雙語閱讀｜宜家的畢利書櫃是如何征服世界的？

The Billy bookcase is perhaps the archetypal Ikea product.

畢利書櫃大概是宜家最為典型的產品。

It was dreamed up in 1978 by an Ikea designer called Gillis Lundgren who sketched it on the back of a napkin, worried that he would forget it.

它是由一位宜家的一位名叫吉利斯·倫德格倫的設計員在1978年設計的。吉利斯·倫德格倫生怕會忘記自己的設想，便在一張紙巾上畫出了產品的設計圖。

Now there are 60-odd million in the world, nearly one for every 100 people - not bad for a humble bookcase.

目前世界上有6千多萬個這樣的書櫃。幾乎每100人中就有一個人有一個畢利書櫃。對於一個基本款書櫃來說，這樣的情況算是很不錯的了。

In fact, so ubiquitous are they, Bloomberg uses them to compare purchasing power across the world.

事實上，這樣的書櫃隨處可見。彭博社因此還利用它們對世界各地的購買力進行了比較。

According to the Bloomberg Billy Bookcase Index - yes, that's a thing - they cost most in Egypt, just over $100 (£79), whereas in Slovakia you can get them for less than $40 (£31).

根據彭博社關於畢利書櫃的報道指出，畢利書櫃在埃及的價格最高，超過100美元（約79英鎊）。然而在斯洛伐克，只用40美元（約31英鎊）就能買到一個畢利書櫃。

Every three seconds, another Billy bookcase rolls off the production line of the Gyllensvaans Mobler factory in Kattilstorp, a tiny village in southern Sweden.

每三秒鐘就有一個畢利書櫃從Gyllensvaans Mobler工廠的生產線上下線。這個工廠坐落在瑞士南部一個叫Kattilstorp的小村莊里。

The factory's couple of hundred employees never actually touch a bookshelf - their job is to tend to the machines, imported from Germany and Japan, which work constantly, to cut, glue, drill and pack the various component parts of the Billy bookcase.

工廠里的兩百多名工人不是用手工製造書架的。他們甚至很少會用手觸碰書架，他們的工作就是操作那些從德國和日本進口來的機器。這些機器會不停地對書櫃的組成元件進行切割，粘黏，鑽孔和包裝的工作。

In goes particle board by the lorry load, 600 tonnes a day, and out come ready-boxed products, stacked six-by-three on pallets and ready for the lorries.

每天有600噸的顆粒板由貨車運進來，運出去的是已經裝箱的產品，堆疊在貨盤上等待貨車的到來。

Framed on the wall in the factory's reception is a typewritten letter - the company's very first furniture-making order from Ikea in 1952.

在工廠接待處的牆上掛著一封列印的信件。這是這個工廠1952年來自宜家的第一個傢具製作訂單。

Ikea was not, back then, the global behemoth of today, with stores in dozens of countries and turnover in the tens of billions.

當時宜家還不是全球性的大公司，也沒有在幾十個國家有商場，更沒有上百億的交易額。

Its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was just 17 when he started the business with a small gift of cash from his father, a reward for trying hard at school despite dyslexia.

它的創辦人英瓦爾-坎普拉德在創辦宜家的時候才17歲。他用來創辦宜家的資金是父親給他的刻苦學習的獎勵。儘管他當時有閱讀障礙。

Light bulb moment

靈光一現

By 1952, aged 26, Ingvar already had a 100-page furniture catalogue, but had not yet hit on the idea of flat-packing.

到1952年，當時26歲的英瓦爾已經有一百頁紙多的傢具商品目錄。然而那時的他還沒想到平面包裝這個點子。

That came a few years later, as he and his company's fourth employee - Gillis Lundgren - were packing a car with furniture for a catalogue photo shoot.

這個點子是他和公司的第四位加入的成員吉利斯·倫德格倫想到的，當時他們正在包裝一輛裝滿要去拍樣本目錄的傢具的車。

"This table takes up too much darn space," Gillis said. "We should unscrew the legs."

「這個桌子佔據太大空間了，我們應該把它桌腿的螺絲擰下來，」吉利斯說。

宜家創始人Ingvar Kamprad曾在全球富豪排行榜上排名第八

It was a light bulb moment.

這是一個高光時刻。

.

Kamprad was already obsessed with cutting prices - so obsessed, some manufacturers had started to boycott him. One way to keep prices low is to sell furniture in bits, rather than paying labourers to assemble it.

