In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent movement control order (MCO) in Malaysia, an on-line survey was undertaken involving 748 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the furniture industry. The main objective was to examine the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent MCO on the various business aspects of the SMEs as well as to make recommendations to the government on supportive measures for the SMEs. The survey found that although all aspects of the business were impacted, the two major concerns of the SMEs during this crisis were the financial management and the supply chain disruptions. Inevitably, it was found that most of the SMEs were operating well below capacity, which was a huge financial strain on their business viability. It was recommended that the government provide measures to help the SMEs manage their cash-flow and ease the restrictions to facilitate supply-chain commencement that is crucial to their business. The survey also revealed that most SMEs acknowledged the importance of automation and the adoption of technologies. Respondents regarded the shift towards Industry 4.0 was inevitable as a means increase their resilience when facing future uncertainties.

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.

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.

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.

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.