Improving Malaysian HE Knowledge towards a Wood and Furniture Industry4.0 - MAKING4.0

The Malaysian wood and furniture industry is one of the major contributors to the Malaysian economy, estimated in nearly €4bn of exports and about 300,000 workers. In fact, in 2017 Malaysia was ranked as the 9th World country in furniture exports and 17th in production. Consequently, the National Timber Industry Policy 2009-2020 established innovation and technology, and human capital development as the main challenges of the industry. Moreover, the blueprint for the Malaysian National Industry 4.0 policy framework is expected to have a focus on the training aspects and update workers knowledgeLikewise, the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 was launched by the Ministry of Education whose prime aim was to address the mismatch in the supply and demand of graduates, with employers reporting the lack of knowledge, skills and attitudes required in graduatesFollowing all these recommendations, MAKING4.0 will establish a European-Malaysian collaborative consortium integrated by 4 Malaysian and 3 European Universities, the Wood and Furniture Technological Centre of Murcia (Spain), and the Malaysian Timber Industry CouncilMAKING4.0 aims to develop an innovative Master on Industry4.0 technologies for engineers of wood and furniture smart factories that will update High Education and increase competitiveness of the Malaysian manufacturing industryTo achieve this objective, different technical activities will be carried out: 1. Analysis and comparison of the current HE offer and wood industry in Malaysia and Europe 2. Definition of the training path, learning content structure and methodological aspects 3. Development of training materials and guides for trainers 4. Performance of a test analysis to validate and accredit the Master courseAs a final result, MAKING4.0 will procure a new Master in Malaysian universities related to Industry4.0 and the woodworking industry, teached in English and with a high impact on the Malaysian HE and manufacturing industry