坎普拉德幾乎是對降價著迷了。以至於一些製造商開始聯合抵制他。保持低價的一個方法就是將傢具以元件的方式賣出去，而不是雇傭工人來進行組裝它們。

Even bigger savings come from precisely the problem that inspired Gillis Lundgren: transport.

確切地說來，甚至更大的成本節省是自讓一個讓Gillis Lundgren能突發奇想的問題：物流運輸。

Constant tweaks

不斷調整

In 2010, for example, Ikea rethought the design of its Ektorp sofa and made the armrests detachable.

例如，在2010年，宜家重新改變它的愛克托沙發的設計，將沙發扶手改成是可以拆卸的。

That helped halve the size of the packaging, which halved the number of lorries needed to get the sofas from factory to warehouse, and warehouse to shop. And that lopped a seventh off the price.

這使得包裝的規模小了一半，運輸的卡車數量也減少了一半。這些貨車要把沙發從工廠運到貨倉，再從貨倉運到商店。通過這樣的方式，可以節省下七分之一的價格。

Consider another Ikea icon: the Bang mug.

再說到宜家另外一個明星產品: 馬克杯

You have probably had a drink from one - with yearly sales reaching 25 million, there are plenty knocking around.

你或許也用過這個杯子喝過水。它的年銷售量達到2500萬個，大量的產品在市場上出售。

Its design is distinctive - wide at the top, tapering downwards with a small handle, right by the rim - and is not motivated purely by aesthetics.

它的設計是很獨特的，開口很廣，向下逐漸變小，在邊緣還有一個小手柄，這樣的設計不僅僅是處於美學的考慮。

Ikea changed the height of the mug when it realised it could make slightly better use of the space in its supplier's kiln, in Romania.

宜家調整了馬可杯的高度，是因為他們意識到這個調整可以更好的利用羅馬尼亞供應商的燒窯的空間。

And tweaking the handle design made them stack more compactly - more than doubling the number you could fit on a pallet, more than halving the cost of getting them from the kiln in Romania to the shelves in the shop.

調整了這些杯子的手柄之後，它們更容易被放置成整齊的一摞。相比於之前，它們可以被加倍放在一個托盤裡。在羅馬尼亞的燒窯和商店貨架擺放所花的成本也減少了不止一半。

It has been a similar story with the Billy bookcase.

畢利書櫃的設計也是如此。

It does not look like it has changed much since 1978, yet it costs 30% less. That is partly due to constant, tiny tweaks in both product and production method.

從外表看起來，和1978年的時候相比，畢利書櫃的變化並不是很大。但是它的造價卻降低了30%。部分原因是在產品和生產方法上進行了一系列小的調整。

But it is also thanks to sheer economies of scale.

當然這也要歸功於它的大規模經濟。

Look at Gyllensvaans Mobler: compared to the 1980s, it is making 37 times as many bookcases, yet its number of employees has only doubled. Of course, that is thanks to all those German and Japanese robots.

再來看看Gyllensvaans Mobler 工廠：與80年代相比，現在書櫃的生產量是以前的37倍，而工廠里工人的數量卻只增加了一倍。當然，這也得歸功於工廠里所引進的德國和日本的機器。

Yet a business needs confidence to sink so much money into machinery, especially when it has no other client: pretty much all Gyllensvaans Mobler does is make bookcases for Ikea.

然而一個企業需要自信才敢在器械方面投入如此多的資金。尤其是在沒有其它的客戶的情況下。Gyllensvaans Mobler 所做的生產工作幾乎都是在為宜家製造書櫃。

Consider the Bang mug again. Initially, Ikea asked a supplier to price up a million units in the first year. Then it asked: "What if we commit to five million a year for three years?" That cut the cost by a 10th.

再次回到馬克杯。最初，宜家要求一個供應商在第一年時提高一百萬個杯子的價格。接下來他們又問：「如果我們承諾為一年500萬個，連續三年，會怎麼樣呢？」這最終為他們節省下十分之一的花費。

Not much, perhaps, but every penny counts. Just ask the famously penny-pinching Ingvar Kamprad: in a rare interview, to mark his 90th birthday, Mr Kamprad said he was wearing clothes he had bought at a flea market.

