Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Labor.......................................................................................................................... 1
Skilled labor............................................................................................................. 2
Availability............................................................................................................ 2
Quality.................................................................................................................. 2
Price..................................................................................................................... 2
Training and Human Resource.................................................................................... 2
Human Resource..................................................................................................... 3
How technology advanced is the industry..................................................................3
Technology levels.................................................................................................... 3
Discussion on technology categories......................................................................4
Local/imported technology...................................................................................... 4
Availability............................................................................................................ 4
Quality.................................................................................................................. 4
Strategic Goals and expansion................................................................................... 4
Type of competition amongst local businesses...........................................................5
Threat of new entrants............................................................................................... 5
The workers are usually unaware of the procedural standards and quality control
requirements of the international market.
Wood seasoning facility center is available in Pakistan.
The labor required for manufacturing process is easily available on daily wages, per
unit basis and permanently employed.
The wood carvers skills are predominantly visible in furniture making, apart from
carving wooden ceilings, wooden panels, doors and windows.
(https://thiscostblood.wordpress.com/tag/furniture-sector-of-pakistan/)
Skilled labor
Availability
The exporters of Chiniot, Gujrat and Peshawar say that skilled labour is easily
available in their areas. But according to the exporters of Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,
Karachi and Lahore, there is a scarcity of skilled labour in their localities.
Quality
The quality of labour is good, but it only has the skills passed on generation after
generation. There is no formal training facility available. Labour is not aware of
production techniques, world requirements and ways to improve efficiency, etc.
They are not trained to use the latest machinery. However, there are (a handful of)
people who can produce good quality furniture by following model pictures without
any formal training. Quality controls, checks and standardisation according to
international requirements need to be introduced. Also, there is no International
Trade Centre 23 concept of training the workforce how to improve their efficiency.
Skill development centres should be set up in all regions of the country to counter
the situation.
Price
According to the exporters of Chiniot, Gujrat and Peshawar, labour rates are
reasonable. While in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Karachi and Lahore, the rates are high.
Human Resource
Even if labour force is adequate in numbers, lack of technical capabilities can hinder
competitiveness. Public support to vocational training for workers in factories is
recommendable, in order to reduce direct training expenses of enterprises, and to
allow managers to professionally grow with their businesses.
Absence of common support services. The sector is largely devoid of cost-efficient
provision of common support service (tool maintenance, training, etc.). Everything
is done at furniture workshop level. This leads to losses in skilled furniture makers
productivity and sub-optimal allocation of scarce human resources. Air-drying of
wood is still the norm, and no business model is developed yet to use contract-kiln
operators.
Facilities that use basic woodworking machines (band saw, planer, thicknesser,
spindle moulder, boring machine etc.) to produce in small batches
Facilities same as in 2, but producing larger batches, using low-cost mechanization
and jigs suitable for serial production whenever possible
Facilities that use special purpose machines (4-side moulders, copying lathes,
edge benders, CNC moulders etc.)
Facilities with integrated machining lines (linked machines used for production of
panel furniture, doors, surface finishing, robots used for painting, integrated lines).
Source: ITTO-ITC (b), 2002.
A jig is a self-constructed modelling appliance that facilitates production, lowers
labor costs and improves product quality. The use of jigs enables the production of
interchangeable parts and avoids manual adaptations in the assembly of the final
product. Machining and assembly jigs are commonly used in furniture factories.
Local/imported technology
Availability
Mostly traditional methods are used in the production process of furniture. Local
machinery is used by most of the exporters because it is easily available. Imported
technology is available too but with an added cost. In the long run, expensive
imported machinery would tend to be cheaper as its results would produce much
better outputs and savings.
Quality
Exporters are satisfied with the use of local technology. However, they would prefer
using imported technology, but due to scarce resources, they end up using
customers to buy the same product for higher price due to having strong
customer brand loyalty.
(https://thiscostblood.wordpress.com/tag/furniture-sector-of-pakistan/)