Welcome to the inaugural issue of our e-newsletter.

Here, we hope to share with you the latest information about our recently launched Growing Enterprises With Technology Upgrade (GET-Up) initiative. It aims to help you make the most of the advisory and financial assistance schemes that we have tailored for local enterprises in the manufacturing sector.

Mr Philip Yeo, chairman of A*STAR said at the official launch of the new initiative in February: "Singapore Enterprises who have the ambition and potential to 'grow' in business scope and size, 'glow' profitably and gain global market presence will be actively encouraged and nurtured through the GET-Up initiative." 

Called T-Up (Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading), EDB pays for up to 70% of the RSE's salary for a maximum of 2 years.

The company gets to tap on the RSE's expertise and brains. In addition, because the RSE is treated as an employee, the company gets to own all intellectual properties created or contributed by the researcher during his or her stint. At the end of the secondment, the company can choose to retain the RSE if there is a meeting of minds.

In this issue, you will get an insight into how one local company is planning to use the Technical Advisor Scheme to get top-level technology advice from one RI. You will also obtain first-hand accounts of three local companies of how the T-Up scheme is helping them to Grow, Glow & Globalise.

Click here for the full speech of Mr Yeo at the launch of the GET-Up initiative on 5 February 2003.

Prof Hang Chang Chieh, GET-Up chairman and deputy chairman of A*STAR is serious about his cause. And he hopes to make an impression of the government's commitment to the cause by visiting the companies personally. Together with senior officers of EDB, IE Singapore and SPRING Singapore, their objective is to catch the attention of the top brass of the companies. "When the CEOs are present, we can understand their approaches and needs better. Together the company and us can come to a common understanding quicker," said Prof Hang.

It's a way of demonstrating the various agencies' commitment to implement this latest scheme to help local manufacturing companies grow and globalise.

"The fact that I go, our RIs [research institutes] know that this is serious, and they will be committed to make it work. We can't afford to create expectations and then fail to provide a strong follow-up," he added.

The 120 companies are only the start. Prof Hang aims to physically reach out to 500 companies and set a personal target of 80% success rate i.e. for 400 companies to join one or more of the Get-Up schemes.

And there is no fear of shortage of researchers at the RIs with over 1,300 RSEs, of which 10-15% can at any one time be deployed for the T-Up scheme without disrupting the various research programmes, he added.

Why the strong push for GET-Up?

Prof Hang said that in the past, most local companies did not need such a scheme because the Multi-national corporations (MNCs) that came to Singapore transferred the technology know-how directly to the local manufacturing companies.

But today, a combination of shorter product life cycles and complex manufacturing processes has seen a significant shift by the MNCs to outsourcing - as such they may no longer have the time or the know-how to transfer to local companies.

"Our local companies cannot assume that they are preferred anymore. Even if the MNCs are here [in Singapore], they are outsourcing away all over the world," said Prof Hang.

To respond, local companies need to own the know-how, the latest manufacturing technologies to stay competitive, he added.

And that is why A*STAR, together with its partner agencies are busy marketing the various schemes under GET-Up - to help the small and medium manufacturing companies gain the competitive advantage.

As of 31st March 2003, the GET-Up team has visited a total of 121 companies of which 102 would like to explore one or more of our technical assistance schemes. The statistics (numbers indicate initial explorations) for these are as follows:

 

Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) 68 Technology Road Mapping 13 Technical Advisors 11 R&D Collaboration 97

"We must be able to match up to them to be able to work with them," said Mr Tan. Trek2000 is well known for its portable storage devices which it calls the Thumbdrive. While it was a pioneer in this business, the market today is flooded with rival products. So Tan aims to position his product as providing higher value, in the form of having advanced security functions.

But getting professional researchers to help Trek2000 reach the next level was not easy. So Tan was pleasantly surprised when he was extended a helping hand by A*STAR's Technical Advisor Scheme. Under this new scheme, A*STAR's researchers can be assigned on a part-time basis to help a company by providing consultation in identifying promising areas for the company to focus on as well as helping the company to meet the technological challenges faced in the process.

Trek2000's advisor is Dr Robert Deng, from the Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R), an expert in IT security and cryptography. In addition to helping him chart the waters ahead, Deng is also helping Tan enhance his R&D facilities and team to make sure they can compete with the best.

