"With a wood table the production of all parts takes much more labour"
No, they don't.
Really.
This is a pretty trivial application of CNC.
I CNC table legs on my simple one, and have designed much larger CNC automations for local shops that CNC them.
The people who are doing it at factory scale would find this utterly trivial.
" and high quality wood furniture is usually made of parts that have exact measurements and specifications for that particular model of table."
This doesn't mean anything to the robots.
Really.
They just don't care.
They are already automatically referencing and aligning things to get them square.
They use lasers or other sensors plus vacuum to automatically align it to alignment pins within 0.001".
Just not a big deal.
"Wood is also a live material; no two pieces are alike (this holds true from the unprocessed logs to the finished table legs)."
Again, sorry. I pay my supplier for 90% red cherry. I could pay him for 100% red cherry.
If you think i can't make a computer grain match stuff, etc, i don't know what to tell you. more automated cnc cabinet shops do it all day long.
" Lumber also needs time to acclimatize, so the whole resources to product cycle takes a lot longer (increasing storage costs)."
No, it doesn't, it's kiln dried, and the only thing that matters is the climate it's going to.
For what is being done to it (making a table), it doesn't matter since the top will be floating anyway.
"Also, unless you are Ikea, a globally operating corporation can sell a lot more TVs than dining tables.
"
This is literally the only reason: People don't want it compared to the ikea furniture. They don't care, and aren't or can't pay a premium.
No, they don't. Really. This is a pretty trivial application of CNC.
I CNC table legs on my simple one, and have designed much larger CNC automations for local shops that CNC them. The people who are doing it at factory scale would find this utterly trivial.
" and high quality wood furniture is usually made of parts that have exact measurements and specifications for that particular model of table."
This doesn't mean anything to the robots. Really. They just don't care. They are already automatically referencing and aligning things to get them square. They use lasers or other sensors plus vacuum to automatically align it to alignment pins within 0.001".
Just not a big deal.
"Wood is also a live material; no two pieces are alike (this holds true from the unprocessed logs to the finished table legs)." Again, sorry. I pay my supplier for 90% red cherry. I could pay him for 100% red cherry. If you think i can't make a computer grain match stuff, etc, i don't know what to tell you. more automated cnc cabinet shops do it all day long.
" Lumber also needs time to acclimatize, so the whole resources to product cycle takes a lot longer (increasing storage costs)."
No, it doesn't, it's kiln dried, and the only thing that matters is the climate it's going to. For what is being done to it (making a table), it doesn't matter since the top will be floating anyway.
"Also, unless you are Ikea, a globally operating corporation can sell a lot more TVs than dining tables. "
This is literally the only reason: People don't want it compared to the ikea furniture. They don't care, and aren't or can't pay a premium.