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As the world intensifies efforts to mitigate the effect of global climate change, an on-line survey was carried out involving 1,081 wood products and furniture manufacturers in Malaysia. The main objective was to evaluate the level of awareness, extent of adoption, and challenges faced by these manufacturers in adopting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. The survey found that large-sized companies were more receptive to adopting ESG practices, as opposed to the medium-, small-, and micro-sized companies. Respondents were apparently more responsive to environmental requirements, followed by governance, and finally the social factors. Within the environmental sphere, compliance with using certified and legal wood and wood products, waste management, and conformance to emission standards were well received among respondents. The survey revealed that market forces and legislative requirements were the two most important factors that enticed respondents to comply with the ESG practices; among those respondents who did not comply with ESG requirements, the primary deterrent factors include lack of awareness, no direct benefit from adopting ESG, and the high cost involved. The ESG compliance may transform the wood products and furniture industries into a more sustainable industry, offering equitable wages and green jobs while producing high value-added products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bending performance of wood is important for its application in furniture, and it is one of the criteria used to assess the suitability of a particular wood species for furniture. In this context, the steam-bending and surface roughness characteristics of four forest plantation wood species were evaluated. One batch of wood specimens were subjected to both surface roughness experiments using the stylus and toluene spread methods, while another batch of the wood specimens were subjected to steaming, clamped, and bent using a circular shape mold. The instantaneous spring-back was measured after 10 days, while the springback over time was measured from days 15 to 65. The surface roughness experiments showed that the Hevea brasiliensis had the lowest surface roughness, followed by the Eucalyptus pellita, Acacia mangium, and finally Revotropix paulownia. In terms of the bending performance, it was found that only the H. brasiliensis achieved the threshold 95% satisfactory level based on visual ranking. Furthermore, the wood species also recorded the lowest spring-back, both instantaneous and over-time, to register the best bending performance. On the other hand, R. paulownia had the worst bending performance, primarily due to its low density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on soil erodibility in Malaysia were critically reviewed. Soil erodibility is the only factor of Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), which requires laboratory work and analysis complexity to estimate soil loss. Therefore, the main objective is to review soil erodibility studies to enhance understanding of Malaysia's soil erosion impacts. These studies were summarized in their application, purpose, value, utilization method/approach, and study location. On the other hand, a summarization of what, why, where, and how the soil erodibility was used was analyzed. Therefore, the importance of soil erodibility as input for environmental management and conservation practices can be addressed. For a large-scale area, the soil erodibility factor will be analyzed as one of the USLE variables in estimating the erosion rate. As for a small-scale area, this factor is an adaption of the ROM Scale, which use to identify the slopes or riverbanks prone to landslides induced by erosion. However, the determination of this factor requires extensive artistry, time, and cost. These would be an obstacle to the holistic assessment of soil erosion impacts since only a little soil sampling will be analyzed. Therefore, the simplified version for the determination of soil erodibility without any requirement of laboratory works will be an extra mile, especially for an area that does not have any information on soil series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agarwood oil is consumed during traditional ceremonies and even in medicinal purposes due to its effective therapeutic characteristic. As a part of ongoing research on agarwood oil, this paper presented a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) modelling of agarwood oil samples available in the capital of Malaysia market. The work involved agarwood oil samples from three sources which are lab, local manufacturer and market. The inputs are the chemical compounds and the output is the oil's resources. The input-output was divided into training and testing dataset with the ratio of 80% to 20%, respectively, before they were fed to the k-NN for model development as well as model validation. During the model development, the k-value was varied from 1 to 5, and their accuracy was observed. The result showed that the k=1 and k=2 shared the similar accuracy for training and testing datasets, which are 98.63% and 100.00%, respectively. This study revealed the capabilities of the k-NN model in classifying the agarwood oil samples to the three sources: lab, local manufacturer and market. It was a significant study and contributed to further work especially those related to agarwood oil research area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite contributing almost RM 20 billion (USD 4.9 billion) in exports earnings annually, the public perception of the wood products industry in Malaysia remains unknown. Therefore, this study attempted to assess public perceptions about the industry in Malaysia among the public, including teenagers, based on 3,010 reliably answered questionnairesurveys. Generally, the public perceived the wood products industry to be a low-wage economy, labor-intensive, predominated by foreign contract workers, and unsustainable in the long-term. In essence, the public appear to have stronger negative images of the industry compared to the positive images. The main drivers for such negative perceptions, identified through the factor analysis, were the prevailing business environment in the industry and its workforce characteristics. Consequently, teenagers and school-leavers tend to be less interested in pursuing a career in the industry, let alone pursuing further studies in the wood-related fields. The main reasons cited for this were the limited career growth opportunity due to the predomination of