And Tan is absolutely delighted and in gratitude for the help.

"With this assistance from A*STAR, I am optimistic that it will position us very well in the eyes of the MNCs that we are working with."

"On a personal level, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Prof. Hang and the rest of his team, failing which I will still be hunting around."

In the past, said Chew, the big MNCs managed their manufacturing processes directly and transferred the technology and know-how to the Singapore manufacturing companies. Today, most of the MNCs outsource the manufacturing to major contract manufacturers in the world. "They don't teach you anything anymore so now we have to upgrade ourselves and get the latest technology to stay competitive," he added. Wangi has grown from a small conventional printing shop at Jalan Senang to a 370-man strong company with plants in Singapore and Shanghai and a growing S$23.8 million in revenues in 2002. It has also diversified into two other areas - precision glass machining and thin-film coating.

Under its precision glass machining business, it is already making optical mirrors which are used in consumer flat-bed scanners, digital cameras and biomedical scanning equipment. Wangi wants to be a technological leader and acquire capabilities in the manufacturing process of complex 3-D optical mirrors - for use in the high-end medical scanners.

Wangi looks to SIMTech for expertise

So it engaged the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) for assistance and managed to tap on the expertise of an experienced RSE from SIMTech - Mr Lee Kam Sung. With the launch of T-Up, Lee has since joined Wangi on a two-year secondment.

"It is difficult to attract top talent, even if you can afford it." said Chew. So T-Up has helped Wangi solve this human expertise issue. But its greatest concern is about the risk of the researchers bringing the technical know-how developed at Wangi to rivals when they leave the company. "Trust is very important. For the researcher to do his work effectively, you have to share all your problems and secrets with him." Chew added. But Chew feels that he has found the right man for the job in Lee - whom he has now entrusted to head the creation of a new R&D team within Wangi with a S$1 million R&D budget. "After the two years is up, we hope to be able to retain him and with his help, to attract other researchers to our company."

To build world-class products, the company would have to choose either acquisitions, partnerships or its own development. The first two options are usually complex, expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, with such fast-paced technological innovation, the competition would have already moved ahead by the time the issues are resolved. To ensure that its own development can beat the best however, I'M hits a common barrier; "It is difficult to find people who can hit the right note," Mr Teo explained.

The fight for talent

He elaborated that it's a challenge to acquire expert talent that can keep I'M ahead of the game in this competitive line of business. Usually, only large multinational corporations and leading research institutes have the means to attract such talent.

However, through the T-Up initiative, I'M Technologies has been able to tap on the expertise of Mr Nirmalya Ghosh from the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) to work on its latest technologies. And Mr Ghosh looks to be ready for the challenge, "It's pretty good... for two years you build a prototype, now you work with the real thing," he enthused.

And with the RSE's experience, the company doesn't need to spend time training him. As such, work on I'M's latest leading-edge project can start almost immediately, cutting down the crucial development time even further. With this, Mr Teo's efforts to overcome his top two inhibitions of talent and time have received a timely boost.

That is why Allbest Marine Engineering Pte Ltd is now looking for ways to make the 4 tons hydrojetting machines cheaper to own and to operate. Its director Yeo Siew Chuan figures that if he can make it cheaper, he can diversify Allbest's business from a pure ship repair and cleaning service provider to a mix of service provider and equipment manufacturer of a whole new breed of hydrojetting machines. One way is to redesign the entire machine so that sea water can be used - instead of the current fresh water - without compromising the life span of the machine. "A typical blasting machine takes 20 hours and 30 tons of water. Fresh water is expensive. Sea water is free," said Yeo.

T-Up helps to bring Allbest's idea to reality

The problem is that Allbest does not have the relevant technical know-how. "We've got the idea but we don't know where to start," said Yeo.

With the T-Up scheme, two researchers from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) have been seconded to Allbest for a period of two years. Both Dr Chen Wei Long and Mr Xie Ailin have extensive experience in hydrojetting and they are now helping to make Allbest's business dreams a reality. In addition to the sea water project, the researchers are also working on how to improve the fuel efficiency of the machines so that they can use less diesel for the same amount of work. With the help of the researchers, Allbest is aiming to brings its products to market soon and is targeting China as its main marketplace.