Inside The Factory - Series 8

Episode
Episode 9 - Sofas
Broadcast Info
2024 (59 mins)
Description
Gregg Wallace explores the HSL factory in West Yorkshire to find out how they make more than five thousand sofas every year. The huge site has 250 staff dedicated to furniture making. Gregg is following production of one of their bestselling sofas, the Burros Classic in indigo. Sofas may look like a simple item of furniture but hidden inside they are a complex feat of design; a jigsaw puzzle of wood, foam and fabric. The process begins at the intake area where Gregg meets Head of Manufacturing, Charlotte Akroyd who is overseeing a delivery of plywood for the sofa frame. Plywood is made up of five individual sheets of wood with alternating grain that are glued and compressed, providing superior strength. Birch timber and MDF are also used, but Gregg follows the plywood to the frame cutting department where an automated specialist cutting machine uses multiple tools to create a giant jigsaw puzzle of parts. At the busy frame building department, ten thousand wooden pieces are worked on every day to form the skeleton of the sofas. Gregg helps to put together one of the most complex sections of the sofa, the arm, using nuts, glue and staples. On other workstations the rest of the frame including the base and the back come together. Of course, a sofa will need a cover so in the sewing department Gregg watches on as 48 pieces are sewn together by Joanne, one of 23 machinists. Sewing all the individual sections together is a tricky job and requires supreme skill and concentration. Next Gregg follows the fabric to the upholstery department where he learns that the factory is a proper family affair. Four brothers work in a line, transforming the frames from hard wooden structures into soft, comfortable sofas. First, Nathan shows Gregg how foam is layered on the arm section, before he attaches the fabric, carefully pleating around a curve of the wood - a highly skilled job. Then it’s on to Nathan’s brother, Danny who adds webbing to the back section to provide support. Then, Connor adds springs to the base which will take the weight of the customer, followed by some padding. Then, the whole lot is covered in the indigo-coloured fabric. Gregg helps to bolt the two arms, back and base of the sofa together, then it’s ready for the cushions. With the help of an ingenious machine which squashes the foam into half its size, Gregg slides cushion covers over the top and places four of them onto the sofa. The last step is to screw four wooden feet to the bottom, and then it’s time for one very important test - sitting on it! One day and seven hours after production began, Gregg sees his finished sofa wrapped up, loaded on to a lorry and depart the factory. Elsewhere in the episode, Cherry Healey learns about the science of light bulbs to create the perfect environment to snuggle up on the sofa; and visits a foam factory to see how comfy padding is produced in just a few minutes. Historian Ruth Goodman takes a front row seat to discover the history of the sofa; and stitches together the fascinating story of one of the world’s most famous sewing machines.
Genre
Science; Technology

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Inside The Factory - Series 8". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/248376 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)