Guest-of-Honour Speech - Singapore Institute of Manufacturing ...

Speech by Mr S Iswaran, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office,
Second Minister for Home Affairs and Second Minister for
Trade & Industry, at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing
Technology 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner on Wednesday,
10 July 2013, 7.15 pm at The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore
Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, Agency for Science, Technology
and Research (A*STAR)
Dr Raj Thampuran, Managing Director, A*STAR
Dr Lim Ser Yong, Executive Director, Singapore Institute of
Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech)
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Good evening.
I am happy to join you this evening to celebrate the 20 th
Anniversary of the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing
Technology, and its work in support of Singapore’s manufacturing
industry.
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R&D is Key to Sustaining the Competitiveness of
Singapore’s Manufacturing Industry
1. The manufacturing sector has been a pillar of Singapore’s
economic development.
Over the years, manufacturing
activities in Singapore have become more knowledge and
technology intensive in response to opportunities and
competitive challenges. We have been able to maintain our
position as an attractive and competitive manufacturing
location by developing world-class capabilities in the design,
development and manufacture of products. Today, at 20% of
our GDP, and employing 16% of our workforce, the
manufacturing sector remains a key sector in our economy,
adding diversity and resilience to cushion Singapore against
external shocks.
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2. Competition, regional and global, continues unabated. Our
manufacturing industry must therefore persist in its move
towards high value-added sectors such as aerospace, marine
and medtech. R&D is key to this endeavour for it can help to
boost innovation, sharpen the competitive edge, and create
good jobs for Singaporeans. One example is the successful
Rolls-Royce Advanced Technology Centre partnership with
SIMTech, which led to the establishment of the SIMTech-
Rolls-Royce Surface Finishing Joint Lab in 2009 and other
subsequent collaborations. As a result, in 2012, Rolls-Royce
officially opened a new wide chord fan blade factory worth
S$700 million in Singapore, creating opportunities for
Singaporean workers and businesses.
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R&D Raises the Productivity and Competitiveness of SMEs
3. It is equally important that our local enterprises, particularly
SMEs, leverage on technology to raise competitiveness and
productivity. This task takes on added significance in today’s
operating environment with not just external competition but
also domestic labour and land constraints.
4. To help our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) raise
their capabilities through technology transfer and R&D,
S$1 billion has been set aside from 2011 to 2015 under the
$16.1 billion Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2015 plan,
to help our research centres proactively identify opportunities
for collaboration with SMEs. This is a significant commitment
of public resources to help commercialise more research
ideas in collaboration with our SMEs. And, we have several
platforms and programmes for this purpose.
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5. Just this May, I was at the 10 th anniversary celebration of the
GET-Up programme. A key component of GET-Up is the
Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up)
initiative, which has been successful in seconding research
scientists and engineers (RSEs) to local enterprises to help
identify critical technologies and build in-house R&D
capabilities. A recent example is SIMTech’s Dr Li Hao who
was seconded to HistoIndex, a biomedical spin-off in imaging
solutions to diagnose fibrosis. Dr Li Hao built the world’s first
integrated imaging system which enabled HistoIndex to
expand the diagnosis of liver fibrosis to more than 20 fibrosisrelated
diseases. Consequently, HistoIndex has been able to
broaden its customer base in the US, Europe, and Asia, and
increase its revenue stream by S$1 million from 2011 to 2012.
To date, SIMTech has seconded more than 130 RSEs to
companies under the T-Up programme.
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6. At this year’s Budget, the Government announced the
introduction of the Technology Adoption Programme (TAP) –
another initiative help companies drive productivity, innovation
and capability upgrading through the adoption of technology.
A key element of TAP is the introduction of a team of
experienced intermediaries – individuals who will proactively
engage companies to understand their technological needs,
and link them with both public and private sector solution
providers who can best meet their needs. SIMTech is one
such solution provider.
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SIMTech Provides Advanced Manufacturing Solutions to
Companies
7. SIMTech has made a signal contribution, in different
capacities, to the development of high-value manufacturing
technology and talent to support Singapore’s manufacturing
industry.
Since its inception 20 years ago, SIMTech has
successfully completed 5,300 R&D projects with 1,300
companies in the areas of manufacturing processes,
automation and systems.
Working with MNCs and SMEs
alike, SIMTech has developed new products and processes
with over 88 patents granted, and licensed its technologies to
more than 80 companies.
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8. It is especially noteworthy, that SIMTech has proactively
taken on the mission and challenge of helping our SMEs
move up the value chain.
