Megafactories: IKEA

It was interesting that the Megafactories episode started with an explanation of IKEA's roots which are very far from megafactory.  IKEA got it's start as a service by a young man how made furniture that people could order from a catalog, and then had it delivered. This process of building and delivering created some of the ideals that makes IKEA successful today. These are making affordable, light weight furniture that can be packed flat and assembled at home to reduce shipping cost and hardship. Today IKEA has expanded that vision to the worlds largest furniture supply company with 300 stores, 42 distribution centers and over a hundred suppliers all over the world. IKEA has patented some methods of making strong light weight furniture such as a specific form of veneered particle board that often incorporates the scrap material created by other factories and wood panels with a cardboard honey comb interior structure for support. These make for products that can be carried packed and shipped by customers in their cars, dramatically reducing cost. For this same purpose all of IkEA's products are designed to be modular so that parts can be quickly made in the factories and then easily assembled at home by the average person. Factories create incredible quantities of products, but according to IKEA any given factory may only produce somewhere around 20 different types of product for the sake of streamlining.