Welcome to issue 9 of our e-newsletter.

Here, we hope to share with you the latest information about our 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.

A new membership scheme for industry, in which their voices count in the initiation of research projects, is now available at the click of a button. This is just one of the many benefits local and MNC manufacturers can experience when they join the new industry initiative offered by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).

The SIMTech Membership (SMS) was launched in early 2006 to bring the industry and the research fraternity together in a linked community. SIMTech's executive director, Dr Lim Ser Yong said: "We hope that SMS enables us to engage the industry in a pro-active manner to understand their needs and to assist them in venturing into our research programmes. By joining SMS, we aim to reduce risks and increase business opportunities for companies. This is done by encouraging them to explore technologies made available through the SMS, before deciding to invest in the development of a new product.”

Indeed the services and facilities offered through the membership are geared towards driving a pro-research culture in industry. Technological updates provide up-to-date information of research projects undertaken in SIMTech. Members can also access various industry trends as well as technical abstracts of journals and conference papers published by the researchers. Expert-on-line is also available to members who need to have technical queries answered fast. Members can have their queries attended to on-line by SIMTech's research staff within two working days. An online portal, Technology Warehouse, is packed with information about SIMTech's technologies that are ready for transfer to industry. Members can browse through new processes, products, methodologies and toolkits in the virtual warehouse.

SIMTech reinforces industry commitment with new tagline

Earlier in January, SIMTech also unveiled a new tagline – SIMTech for Industry. This underscores its commitment to serving industry in nurturing human capital, developing intellectual capital and building industrial capital.

The Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) has been actively supporting the GET-Up* initiative since its launch in 2003. Since then, a total of 39 research scientists and engineers (RSEs) from SIMTech have been seconded to the industry under T-Up.* Of this number, two dozen of them have completed their stints while another 15 are still on-going.

T-Up offers an excellent opportunity for local companies to build up their R&D capabilities and to forge alliances with the local research institutes. For the RSEs, it is an opportunity to be engaged with industry. Seven of SIMTech’s RSEs stayed on with their seconded companies after the completion of the 2-year T-Up attachment.

One such RSE is Dr Lee Wee Leong who was seconded to Y3 Technologies in October 2003. Y3 Technologies is an IT solutions provider that specialises in developing solutions for the logistics industry. Dr Wee successfully led the Y3 team to develop integrated end-to-end supply chain solutions which are capable of being deployed in a short period of time. This solution played a key role in helping Y3 win new businesses. After his secondment, Dr Lee stayed on and joined Y3 as its Senior Manager of R&D.

Mr James Loo, chief operating officer of Y3 Technologies, said: “We are very grateful for this very privileged working relationship with SIMTech through the T-Up scheme. When Dr Wee joined the the R&D team, his contribution was not just his leadership and effort to our product development. His access to the pool of talent at SIMTech is an added advantage. This has built a much stronger link between research institutes and the industry,” said Mr Loo.

Apart from T-Up, SIMTech has also appointed several of its research scientists as technical advisers to assist in various sectors of the manufacturing industry. The  technical advisers recommend relevant technology, processes and advice to the companies and initiate R&D collaborations  between SIMTech and the companies, where appropriate.

SIMTech has also been very active in carrying out the Operation and Technology Roadmapping (OTR) sessions. OTR assists local small and medium enterprises to develop a technology plan, linked to their business drivers, products and services, to reduce their risks in technology development and acquisition.  Thirteen such sessions were  carried out in 2005. This year, the plan is to increase to 20.

Prime Electrical Products, Singapore’s leading water heater manufacturer has successfully launched its water heaters all over the world, including Europe, China, the Middle East and South-east Asia. As a result of its various technical collaborations with the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Prime was able to come up with new-age “organic” designs in its egg-shape water heaters which are full of features and yet light in weight. Over 80,000 of these water heaters have been sold since it was launched in 2004.

Two researchers from SIMTech, Miss Jenny Ang and Mr S H Ramanath, have been instrumental in helping Prime design both the internal structure and external look-and-feel of the water heaters. In 2002, Ram initially assisted Prime to develop a prototype of the new water heater and Jenny assisted as an adviser on product design.  In 2003 and 2004, Jenny and Ramanath  were seconded to Prime under a two-year T-Up scheme. There, the duo helped the water-heater maker to enhance the internal and external designs.

