DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the launch of Wong Fong Industries' New Headquarters

Mr Jimmy Lew, Executive Chairman, Wong Fong industries, and
Mr James Liew, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, Wong Fong Industries,

Ms Low Yen Ling, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Education,

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

It is my pleasure to join you this evening to celebrate the launch of Wong Fong Industries’ new headquarters. This expansion is significant for the company. Not only does it increase Wong Fong’s capacity in its existing core business, it also enables the company to work on new business areas, such as the development of electric vehicles.

Wong Fong is a good example of how technological innovation is not limited to start ups or large enterprises. From a truck servicing workshop run by a team of six men, Wong Fong has grown over the years and now designs and integrates cranes and loaders onto heavy vehicles. It also distributes equipment for waste management systems and mobility aids.

In recent years, we have seen major technological advances in land transportation. Computing power, cheaper sensors and new technologies like robotics are behind much of this. The Government has been keen to support the development of new models, such as the recent piloting of self-driving cars.

Wong Fong is a firm believer in this wave of innovation. It has dedicated significant resources to R&D, with Wong Fong Research and Innovation Centre set up in 2013.

1. Wong Fong is developing electric mobility vehicles and fast-charging battery systems. I understand that has been developing electric trucks and bikes, and Singapore’s first high-performance electric sportscar, Dendrobium. The latter has been developed in partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering, the company that is behind the Williams Formula One team.

The Government has made it a clear priority to help innovation-minded SMEs, like Wong Fong, develop or co-develop innovation and commercialise them. We are helping our companies retool and develop strong capabilities, even in the midst of a tough economic climate. We want to help SMEs to commercialise their capabilities beyond Singapore to take advantage of the growing regional opportunities. Wong Fong is an example of how local firms can take advantage of Government support:

1. SPRING has supported Wong Fong in the development of engineering know-how and manufacturing capabilities for electric vehicles in their collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering. It has also supported them in branding and marketing strategy development projects, as well as HR capability development.
2. IESingapore has also recently supported their entry into the Myanmar market. Wong Fong is now moving on to the next step - to set up an Overseas Marketing Office in Myanmar with IE Singapore’s support.

Going forward, we will be focusing more of our R&D resources to develop or co-develop technologies that can be commercialised by our companies, including innovation-minded SMEs like Wong Fong.

This will require a closer nexus between our research institutes and companies, in a way that enriches both. At the same time, we must also help them scale their innovations into a larger market.

We are also developing people with the right skillsets. To train industry-ready talents, SIT launched the Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land) programme in 2014 where students go through rigorous multi-disciplinary training in engineering and immerse themselves in the land transport industry.

A key highlight is the Integrated Work Study Programme carried out in partnership with organisations such as LTA, SMRT, SBS Transit, Singapore Technologies, Keppel Group and Sembcorp Industries, where students are involved in the actual day-to-day operations and challenges of these host organisations.

1. To facilitate its expansion, Wong Fong has invested in training its workforce under the Generic Manufacturing Skills Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework and training them on areas like how to operate a forklift and a lorry crane. It has set up a training subsidiary, Wong Fong Academy, which is an approved training organisation since July 2012 for both its employees and other workers.
2. Wong Fong Academy is also looking at how to deliver training that uses technology more intensively. It is also exploring various SkillsFuture initiatives and I encourage you to be a leader in this area too.

What we want to achieve is a step transformation of our companies, and a transformation of jobs through greater use of technology and greater autonomy on the job.

1. For example, Wong Fong implemented a Cylinder Repair Station (CRS). Repair of cylinders used to be challenging and manual, involving 6 men and a day of work. The CRS reorganised the work flow and introduced engineering tools to speed up the process. It now requires two men’s work over an hour. The work flow has been improved and the work now requires handling of more engineering tools.
2. In the land transport engineering sector, we can expect more jobs and roles to be created in areas that would require understanding of robotics, engineering, data analytics.
   1. For example in the future, instead of a driver and technician, there may be an automated utility vehicle coordinator who will be in charge of planning, some programming and despatching of the utility robots, coordinate their use, and troubleshoot and carry out ad-hoc maintenance based on data the coordinator receives from the monitoring system.
   2. A fleet manager could also look at other data to optimize operations, fuel consumption, uses predictive maintenance to minimise down time

The Government is approaching this in an integrated way. We are linking up our support for innovation, skills and productivity under each sector’s Industry Transformation Map. I urge more SMEs to take advantage of our schemes, like Wong Fong has done.

My congratulations once again to Wong Fong and I wish you every success. Thank you.