Illustrative image (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamesewood processing firms need to rethink their production models and embracetechnologies to increase their competitiveness amid current and futurechallenges, delegates said at a seminar held in Ho Chi Minh City on September10.
Nguyen Chanh Phuong, Deputy Chairman of the Handicrafts and Wood IndustryAssociation of HCM City (HAWA), said the wood processing industry faced fourchallenges, including fierce competition in the market due to an increasingnumber of FDI enterprises and a fast and large shift of foreign investorscoming to Vietnam, resulting in a shortage of labourers.
In addition, it faced low labour productivity and the impact of digitalisationin the industry’ s processing, administration, design and trade.
Nguyen Quoc Khanh, HAWA Chairman, said in the first five months of the year,foreign investment capital in the country, according to the Foreign InvestmentAgency, was nearly 1.2 times higher than last year’s total FDI capital flowinginto the country.
Of the number, there were 49 new projects investing in the wood industry (32 inwood processing), equivalent to 73 percent of total FDI projects investing inthe sector last year, he said.
This figure showed the reality of competition in the very near future. Ifenterprises stopped at their current capability levels, they would fail in thecompetition ahead.
Vietnamese wood processing enterprises, on the one hand, had to solve internalproblems to ensure product quality and meet existing orders, while increasingproductivity and innovation to be able to retain existing customers and get newones. On the other hand, they must be flexible and increase their competitiveadvantages to stand firm and be in front for future changes, he said.
“Businesses need a serious and effective strategy. They need to have a newvision and deep thinking, in which the key to solving these two problems at thesame time can only be investment in technology.
“With the advancement of CNC precision technology, combining new technologiessuch as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and robots,woodworking technologies have reached surprising development levels, offeringbusinesses a lot of opportunities to improve quality, control progress, reducedependence on labour and increase production,” Khanh said.
But when choosing technologies to invest, businesses should base their realneeds and development plans in the coming years to make their investmentefficient, he said.
Leslie Lye, sales manager for the Weinig Group, said with the changes inconsumer buying behaviour and the availability of new technology, there hasbeen a shift in customers’ buying requirements. Instead of buying furnituremanufactured in bulk, customers are increasingly buying personalized furnitureto meet their requirements. The production cost of customised furniture must becomparable to the mass-produced product.
“To fulfil market needs, furniture manufacturers need to develop a system tocater for personalized design and production management for orders withdifference batches.”
Vietnamese factories have been making greater technological investmentscompared to other Southeast Asia countries. The investment for the 4.0 Industryera should start now or as soon as possible, he said.
“Of course, the technological investment must help solve all the urgent ordersfirst, to match the production to the current customer’s needs, and to maximiseprofit as much as possible at that point of time. But in the long run, thecompany should foresee what technology in Industry 4.0 is offering to optimisethe wood working process, so they can invest in technology wisely and correctlyto obtain a consistent profit and a sustainable business.”
In addition to investment in technology, delegates at the seminar agreed thatinvestment in qualified human resources who can understand and be able tooperate this kind of equipment and technologies is also very important.
Organised by HAWA and Yorkers Trade and Marketing Services Co, the “RethinkingWood Processing Models” seminar was a pre-event of the 13th InternationalWoodworking Industry Fair (Vietnam Wood), which will be held in HCM City’sSaigon Exhibition and Convention Centre from September 18 to 21.
Jantin Lam from Yorkers Trade and Marketing Service Co said Vietnam Wood willfeature more than 1,000 advanced machines and equipment of 483 exhibitors,providing an opportunity for Vietnamese firms in the sector to updatetechnologies.
According to HAWA, Vietnam’s import of wood processing machinery and equipmentincreased from 220 million USD in 2017 to 280 million USD last year. The figureis expected to rise by 25 percent this year.
The country’s wood product export revenue was 9 billion USD from last year and istargeted to reach 11 billion USD this year./.
