Guides / Choosing a Factory
How Long a Furniture Order From Vietnam Actually Takes
August 17, 2026
Most delivery failures in furniture sourcing are planning failures rather than factory failures. The buyer counted from the wrong starting point, or assumed a stage could run in parallel when it cannot.
Here is the realistic shape of the schedule and where the time actually sits.
The stages, in order
Enquiry to quotation: 3 to 10 days. Longer if the specification is incomplete, because the factory has to ask and wait.
Quotation to sample: 2 to 4 weeks. Building the jigs is most of it. A complex shaped piece takes longer. A sample that arrives in three days was made at a bench by one skilled worker, which tells you little about production.
Sample revision rounds: 1 to 3 weeks each. Budget for at least one round. Colour matching alone often takes two. This is the stage buyers compress in their heads and then lose.
Approval to production start: 1 to 2 weeks. Deposit clearing, material purchasing, scheduling into the line.
Production: 35 to 80 days. Category dependent. Components and panels at the short end, outdoor and complex indoor furniture at the long end.
Inspection and loading: 3 to 7 days. A final random inspection plus container loading supervision.
Ocean freight. Roughly 18 to 30 days to the US west coast, 30 to 40 to the US east coast, 30 to 40 to northern Europe. Add port dwell and inland transport.
Add it up honestly and a first order from first contact to warehouse is commonly four to seven months. A repeat order on an approved product is much shorter, because the sampling stages disappear.
Where the time really goes inside production
Three stages inside the production window cannot be compressed, and they are the ones that get compressed anyway.
Kiln drying. A charge takes days to weeks depending on species and thickness. A factory that pulls a charge early hands you timber that is dry on the outside and wet in the core, and the failure shows up in your customer’s house. The moisture content guide covers why this matters more than anything else on this list.
Finish curing. Coats need drying time between them, and the final cure continues after the piece leaves the booth. Stacking pieces before the finish has hardened prints the surface. Paint is the worst offender because of the number of coats.
Subcontracted components. Metal frames, glass, stone, upholstery. The factory does not control these dates, and a subcontractor that slips takes your order with it. Ask for the subcontractor list early, as covered in the factory vetting guide.
The seasonal shape
Vietnam’s furniture year has a rhythm and it is worth planning around.
January or February: Tet. The lunar new year takes one to three weeks of full shutdown, and output around it is reduced for several weeks as workers travel. Many workers return late or do not return, so the weeks after Tet run with a partly new crew. Do not schedule a critical first production run into the month after Tet.
March to August: peak. Factories run retail programmes for the northern hemisphere autumn and winter season. Capacity is tight, quoted lead times stretch and factories are selective about new customers.
September to December: easier. Better availability, more attention on a new programme and more willingness to take a smaller order.
Outdoor furniture runs ahead of this. Northern hemisphere garden season buying happens in the second half of the previous year, so outdoor capacity books earlier than indoor.
If your programme can run in the quiet window, you will get a better MOQ, a better price and more attention. See the MOQ guide for how to trade timing against quantity.
Protecting a date that cannot move
Some dates are real: a retail set date, a hotel opening, a catalogue drop. For those, plan differently.
Work backwards and publish the plan. Give the factory the arrival date, not the shipping date, and let them tell you the production start it implies. Get it in writing.
Set interim milestones. Material purchased, first parts machined, first pieces in finish, packing started. A weekly photo against those milestones catches a slip in week three rather than week nine.
Book the vessel early. In peak season a container booking can be the constraint rather than production.
Split the shipment. Ship the first half when it is ready. It costs more in freight and it converts a total miss into a partial one.
Agree what happens on a slip. Air freight for a portion, a discount, or a revised date. Deciding this before it happens is worth more than a penalty clause you will not enforce on a factory you want to keep.
The one habit that prevents most slips
Approve the sample properly, once, rather than half approving it three times.
Most schedule loss happens in the revision loop, and most revision loops exist because the first specification was incomplete. Construction, grade, thickness, finish system, sheen, colour limits, hardware, carton, labelling and test requirement, all written down before the first sample is built.
That document takes an afternoon. It routinely saves a month.
Frequently asked questions
When does the production lead time actually start?
When the sample is approved and the deposit clears, not when you send the drawing. Buyers who count from first contact are usually six to ten weeks out in their planning, and that gap is where missed seasons come from.
Which months are hardest to book in Vietnam?
Capacity tightens from roughly March to August as factories run programmes for the northern hemisphere autumn and winter season, and outdoor furniture books earlier still. Tet, the lunar new year, takes one to three weeks out of production and the weeks around it run at reduced output.
Can a factory speed up production if I pay more?
Sometimes, and the lever is usually overtime or line priority rather than a faster process. What cannot be compressed is kiln drying and finish curing. A factory that promises to compress those is planning to skip them.
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