 3D surfaces, such as shaped panels. “This result could not have been achieved without support from a partner like Cefla. They deliver consistent professionalism, day after day, in the form of assistance and maintenance services, responding effectively to our every request”, commented Gabriel Nimitan.
The partnership with Cefla Finishing
The alliance between Global Design and Cefla Finishing was crucial to the success of the new production line. Global Design fully believed in their partnership with Cefla, seeing in them the perfect partner with which to achieved their quality, reliability and productivity goals.
A key factor in this partnership was the prompt assistance provided every step of the way: from the initial design of the new plant to its implementation, from technical support to training. Marinela Croitoriu highlighted the constant helpfulness of Cefla’s professionals, an aspect that has made the partnership a lasting one.
Global Design has become a modern factory with over 30,000 square metres of floor space and 350 employees. Thanks to cutting-edge industrial processes and advanced technology, it has established itself as a pivotal player on the furniture scene in Romania and is renowned for its quality, reliability and price competitiveness.
“I thoroughly recommend Cefla: their skills helped us gain entry to the market with innovative products, allowing us to set ourselves apart from the competition."
Marinela Croitoriu - Owner of Global Design
