2. Speeches
Mr Teo Ser Luck at the Ground Breaking Ceremony of Toll City
27 July 2015
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Speech by Minister Of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Teo Ser Luck at the Ground Breaking Ceremony of Toll City at Gul Crescent on 27 July 2015, 10am
Mr Chikashi Isayama, Executive Vice President, Japan Post
Mr Chris Pearce, Divisional Director, Toll Global Logistics
Mr Adrian Lochrin, Chargé d'Affaires, Australian High Commission
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very good morning.
Introduction
1 It is a great pleasure to join you today at the ground breaking ceremony of Toll City.
2 First, I will like to extend a warm welcome to our overseas guests from Japan Post. As you may know, Japan Post recently incorporated Toll Holdings into their operations in May this year.
3 Today, we celebrate yet another milestone in the strong partnership between Toll and Singapore. Toll City is one of Toll’s largest facility investments in Asia. It is testament to Toll’s confidence in Singapore as a choice location for third party logistics providers to support their clients’ growth in Asia and beyond.
Singapore will continue to support the growth and transformation of the Logistics industry by developing best–in-class facilities.
4 Singapore’s world-class infrastructure, strategic location and excellent connectivity have made Singapore a key logistics hub and supply chain management centre in the Asia Pacific
, employing over 188,000
people and contributing 7%
to Singapore’s economy.
5 With the continued growth of economies in Asia, the volume of trade in this region is expected to grow strongly. The Government is therefore investing in enhancing our logistics infrastructure, so that Singapore and companies in Singapore are well-positioned to seize opportunities in this growing sector. Recent developments include the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS) and the dedicated logistics facility clusters, also known as “LogisParks” located at Changi International, Tampines and other parts of the island
. Other projects in the pipeline include the expansion of Changi Airport and development of Tuas seaport, which will form the core of the next generation logistics infrastructure to support the growth and transformation of this key sector.
6 I am pleased to note that logistics companies have likewise been investing effort to build up their capabilities. Logistics players have been working with leading manufacturers to deploy best-in-class warehousing solutions to raise productivity. These include automating storage and retrieval processes to intensify storage space, and facilitate more speedy and accurate storage and retrieval of items.
7 I am heartened to hear that Toll plans to deploy state-of-the-art supply chain management and handling technologies such as Goods-to-Person
technologies and Voice Picking
in Toll City. By combining automation with better warehouse and process design, Toll expects to achieve a 35%
productivity improvement in its warehouse operations at Toll City.
Singapore will ensure that our workforce is equipped with skills for the future.
8 Best-in-class investments such as Toll City will require future-ready workers in order to operate effectively and achieve optimum results. With greater use of technology in these facilities, the warehouse specialist of the future needs to be comfortable with utilising technology in their daily tasks. For example, rather than knowing how to operate a forklift to move goods, they will have to programme and manage a fleet of robotic forklifts instead. They will work with smart warehouse management systems, rather than with hardcopy manifests and inventory tracking sheets.
9 The Government has therefore launched a nationwide SkillsFuture effort to prepare our workforce with the skills needed in the future economy. One of SkillsFuture’s goals is to encourage companies to take up a more active role in the training and development of the workforce, by working closely with our education and training institutions to provide more opportunities for workplace learning. One such opportunity is through the “SkillsFuture Earn and Learn” programme, where fresh graduates from polytechnics and the Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) are given a head-start in their careers, by being able to gain work experience over a one-year period while concurrently studying for further qualification relevant to their discipline of study. I am glad to hear that Toll is actively participating in the “SkillsFuture” effort for the Logistics sector, as one of the pilot companies for the Earn and Learn programme. I would like to encourage other companies to come forward as well, to be part of this effort to build a stronger workforce to take Singapore forward.
Conclusion
10 Once again, my congratulations to Toll on the ground breaking of Toll City. I look forward to a long and sustained partnership between Toll and Singapore.
Based on the aggregated World Bank Logistics Performance Index across the 4 editions (2007, 2010, 2012, 2014), Singapore was ranked second (highest in Asia) with Japan and Hong Kong ranked 7th and 8th respectively.
Based on June 2014 numbers obtained from Ministry of Manpower
Based on 2014 numbers, obtained from Singstat
Other locations include Toh Guan, Toh Tuck and Banyan Logispark on Jurong Island.
GTP technology requires the operator to remain in one location while the items are delivered to the picking station via a tote system. The operator will be guided on the quantity to pick via the WMS, thereby improving the accuracy of the picking process. While the operator is picking the first tote, the second tote will be on standby ready for picking. This minimises the idle time of the operator, thereby improving the overall productivity of the worker. GTP can achieve approximately 1,000 picks per hour vs a typical pick amount of 300 per hour conventionally.
Using voice technology, the Warehouse Management System will instruct workers on the location of the goods and its associated quantity. This improves the productivity of the employees and accuracy of each pick.
Productivity improvement figure provided by Toll.