5 ms·

IKEA Gets Deeper into the Woods

31 points by fillskills 11y ago

4ndr3vv 11y ago
Around the paywall https://archive.is/qRnWv https://archive.is/qRnWv
- onre 11y ago
  Off-topic but slightly interesting: Apparently archive.is blocks Finnish IP addresses. Additionally, my ISP does not even resolve an A record for archive.is. No idea why.
  - kiiski 11y ago
    Wikipedia has this[1] (sourced [2]): > On July 21, 2015, the operators blocked access to the service from all Finnish IP addresses, stating on Twitter they did this in order to avoid escalating a dispute they allegedly had with the Finnish government, that they refused to provide additional information on. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is#Worldwide_availability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is#Worldwide_availabil... [2]: https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/623524336184524800 https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/623524336184524800
staticelf 11y ago
Why link to a paywalled article? I'm not going to purchase a subscription.
SixSigma 11y ago
Vertical integration is so passé. Now you've got two problems, you'll end up competing with your other wood suppliersor supply your furniture competitors. Using the profit from your core business to prop up the weak one; whichever way round that ends up being. The world just spent the last decade de-integrating.
- GFischer 11y ago
  I would agree with you if it were a smaller company, but at IKEA's volume, it does make sense. Also, it's "mainstream" again, with Apple as the trendsetter. http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Vertical-Integration-2-0-An-Old-Strategy-Makes-a-Comeback?gko=41fe1 http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Vertical-Integration-2... http://business.time.com/2012/03/16/how-apple-made-vertical-integration-hot-again-too-hot-maybe/ http://business.time.com/2012/03/16/how-apple-made-vertical-...
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Delta Airlines owns a refinery, Tesla is building their own Battery factory; Vertical integration is alive and well.
- hessenwolf 11y ago
  Tell that to the supply line risk manager at Boeing or Airbus. They might look like they are not vertically integrated, but the level of control they have muddies the water.
  - SixSigma 11y ago
    Control is not ownership, many supply lines have SLAs with very tight KPIs. Boeing and Airbus do not build their own engines for instance.
jessaustin 11y ago
My impression is that IKEA products already use a bare minimum of wood. If they make things even thinner, there won't be much reason to shop there instead of just buying the cardboard stuff at Wal-Mart.
- blackbeard 11y ago
  I've stopped buying IKEA products for this reason. They are never durable. The unit surfaces get pitted and discoloured easily and things warp over time. It's crap basically. I have to replace it all every 4-5 years. The last cycle I threw some cash at some quality solid wood products. They're a better investment.
  - anton_gogolev 11y ago
    IKEA has plenty of solid wood furniture, but style-wise these items are very different from the fiberwood crap.
  - Brakenshire 11y ago
    I've had quite a lot of good furniture from there, which has lasted more than a decade. I think they carry crap and they carry things which are well made and well designed. There does recently seem to be more crap, though. I tried to buy a floor lamp from there a couple of months ago, and they seemed to be basically not charging enough to be able to make their designs to a decent standard. If you're going to make a floor lamp for £30-40, just make it simple, don't put in a lot of hinges which aren't properly secured or balanced, or snake-like fittings which make loud groaning noises every time they are moved. Ironically I got something less ambitious and better designed from the local anonymous hardware store. Disappointing to see a company like IKEA which is supposed to be all about thought-out industrial design making mistakes like that.
    - blackbeard 11y ago
      Yes definitely. I have a floor lamp from them as well and the metal was so thin it folded the first time it was moved so now it's a metal and duct tape lamp :)
bechampion 11y ago
why are you linking an article that requires membership, at least pastebin the content.
- adultSwim 11y ago
  Ugh, I know! If I'm going to consume professionally made content, I at least want it to be stolen first. Corollary: this is why I'm sure to never be paid for my own work.
simi_ 11y ago
As a Romanian, I'm livid. We've had huge problems with illegal deforestation in the last couple of decades. https://www.google.com/search?q=romania+deforestation https://www.google.com/search?q=romania+deforestation
- tim333 11y ago
  Ikea say "operating forests would help it secure long-term access to sustainably managed wood." ie. replanting and harvesting, not deforesting.
  - simi_ 11y ago
    I'm not entirely skeptical of how ethical their exploitation will be conducted, I'm just raising the point that we're a country with heavily affected (ex-)forests. Moreover, there's a rich recent history of external interests being facilitated by our ultra-corrupt government, to rather devastating effects.
dang 11y ago
This story was wrongly buried by user flags. I'm guessing this was because of the WSJ paywall. This is not a legitimate use of flagging on HN. Academic journals that are truly locked down are one thing, but nearly every media paywall has a standard workaround. This is the case with NYT, Economist, New Yorker, WSJ, and other sources. fillskills was entirely right to post this article, which is interesting and on topic. It's fine to help other users get to read the article. It's not fine to take threads off-topic by complaining about paywalls. When I have time, I'm going to update the FAQ about this, but anyone who wants to can read through the many previous discussions we've had about it [1]. As far as I'm concerned the question is settled: we're not going to impoverish HN by banning sources of good stories that are readable by everyone with known workarounds. Good stories are scarce enough as it is. 1. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment&query=by:dang%20paywall https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=...