More importantly, many internal changes were needed to make the water heaters compliant with the safety and consumer requirements of Prime’s overseas markets. The power rating for water heaters is between 8-9 kW for certain countries , while Singapore is 3 kW. While all Singapore homes are connected to a main circuit breaker and an earth leakage circuit breaker, some countries do not have this electrical requirement. As a result, Prime also needed to develop built-in earth leakage circuit breaker for some of the models.

These special variations required substantial re-design of the internal mechanical structure where in, Ram played a key role in helping to solve the technical and design issues. With the assistance of the two SIMTech researchers, Prime managed to develop eight different models of its water heaters. One of these is the multi-point model that can connect to multiple shower outlets from one heater unit and other models that have the earth circuit breaker built-in, among others.

Of the T-Up experience, Ramanath said: “The company treated us very well and as a part of their management. We were involved in every major decision of the company. It was a very good learning experience.”

Jenny agreed. “It was a great real-life business experience. Now, we understand the problems faced by local manufacturers better. We have also gained insights into how to commercialise a product and push it into the market. For the company, it now understands the benefits of R&D.  Prime is continuing to work with us for their next line of products.”

Innovation is the key to business survival and success. That’s the mantra of Singapore headquartered optical lens manufacturer Polycore Optical. Incorporated in Singapore in 1976, Polycore today has six distribution networks and four manufacturing plants around the world. It is both an OEM as well as a leading tier-2 optical lens manufacturer, particularly in the US markets.

Dr. Sammy Sumargo, managing director of Polycore, said that the company has been continuously innovating and developing new products to stay ahead of its competitors. “The optical lens market is traditionally very conservative. But we need to be innovative to be ahead. We cannot stay with commodity products. We cannot compete with low wage countries which can always make anything at least 30% cheaper. Our main driving force is innovation and new products to stay on top of the value chain,” said Dr Sumargo.

Massive R&D however is no easy feat for an SME like Polycore. Especially where there are so many areas of R&D in the optical lens business, including materials and coating, lens design, product development and manufacturing processes. “Because we are not a very big company, we simply did not have the budget for R&D in every area,” said Dr Sumargo. In the past, most of its in-house R&D has been focused on improving manufacturing processes.

Today however, things are very different. Polycore is conducting cutting-edge R&D in developing new coating materials, new lens design methods that are more flexible as well as continued improvement in the manufacturing processes. It is even looking to patent some of its latest R&D efforts. All of this is significantly attributable to Polycore’s active participation in the GET-Up initiatives.

Over the last 3 years, Polycore has been involved in about 7 research projects under the GET-Up initiative, including two T-Up secondments and OTR sessions. “T-Up is very good for the company. T-Up team listens to our needs and matches our needs with the right researchers seconded to the company. But that is not the best part. More importantly, the entire resources in A*Star Institutes are available to the project. That’s a real gem,” added Dr. Sumargo.

He also gave the thumbs up for the OTR process. “OTR  was extremely useful. It pushed us to sit down and seriously review our business needs and come up with a list of priorities and technologies that we must focus on. We were also able to see everything in relation to one another when we went through the road-mapping process,” said Dr. Sumargo.

Need funding for a great idea? Stuck in the vicious cycle of no money, no prototype, no investor?

Young companies and entrepreneurs may have difficulty bringing innovations to market, especially at the early pre-seeds stage. With a good idea but no functional prototype, such enterprises may find it hard to interest investors, clients and partners. They thus have difficulty securing funding and resources to complete proof-of-concept, resulting in a vicious cycle.  

EDB’s Innovation Commercialisation Scheme (ICS) aims to encourage the development and commercialisation of innovations by supporting proof-of-concept projects by Singapore-registered companies less than three years old.

Launched by Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen last September at Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2005, ICS aims to enhance the rate of innovation commercialisation in Singapore, spurring enterprise formation and economic growth.

Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen
launches ICS at Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2005

ICS supports up to 50% of the qualifying costs for proof-of-concept projects, up to a maximum of $75,000. Eligible costs include R&D manpower costs, prototyping-related costs, and other equipment and consumables costs.

In the few months since its launch, ICS has received strong interest from the enterprise community, supporting companies engaged in innovative projects from a wide range of sectors and industries. The goal is to help validate and enhance innovations, leading to a vibrant community of companies with innovations commercialised in Singapore.

Visit us at www.sedb.com or call us at 6832 6832 for more information.