family-controlled small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the industry and the discouragements from family members and friends. The provision of reliable, timely, and transparent information is important to boost the public's awareness and build positive beliefs and perception of the wood industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Timber Industry Plan was the first major dedicated policy framework for the wood products industry in Malaysia. This plan aimed to transform the industry into a high value-added products manufacturer and exporter, with a targeted export value of USD 13 billion in 2020. Unfortunately, this target was revised downwards in 2017 due to stagnating growth; in 2020, wood products export was valued at USD 5.43 billion. A survey of 914 different wood products manufacturers, involving sawmillers, molding, furniture, and joinery manufacturers, were conducted to examine the constraints faced, and the weaknesses of the policy framework that hampered its intended objectives. The results revealed that the policy framework did not have much impact on transforming the industry, and its growth continued to be fueled by incremental factor inputs, rather than by productivity gains. Uncertainty with the policy framework, especially with addressing raw materials supply and workforce, were highlighted as the two most important constraints faced. In essence, the outcomes suggest that business confidence, associated with industrial growth factors, are the prerequisite for the policy framework to succeed, and if confidence falters, it will adversely affect the targeted outcome of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary furniture marketing platforms that are based on furniture exhibitions, retail malls, and galleries were severely disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the extent to which digital marketing tools were adopted by furniture manufacturers in Malaysia. The effectiveness of digital marketing tools was assessed as an alternative furniture marketing medium by means of a questionnaire distributed to various furniture suppliers. The results of the questionnaire indicated that the onset on the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital marketing among furniture manufacturers of all sizes. Larger manufacturers had the financial means to make greater investments into digital marketing to utilize it compared to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Digital marketing by website, email, and social media were the most common mediums used by furniture manufacturers. As for social media applications, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were the common platforms used by furniture manufacturers. Although some furniture manufacturers were familiar with digital marketing, many were not using it effectively due to a lack of skilled workers with the ability to manage such digital marketing tools. Limited financial capital, especially among the SMEs, also made it difficult to enable the adoption of digital marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reducing supply of logs from the sustainably managed natural forest to meet the processing demand of the large wood products industry in Malaysia, plantation forestry has been gaining importance since the early 1970s. Despite the government’s efforts through the provision of financial support and incentives, investments in plantation forestry has been slow. The promising start of the large-scale forest plantation programs in the early 1970s, followed by the 1980s and then the latest program in early 2000, appear to have been a mixed bag of failures and limited success. The rather below-par performance of the forest plantations has been attributed to several factors, such as insufficient good planting stock, poor species-site matching, poor soil quality, pest and diseases and the overall poor silvicultural and management regime laid out for forest plantations. Further, plantation forestry appears to be dominated by larger companies, while small and medium companies, have limited financial resources to overcome the prevailing challenges faced. Despite the poor performance until to date, the adoption of intensive research based silvicultural and management regime for the plantation forests, which are maturing in the next years, will hopefully produce better results and serve as the sunrise for plantation forestry in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imported wood resources, especially yellow poplar and Chinese poplar, are increasingly evident in the Malaysian furniture sector due to declining supply of domestic wood materials. In order to reverse this trend, paulownia, a fast-growing forest plantation tree species, is emerging as an alternative wood material source. This study evaluated the mechanical strength, including fatigue life, machining, adhesive bond, screw withdrawal, and finishing properties of paulownia against the imported wood of yellow poplar and Chinese poplar. The results revealed that paulownia has better properties than Chinese poplar, but it is inferior to yellow poplar due to its lower density. In terms of fatigue strength, all the wood species performed comparably equal, with the allowable design stress set at 40% of the wood species' respective ultimate bending strength. Against these findings, paulownia is a promising alternative wood resource for furniture manufacturing in Malaysia, and it could possibly replace the imported yellow poplar and Chinese poplar. Nevertheless, the successful application of paulownia for furniture manufacturing will depend on its supply volume and economics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of knowledgeable and skilled workers is a major challenge faced by the Malaysian furniture sector. It hinders industrial productivity and its ability to move up the value-chain by adopting high technology. Therefore, in order to assess the awareness and readiness of the Malaysian furniture industry for Industry 4.0, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted with a sample of 778 large-, medium-, and small-sized furniture manufacturers throughout Malaysia. This study is part of an on-going Erasmus+ program funded by the European Commission, initiated in 2018 to develop a university-level education program to train workers capable of handling Industry 4.0 technologies for the furniture and wood industry in Malaysia. The results revealed that manufacturers of wood-based panel and metal furniture were more prepared to adopt automation and Industry 4.0 technologies compared to solid-wood and leather furniture manufacturers. The benefits from Industry 4.0 technologies include increased production capacity, product diversity, cost competitiveness, and workforce reduction. Further, the results of this study suggest that the lack of knowledgeable and skilled workers to handle Industry 4.0 technology is a concern among furniture manufacturers, and possibly the proposed university-level Industry 4.0 program may be beneficial to train workers for the future of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine the preferences of architects for wood and wood products for specific applications and to assess the attributes that influenced its utilization in the construction sector in Peninsular Malaysia. