Large open concept kitchens are the heart of the home. Multifunctional furniture allows for a nearly borderless transition between rooms, linking the living area to the functional area. Stand-alone furniture, such as open storage racks or storage racks closed with sliding doors, free-standing sideboards, highboards and lowboards or representative display cabinets, is not only an expression of individuality. It also creates links between rooms and sets design highlights. That means, not only wood and wood decors but also concrete and cement design as well as wall stone or quarry stone decors are conquering the kitchen. This trend allows kitchen furniture manufacturers to expand their portfolios, including living and dining furniture. Hence they may, in the future, also furnish utility rooms or dressing rooms. 

„Kitchens have long become a multi-functional area located at the heart of the house composition and will be used even more increasingly as a place for family and friends, becoming the central room in a home.“
Ulrich W. Siekmann, CEO of SieMatic and grandson of the founder August Siekmann

The open floor plan design creates an atmosphere of generosity particularly in small homes. This concept increases the importance of functional convertible furniture that optimizes space utilization, simultaneously providing maximum storage space and comfort. Innovative storage solutions and special drawer organization systems, silent closing and opening, handleless design as well as intelligent niche solutions can largely contribute to this end.

„Especially in big cities, lack of affordable housing and limited space require design concepts that ensure optimum utilization of the available space. Handleless aesthetics and well-structured play an important role in this process.”
Dr. Oliver Streit, managing director at nobilia

„An important trend is the individualized planning for utility rooms with smart concepts in comfort and ergonomic design. They open up new possibilities to interior designers.“ 
Roger Klinkenberg, managing director at pronorm Einbauküchen

The environmental awareness of consumers has been growing steadily. They not only want elegant and functional kitchen furniture, they also want to be certain that the furniture has been produced in a fair and sustainable manner from natural or even recyclable materials.

"The fabrication of healthy kitchens and sustainable economic activity in all areas of the company ensure further growth. Therefore, being committed to sustainable development, our philosophy is to achieve transparency."
Jochen Finkemeier, managing director and limited partner of the company Häcker Küchen

„From 2020 on we are going to produce completely climate-neutral. At our 2019 in-house exhibition we were able to demonstrate that good design and sustainable action are not conflicting goals but objectives that complement each other in a wonderful way.“
Sven Herden, sales and marketing managing director at Rotpunkt Küchen

The modular, customer-specific manufacturing systems of the IMA Schelling Group form the basis for meeting these design trends and consumer behaviour. The solution concepts of the technology leader for digitized, fully automated and networked batch-size-1 production enable cost-effective and at the same time resources-saving manufacturing of (kitchen) furniture that meets the highest standards.

For example, the edge banding machines of the Novimat and Combima series offer numerous possibilities for particularly high-value and at the same time extremely efficient edge processing. Specifically the Laser Edging method enables flawless and seamless edge banding even of the most demanding decorative surfaces. In this process, a diode laser allows for a seamless joint between the edging and the panel. Complemented by an individually configurable fine finishing zone, the edge banding systems fulfil the greatest demands on quality.

The flexible response to quick product changes requires appropriate logistics and storage systems. With the holistic solutions of the IMA Schelling Group, a broad variety of types, high degree of automation and excellent performance are guaranteed. Individualized storage systems based on area storage systems or high-rise storage systems as well as miscellaneous sorting concepts, including also robot-assisted sorting cells, give the user the possibility to react fast and in a flexible way to varying sizes and types of parts. At the same time, efficient and material-compatible storage and sorting is ensured. In this process, the sorting and buffering systems substantially improve the efficiency of the downstream process steps.

For IMA Schelling, efficiency always implies energy and material efficiency. Hence, sophisticated production processes, material-saving panel cutting solutions and air-flow-optimised extraction systems which are only active when dust and chips are actually produced contribute to sustainable and eco-friendly production. But demand-dependent energy supply and optimized material utilization in conjunction with possible waste avoidance not only help the environment. Also the user of energy and resources saving units profits from measurable economic advantages as well as from a better working environment for its employees.