Technology Level

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.

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 traditional methods. A general perception exporters have of imported machinery is that it is second hand.

The prices of local machinery are reasonable in comparison with imported machinery’s. But for small exporters, even the prices of local machinery are high. The financial incentive provided by banks is not very easy for exporters to make use of.

The available local machinery is of very basic nature. In other words, no professional machinery is available due to lack of resources/finances. In the given situation, affording exporters should visit machinery shows. To give a comparison of the production output, in Italy, for instance, a company produces 40,000 chairs daily due to the use of latest technology. No labor is involved in the process. This should serve as a guideline for the Pakistani furniture industry to set its goals down the road. China and Malaysia are living examples which started to improve their industry within a small span of around 10 years.