這個數字不算特別多，但是每一分錢都有價值。節儉吝嗇出名的英瓦爾-坎普拉德，在其90歲生日慶典的一次採訪表示，他當時身上所穿的衣服是他以前在一個跳蚤市場上買的。

He is said to fly economy and drive an old Volvo. This frugality may help to explain why he is the world's eighth-richest man - although the four decades he spent living in Switzerland to avoid Swedish taxes may also have something to do with it.

據說他會在乘飛機是選擇經濟艙和出行時乘坐一輛老沃爾沃。這些簡樸行為也解釋了為什麼他能成為世界上第八個最富有的人。雖然也有人認為這和他為了躲避瑞士的稅收在瑞典住了40多年也有一定的關係。

Anyone can make shoddy, ugly goods by cutting corners. And anyone can make elegant, sturdy products by throwing money at them.

任何人都可以通過偷工減料來製造劣質，醜陋的商品。任何人也可以通過投入資金來製造雅緻的，堅固的商品。

Boringly efficient systems

乏味高效的系統

To get as rich as Mr Kamprad has, you have to make stuff that is both cheap and acceptably good.

想要和英瓦爾-坎普拉一樣富有，你必須要製造出物美價廉的商品。

That is what seems to explain the enduring popularity of the Billy.

這似乎也可以用來解釋為什麼畢利經久不衰。

"Simple, practical and timeless," is how Gillis Lundgren once described the designs he hoped to create, and the Billy is surprisingly well-accepted by the type of people you might expect to be sniffy about mass-produced MDF.

「簡單，實用和耐用，」吉利斯·倫德格倫曾經這樣形容他所想要設計得傢具。令人驚訝地是，畢利書櫃被一種類型的人群所廣泛接受。這一類人群是以前在你看來很可能會對批量生產的中密度纖維板嗤之以鼻的。

Sophie Donelson edits the interiors magazine House Beautiful. She told AdWeek the Billy was "unfussy" and "unfettered", and "modern without trying too hard".

索菲· 唐尼爾森是室內設計雜誌 《美麗家居》（House Beautiful）的編輯。她向《廣告周刊》（AdWeek）表示，畢利書櫃「不過分強調細節，不拘小節，沒有過分追求現代化」。

The company celebrated Billy's 30th birthday in 2010 on Australia's Bondi Beach

2010年，公司在澳大利亞的邦迪海灘慶祝畢利書櫃面世30周年

Furniture designer Matthew Hilton praises an interesting quality: anonymity. Interiors creative Mat Sanders agrees, declaring that Ikea is "a great place for basic you can really dress up to make feel high-end".

傢具設計師馬修·希爾頓稱讚宜家還有一個有趣的品質：單調性。室內設計創意人士馬特·桑德斯表示同意，他宣稱宜家是「一個提供基本傢具的好地方，你可以利用這些基本的東西裝飾出高端的感覺。」

The Billy is a bare-bones, functional bookshelf if that is all you want from it, or it is a blank canvas for creativity.

如果你想要一個基本款的書櫃，那畢利書櫃正是你所需要的，它就像是一張等待創意填充的空白畫布。

On ikeahackers.net you will see it repurposed as everything from a wine rack to a room divider to a baby-changing station.

在 ikeahackers.net的網站上，你可以看到畢利書櫃有很多用法，比如用作酒架、屏風或者是嬰兒換尿布桌。

But business and supply chain nerds do not admire the range for its modernity or flexibility.

但是，企業和供應鏈並不羨慕它的時尚性和自由性。

They admire it - and Ikea in general - for relentlessly finding ways to cut costs and prices without reducing the quality of the product.

他們讚賞的，總體來說是宜家不懈努力地去尋找降低成本和價格，而又不降低物品質量的行為。

It demonstrates that innovation in the modern economy is not just about snazzy new technologies, but also boringly efficient systems.

它很好的詮釋了，在現代經濟社會裡，創新不僅僅是注重時髦的新科技，而且還注重足夠有效的生產系統。

The Billy bookcase isn't innovative in the way that the iPhone is innovative.

畢利書櫃所走的創新道路與iPhone所走的創新道路是不同的。

The Billy innovations are about working within the limits of production and logistics, finding tiny ways to shave more off the cost, all while producing something that looks inoffensive and does the job.

畢利書櫃是在產品和物流限制範圍內進行創新，尋找方法來節省成本，同時生產令人滿意而又實用的商品。

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