How long does custom furniture from Foshan take? A 100-day schedule

In short

Our master schedule for one order to Sydney totals about 100 days.
Order confirmation takes 10 days, production 60 and sea freight 30.
Production splits into start-up (5 days), mid-stage progress (45) and finished-goods inspection (10).
Every stage names a control point, an owner, an output document and a risk.

On the master schedule we run for an order to Sydney, custom furniture takes about 100 days: 10 for order confirmation, 60 for production and 30 for sea freight. The split is roughly 10, 60 and 30 per cent. Your category, quantity and destination will move it.

Source: the master progress schedule used with the manufacturer on a Sydney order. It is a planning document, not a promise; dates on a live order are tracked against it week by week.

Master progress schedule: order confirmation, production, inspection and sea freight — The schedule itself: stages, checkpoints, planned days, owners, output documents and risk warnings

What happens in the first 10 days?

Order confirmation locks the design. The purchase order and contract, drawing sizes, materials, colours, hardware, shipping marks, delivery date and payment terms are verified. The outputs are an order confirmation, final drawings, a bill of materials, colour swatch and sample confirmation, and the deposit received. The schedule’s own warning: incomplete information, design revisions or late payment push everything after it.

Sofa structure drawing with dimensions — Sofa structure and dimension drawing

Fabric colour cards for custom upholstery — Fabric colour cards for sign-off

How do the 60 production days break down?

Production, days 11–70From the schedule

Stage	Days	Control point	Output
Production start	5	Pre-production meeting: process route, materials in stock, first-article criteria	Production schedule, material inspection records, first-article confirmation
Mid-stage progress	45	Carpentry, sanding, lacquering, upholstery and outsourced parts; dimensions and structure checked	Weekly updates with photos, videos and a list of open issues
Finished-goods inspection	10	Size, colour, surface, hardware, stability, quantity and safe edges against the order and drawings	Final inspection report and closed rectification records

Two rules in the schedule are worth quoting. Products with unfinished rectification may not be packed. And any critical non-conformity means the shipment date is re-evaluated, not quietly kept.

Foam layers cut and colour-blocked before upholstery — Foam layers before upholstery

What happens between the factory and the port?

Packing and shipment is its own stage. The packaging plan, corner and moisture protection, anti-scratch wrapping, carton marks, packing list, loading order and loading photos are checked. The documents are a packing list, a commercial invoice, container loading photos, a shipping advice and a draft bill of lading. The risk named: broken packages, wrong carton marks and mismatched paperwork delay clearance and receiving.

And the 30 days at sea?

ETD and ETA, the vessel schedule, the bill of lading, insurance, the destination notice, clearance documents and the final delivery arrangement are followed up. Early alerts are required for vessel delays, cargo inspections, port congestion and incomplete paperwork.

What this means for an overseas buyer

Ask for the schedule before the deposit, and ask which document proves each stage is finished. The five gates on our How It Works page map onto these stages. If your site has a fixed date, work back from it and add time for the destination leg, which this schedule ends before.