To reach out to more local
manufacturing companies, SIMTech broadened its R&D
partnership with industry to industry-wide consortia to build
advanced manufacturing capabilities that are relevant for
different industry sectors. For example, SIMTech initiated the
Gun Drilling Consortium which created high-value business
opportunities in oilfield equipment products, tools and
components for local companies. I understand that many of
the industry partners here tonight have benefited from this
Consortium.
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9. Beyond this consortium approach, SIMTech has continued to
engage SMEs on customised one-to-one projects.
For
example, Kim Hiap Lee, a subsidiary of LHT Holdings,
overcame the bottlenecks and problems associated with the
manual tracking of leased pallets through SIMTech’s Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) Pallet Leasing and Tracking
System. With the adoption of this RFID tracking system, Kim
Hiap Lee was able to manage the movements of its leased
pallets more efficiently, serve more customers, and achieve
productivity gains and annual savings of S$50,000 for the
company, and S$375,000 for its clients.
The project also
spawned a new business segment for Kim Hiap Lee in RFID
tracking and tracing systems, and the supply of RFID tags.
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10. To accelerate its efforts in assisting the manufacturing
industry, SIMTech now hosts three innovation centres to
provide accessible R&D infrastructure to SMEs. These are
the Manufacturing Productivity Technology Centre, Precision
Engineering Centre of Innovation, and the Sustainable
Manufacturing Centre.
These centres are supported by a
portfolio of SIMTech and A*STAR technologies, and offer
manpower training, consultancy and infrastructure for SMEs.
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11. To complement these productivity enhancement initiatives,
SIMTech has jointly commenced 11 Workforce Skills
Qualification training programmes with the Workforce
Development Agency (WDA). Since 2009, more than 1,000
Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians from
the local manufacturing industry have upgraded their
technological capabilities under these programmes.
One
example is the Operations Management Innovation (OMNI)
programme, which has benefitted more than 70 companies
and resulted in productivity gains averaging 30%.
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Enhanced Partnership through Collaborative Industry
Projects
12. In addition to this suite of programmes that SIMTech has
already put in place in aid of our companies, SIMTech will
initiate new collaborative industry projects to further help
enterprises strengthen their capabilities, increase productivity,
and venture into growing markets. These projects will bring
together industry and research partners with similar
technology needs so as to maximise the sharing of resources
and expertise, and accelerate the adoption of emerging
technologies. Tonight, I am happy to announce that SIMTech
will be launching three new collaborative projects:
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a. The first project on Advanced Precision Metal
Machining aims to train a pool of machinists to
implement machine dynamic analysis and simulation
technology. This project is expected to help
participating companies achieve significant productivity
improvements in machining operations.
b. The second project is on Corrosion Prevention to help
companies improve productivity in coating processes,
and to establish more accurate tests for corrosion
investigation and selection of coating materials for
corrosion prevention.
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c. Working in conjunction with the National University of
Singapore and TUV-SUD 1 , the third project is on X-ray
Sterilisation for the medtech industry.
It aims to
develop low-cost alternatives to existing capitalintensive
sterilisation methods which have limited our
local SMEs’ abilities to meet the high demand for
sterilisation of medical devices and food related
products. X-ray sterilisation offers a good alternative to
existing sterilisation methods as it provides
comparatively better dose uniformity performance.
13. These projects will help to raise the capabilities of companies
across the entire precision engineering and medtech sectors,
thereby benefitting more than 2,600 SMEs.
1 TUV-­‐SUD is a service provider for product testing, inspection and certification services.
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Conclusion
14. With a strong and deeply ingrained institutional instinct to
strike up successful industry collaborations, public research
institutes such as SIMTech are instrumental to the
Government’s efforts to sustain Singapore as a knowledgeintensive,
innovation-driven economy.
I commend and
congratulate SIMTech on its contributions to help our
companies, particularly SMEs, to innovate, adopt new
technology, and overcome the challenges our manufacturing
sector has faced in its evolution.
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15. Tonight, I have cited several examples of companies that
have harnessed R&D and technology to their benefit, and to
that of their customers. We would like many more of our
enterprises to join their ranks.
The Government and our
research institutions remain fully committed to supporting our
SMEs through their transformational journey.
I urge our
companies to proactively partner our research institutes, such
as SIMTech, to reap the benefits that technology can offer
your enterprise.
16. I congratulate SIMTech on its 20 th anniversary, your sterling
contribution to our economic development and the
manufacturing sector, and wish you continued success in
initiating more strategic programmes for the industry.
17. Thank you.
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