Labour Costs

The origins of design of most of the woodworking machines have been in Europe. It is in Europe that both the low end and high-end machines are mostly designed and built prior to other countries taking up the manufacture of similar machines. The high cost of labour in Europe have influenced the overall designs, especially of the high end machines, to be more labour saving .The condition in most developing countries, especially in India, is quite the opposite. Labour is inexpensive and therefore is not a governing factor while deciding on machines and equipment.

Many managements do have an aversion to employing large number of workers though, and would like to keep the numbers to a minimum. All the same, investment in labour saving equipment, which does not have a bearing on quality or any other consideration, is not appropriate for India. Often it is argued that the efficiency of labour in India is not quite low compared to labour in the West. While it is true to a certain extent where the economy of labour in India needs to be replaced by the might of the machines. Therefore the technology chosen for processing also has to take this factor into account.

One of the best examples to reiterate this point is the manufacture of toys in Chennapattana, a small town near Bangalore. A team of delegates from Europe had visited this place quite a few years ago with an idea to help in producing larger quantities by the use of machines. When they studied the method of manufacture, the efficiency of production and the overall costs, the delegation came to a conclusion that by replacing people with machines nothing really can be achieved and the costs of production will only end up much higher.

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