Ng Kheng JooTechnical Director & Co-founder of

Novetec Innovation Sdn Bhd

Top Furniture Exporting Countries

** extracted from Mega Science 3.0 Final Report for Furniture Industry Sector

Introduction Since 2011, MTC has been conducting the

Mechanisation and Automation Programme

Aim to assist Malaysian timber-related companies to:

improve operation productivity

reduce dependency on manual labour

via:

operation/process improvements

mechanisation and automation

ParticipantsSegments Quantity

Sawmilling 4

Mouldings, Joinery, Door, Flooring 16

Furniture Solid Wood 20

Panel 12

Sofa 2

Laminated Chairs 1

Wooden Pallets 1

Biomass Pellets 1

Total 57

Findings SummarySawmilling Mouldings, Furniture,

Engineered Products

Old and worn-out bandsaws, old technology and practices

Very labour intensive and dependent

Slow yield and low recovery

Woodworking machinery & technology used are up-to-date

Very labour intensive & dependent

Little progress of technology adaptation for the past 50 years

Tropical timber from primary forests is not homogenous, difficult to automate

Focus only on output, not on efficiency/productivity

Lack of industrial engineering to drive new and efficient manufacturing practices

SawmillingPrimary bandsaw (breakdown) Secondary bandsaws

1 team of 3 operators

10 to 20 minutes cycle time per log

4 to 5 teams of 3 or 4 operators

10 to 15 minutes cycle time per flitch

Semi-automated Sawmilling Automated log loading – quick loading Tilted bandsaw, enabling

quick & safe log loading and rotation easy & safe discharge

Moving bandsaw smaller machine footprint lower energy consumption, more

accurate sawing easier viewing of log as it is being sawn

Double cutting-edge saw blade –efficient cutting

Reduce waste and increase recovery Only 1 operator & less than 5 minutes

per log

Mouldings, Furniture, DoorAdvanced & latest woodworking machines are

widely used, ie. Opticuts, moulders, finger-jointing machines, panel saws, CNC point-to-point , CNC bandsaw, CNC profiler, Double-end trim saw, etc.; but most are still labourdependent

Assembly, finishing and packing are still labourintensive and dependent

Volume vs MixHigh and/or predictable Volume

Low and/or uncertain Volume

Low

/pre

dic

tab

lep

rod

uct

mix

High

/un

certain

pro

du

ct mix

Full Automation Plywood MDF Chipboard Mouldings & Decking Sawmilling** Biomass pellets

Automated Cells/Machines Panel Furniture

OEM Furniture

Floorings

Finger jointing/Lamination

Doors/Door Jambs

Sawmilling

Manual Custom-made furniture

Sawmilling

Sofa/Upholstery

Flexible Modules/Cells Mouldings & Decking

Small/Medium Furniture

Furniture Sub-con

Sawmilling

Automated Cells/MachinesHow to reduce dependency on manual labour?

Auto-loaders and auto-feeders; perhaps the most underrated and overlooked necessities

Integrated unit-based processing lines/cells made up by linking multiple automated machines; instead of batch-based processing with independent automated machines

Auto-loaders and FeedersReduce repetitive manual work

Reduce human factors which could slow down machine output due to:

slower material feeding

absenteeism

operator turn-over

Improve utilisation of operators

Auto-loaders

Reduce waiting time of panel saws

Increase productivity

Auto-loaders

Reduce operators

Auto-feeders

Auto-feeding with Auto-loading

Operator Utilisation

Batch-based Workstations

Not productive

Double handling – time and effort wasting

3 operators

Automated Cutting & Hole-boring

Automated combination of cutting + hole boring

Reduced 3 operators

Increased productivity by at least 200%

Flexible Automation - Cobots

Flexible/Agile AutomationCollaborative robots – Cobots

Easy and fast to setup, program, operate and change tools

Safe to operate with workers without protective cages

Lightweight and mobile

Enable mass personalisation with “human touch”

Industrial Revolution Industrial Revolution 1.0 : 1760

Steam power : Iron, coal & textiles

Industrial Revolution 2.0 : 1870 Electric power Mass mechanisation & production

Industrial Revolution 3.0 : 1970 Computers Automation & robots

Industrial Revolution 4.0 : recently Digitisation & connectivity & cloud Predictive & artificial intelligence

Good Manufacturing PracticesMan

5S & Lean Manufacturing & Visual Management

Technical – product & process capability

Machine, Technology & Automation

Combination of Hard, Soft & Flexible Automation with available woodworking machinery

Predictive technology, ie. sensors, vision systems, networking, softwares & hardwares