31 points by fillskills 11y ago

4ndr3vv 11y ago

Around the paywall https://archive.is/qRnWv https://archive.is/qRnWv

onre 11y ago
Off-topic but slightly interesting: Apparently archive.is blocks Finnish IP addresses. Additionally, my ISP does not even resolve an A record for archive.is. No idea why.
- kiiski 11y ago
  Wikipedia has this[1] (sourced [2]): > On July 21, 2015, the operators blocked access to the service from all Finnish IP addresses, stating on Twitter they did this in order to avoid escalating a dispute they allegedly had with the Finnish government, that they refused to provide additional information on. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is#Worldwide_availability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive.is#Worldwide_availabil... [2]: https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/623524336184524800 https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/623524336184524800

staticelf 11y ago

Why link to a paywalled article? I'm not going to purchase a subscription.

SixSigma 11y ago

Vertical integration is so passé. Now you've got two problems, you'll end up competing with your other wood suppliersor supply your furniture competitors. Using the profit from your core business to prop up the weak one; whichever way round that ends up being. The world just spent the last decade de-integrating.

GFischer 11y ago
I would agree with you if it were a smaller company, but at IKEA's volume, it does make sense. Also, it's "mainstream" again, with Apple as the trendsetter. http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Vertical-Integration-2-0-An-Old-Strategy-Makes-a-Comeback?gko=41fe1 http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Vertical-Integration-2... http://business.time.com/2012/03/16/how-apple-made-vertical-integration-hot-again-too-hot-maybe/ http://business.time.com/2012/03/16/how-apple-made-vertical-...
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Delta Airlines owns a refinery, Tesla is building their own Battery factory; Vertical integration is alive and well.
hessenwolf 11y ago
Tell that to the supply line risk manager at Boeing or Airbus. They might look like they are not vertically integrated, but the level of control they have muddies the water.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  Control is not ownership, many supply lines have SLAs with very tight KPIs. Boeing and Airbus do not build their own engines for instance.

jessaustin 11y ago

My impression is that IKEA products already use a bare minimum of wood. If they make things even thinner, there won't be much reason to shop there instead of just buying the cardboard stuff at Wal-Mart.

blackbeard 11y ago
I've stopped buying IKEA products for this reason. They are never durable. The unit surfaces get pitted and discoloured easily and things warp over time. It's crap basically. I have to replace it all every 4-5 years. The last cycle I threw some cash at some quality solid wood products. They're a better investment.
- anton_gogolev 11y ago
  IKEA has plenty of solid wood furniture, but style-wise these items are very different from the fiberwood crap.
- Brakenshire 11y ago
  I've had quite a lot of good furniture from there, which has lasted more than a decade. I think they carry crap and they carry things which are well made and well designed. There does recently seem to be more crap, though. I tried to buy a floor lamp from there a couple of months ago, and they seemed to be basically not charging enough to be able to make their designs to a decent standard. If you're going to make a floor lamp for £30-40, just make it simple, don't put in a lot of hinges which aren't properly secured or balanced, or snake-like fittings which make loud groaning noises every time they are moved. Ironically I got something less ambitious and better designed from the local anonymous hardware store. Disappointing to see a company like IKEA which is supposed to be all about thought-out industrial design making mistakes like that.
  - blackbeard 11y ago
    Yes definitely. I have a floor lamp from them as well and the metal was so thin it folded the first time it was moved so now it's a metal and duct tape lamp :)

bechampion 11y ago

why are you linking an article that requires membership, at least pastebin the content.

adultSwim 11y ago
Ugh, I know! If I'm going to consume professionally made content, I at least want it to be stolen first. Corollary: this is why I'm sure to never be paid for my own work.

simi_ 11y ago

As a Romanian, I'm livid. We've had huge problems with illegal deforestation in the last couple of decades. https://www.google.com/search?q=romania+deforestation https://www.google.com/search?q=romania+deforestation

tim333 11y ago
Ikea say "operating forests would help it secure long-term access to sustainably managed wood." ie. replanting and harvesting, not deforesting.
- simi_ 11y ago
  I'm not entirely skeptical of how ethical their exploitation will be conducted, I'm just raising the point that we're a country with heavily affected (ex-)forests. Moreover, there's a rich recent history of external interests being facilitated by our ultra-corrupt government, to rather devastating effects.

dang 11y ago

This story was wrongly buried by user flags. I'm guessing this was because of the WSJ paywall. This is not a legitimate use of flagging on HN. Academic journals that are truly locked down are one thing, but nearly every media paywall has a standard workaround. This is the case with NYT, Economist, New Yorker, WSJ, and other sources. fillskills was entirely right to post this article, which is interesting and on topic. It's fine to help other users get to read the article. It's not fine to take threads off-topic by complaining about paywalls. When I have time, I'm going to update the FAQ about this, but anyone who wants to can read through the many previous discussions we've had about it [1]. As far as I'm concerned the question is settled: we're not going to impoverish HN by banning sources of good stories that are readable by everyone with known workarounds. Good stories are scarce enough as it is. 1. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment&query=by:dang%20paywall https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=...