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 500 practicing architects throughout Peninsular Malaysia, with a response of 27%. The application of wood and wood products by architects was focused primarily on non-structural applications rather than structural applications. It was found that cost, customer demand, durability, natural beauty, availability, ease of design, and workability were primary considerations for architects in specifying wood and wood products in building construction. A factor analysis of the results showed that building regulations, material quality and beauty, customer demand, and design and assembly were the primary determinants that influence architects specifying and using wood and wood products in building construction. It was apparent that the use of wood and wood products in building construction in Peninsular Malaysia has the potential to be further increased through advertising and marketing in the material among the general public, as well as architects and specifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Malaysian furniture industry is the country's fastest growing subsector within the wood-based industry, and its socio-economic importance cannot be taken lightly. The industry is driven primarily by comparative advantages derived from low cost factor inputs, which has eroded in recent years due to escalating production cost. Further, the increasing competition from other cheaper producing nations, particularly China and Vietnam, is also putting a damper on the future competitiveness of the industry in Malaysia. To remain competitive, the Malaysian furniture industry must transform and advance the value-chain through innovation and value-addition. Although the government has played a pivotal role in providing a broad policy framework to support value-adding and innovative activities, success has been limited. This study evaluated the extent of innovation and its sources in the Malaysian furniture industry through an internet-based survey. The results indicated that external sources of innovation were more important than internal sources. The factor analysis showed that external inputs, market demand, and in-house research and development were the most important drivers of the innovation in the Malaysian furniture industry. Therefore, the furniture industry in Malaysia will require policy support to enhance its inherent capability for innovation in the long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable transformation of the Malaysian timber sector from a net-importer to a multi-billion-dollar export-oriented sector has become a success model for many other resource-rich countries throughout the world. In view of the increasing socioeconomic importance of the timber sector in this country, the productivity performance of the six major timber sub-sectors was investigated in this study. Productivity is defined as the ratio of output to input and was analyzed from the year 2010 through 2014. The productivity performance was evaluated based on certain input factors, namely labor and capital. Generally, the productivity of the timber sector can be regarded as stagnating. Furthermore, the value-added was affected due to high reliance on labor for production. Among the factors that account for this lack of productivity growth are the increased competition in the international market, small domestic market, improper industrial development policies, poor adoption of technology, and the high dependency on human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to assess the attributes of selected sawn timber species for door, flooring, and furniture manufacturing in Malaysia. Sawn timber attributes are important for value-added wood products manufacturing in terms of market opportunities and consumer preferences. A questionnaire was distributed to 30 value-added wood products manufacturers, in which there were 10 manufacturers in each category: door, flooring, and furniture. The study evaluated three aspects: the choice of sawn timber species for particular types of wood products, the source of origin of sawn timber, and the attributes that determined the choice of the sawn timber species for a particular product. The common local sawn timber species include rubberwood, meranti, merpauh, merbau, and kempas species, while poplar, oak, cherry, and pine represent imported species. It was found that cost, supply/availability, product specification, and market/buyer preferences were among the most important factors influencing the selection of sawn timber species for the manufacture of value-added wood products. However, these attributes were not statistically significant among the group of manufacturers and source of origin, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government's initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil. Therefore, this study examines the lack of interest among smallholder farmers to participate in establishing forest plantations, although they have a strong presence in the palm oil and rubber sectors. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among 12,895 smallholder farmers currently involved in palm oil, rubber and other tree-crop cultivation. The study found that this group has little knowledge and awareness of the forest plantation scheme available, and there is a prevailing perception that the establishment of forest plantations is not environment-friendly and leads to biodiversity loss. The poor economic return, small land holding, and poorly structured market and supply chain are perceived as the significant constraints faced that limit the interest among the target groups to participate in this sector. Any effort to reverse this trend and garner higher interest from the target group will necessarily require a new policy framework that boosts the economic outlook of forest plantations among smallholder farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]