Workers at leading manufacturer of precision springs, Advanex (Singapore), have been sporting bigger smiles these days. Work-conditions have leaped to new heights after the company, with more than half of its 103 staff aged 40 years and above, maximised its use of the ADVANTAGE! Scheme to put in place initiatives to ease their workers’ workload and improve their efficiency.
Two examples of these initiatives are the vision inspection equipment with LCD monitor and the acquisition of battery-operated pallet jacks.
Improved Working Environment
“Our small metal component parts measure 5mm by 5mm and our staff used to strain their eyes to examine it. With help from the ADVANTAGE! Scheme, we bought a vision inspection equipment, which allows us to magnify the parts by 10 to 20 times and this reduces eye strains for our mature workers,” said Advanex’s Senior Human Resource Manager, Alice Tan.
“Another example would be the transporting of heavy goods. Raw materials or finished goods weigh an average of 800kg to 1,000kg. With the introduction of battery-operated pallet jack, our workers find it easier to push and pull the loaded pallet around. It reduces physical fatigue.”
“It has helped significantly to reduce physical fatigue through improving the ease in lifting of material, and has also increased our productivity and efficiency as tasks can be done faster by one person,” she added.
Long-Term Competitive Edge
Founded in 1978, Advanex, formerly known as Kato Spring (Singapore) Private Limited, has been the market leader in the supply of precision components in Singapore, serving all the major MNCs and local companies manufacturing television and computer monitor picture tube, printer, disk drive, optical storage, OA equipment, mobile phone, refrigerator compressor, and other consumer electronic products. It has regional subsidiaries with manufacturing facilities in Thailand, Vietnam and China, which report directly to Singapore.
When asked about the long-term goals of Advanex (Singapore), Ms Tan replied, “To be more aggressive, to go into bigger markets like India and Indonesia, to market our components to more medical and automotives companies and to create greater awareness of our brand name”.
To do so, Advanex had made use of the WDA-initiated Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) earlier in 2009, which is an enhanced funding scheme to scale up training programmes to help companies and workers during the economic downturn and to build strong capabilities for the recovery.
Through SPUR, workers had the opportunity to gain a competitive edge in the job market while employers are able to manage excess manpower, save manpower costs and retain workers by channeling them for skills upgrading and development. The goal is to help workers remain employable, save jobs and strengthen individual and employer capabilities to prepare for the economic upturn.
Ms Tan added: “With these programmes, in addition to re-employment, it helped to raise the skill-levels of our employees so that they are more efficient and productive in their work.”
The ADVANTAGE! scheme is an initiative by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and its Tripartite Partners, which offers a major helping hand to companies to put in place HR systems to facilitate re-employment practices. This is in preparation for re-employment legislation being introduced, as well as to enhance the employment prospects of older workers.
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