Mr Jeffrey Foo, General Manager of Stream Peak International shared, “At first it was difficult to identify the areas for improvement. But after a few workshops with the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation consultants , where we did project scoping and data collection together, we realised that the underlying problem was two under-utilised high performing machines that we had.“
Makino Asia is a global machine tools manufacturer with fully integrated operations in Singapore, encompassing Research and Development, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Business Development activities under one roof. So, it was of concern when Simon Yim and his team discovered discrepancies between the company’s assembly elapsed hours and the standard hours. He also noticed that at the middle management level, there was a need to improve the knowledge and skills needed to understand, analyse and implement initiatives to improve productivity and quality.
The ‘Shapewear Cocoon’ concept was born when forty-three executives and managers from its Singapore office participated in a 3-day training module on service innovation called ‘WSQ Set Up and Implement Systems and Strategies that Support Service Innovation’.
In many manufacturing companies, manpower is often cited as one of the main stumbling blocks to further expansion. Add-Plus Electronic Pte. Ltd, a provider of electronic manufacturing services for printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), is no stranger to such issues.
| Mr Jimmy Phee, Senior QA Engineer, and Mr Lee Hong Choon, |
“As a SME (Small Medium Enterprise), we need to constantly reduce operation cost and maintain profits to stay in the business,” Mr Johnny Mok, General Manager of Add-Plus explained.
“But at the same time, we face difficulties attracting locals to our company, and we cannot depend too heavily on foreign workers. Our tight labour situation means we cannot expand our business as fast and as much as we would like to.”
Thus when approached by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF) to sign up for the SME QIANG Lean Six Sigma Programme, Mr Mok saw it as an excellent opportunity to upgrade the skill set of his team as well as re-look at the company’s work processes.
From being a business manager in a hard disc company, he is now the boss of Royal Bussan Singapore Pte Ltd, a medical device company. He actively looks for medical projects and brings in medical equipment that will benefit the medical community in Singapore.
What made him switch industries? What brought about this leap in his career?
For Fox Fashion Singapore, the fashion and casual wear chain certainly has all of the attributes above and has gone a long way since its international launch here in 2004 to grow from one flagship outlet to 22 stores island-wide.
Mr Khoo Kar Tiong, General Manager of Fox Fashion Singapore, related that though business and sales have been robust, his company are constantly looking at ways to improve. One aspect that Fox focuses on is in the area of productivity, or more accurately, the measure of productivity. “We realised that business performance could be improved by better productivity, especially in an environment where staff costs are constantly rising, and the labour market is tight.” said Kar Tiong. “Training and upgrading our staff would in turn reap greater benefits.”
