SMS Lee Yi Shyan at the Graduation Ceremony for the Training Programme on Productivity Consultancy at Grand Park City Hotel, Ballroom II

Mr Matsukawa, President, Japan Productivity Center,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

I am pleased to join you for this inaugural Graduation Ceremony for the Training Programme on Productivity Consultancy. I congratulate all 18 of you for being the first batch of graduands of this specialised program. 

Training Programme on Productivity Consultancy

2.      This Training Programme is an important initiative between SPRING Singapore and the Japan Productivity Centre (JPC), supported by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).  I would like to thank Mr Matsukawa for JPC’s strong support in developing and conducting the training programme in Singapore. This is the first time JPC has done this outside of Japan and we value the support that JPC has extended to Singapore over the years. 

3.      Experiences in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have shown that experienced productivity consultants can help companies accelerate their understanding of the "whats" and "hows" in improving their productivity. This is why we need to expand our pool of qualified consultants. Upon graduation and after 8 months of specialised training, you are now the change agents for the companies with whom you will consult for.

4.      I understand that even during the training period, some of you had already worked on real issues for productivity improvement. For example, one of you helped Goodrich, an interior solutions provider, set up internal teams to review their visual merchandising display and their HR competency model. Another one of you helped Han’s, a home-grown F&B chain, conducted an ABC Analysis (inventory management technique) to identify their key selling items. This led to a menu re-design, which cut down the list of food items on their menu by 30%.

Establishment of Singapore Productivity Centre for the Retail and Food Services Sectors

5.    In addition to increasing the number of productivity consultants, we are also expanding our capacity to help SMEs by way of dedicated productivity competency centres. These centres are "dedicated" because they are sector-specific. For instance, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation runs the Singapore Innovation and Productivity Institute (SiPi); while the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) runs the Construction Productivity Centre. Companies in these sectors have benefitted significantly from the advice and expertise the Centres have provided.

6.     Today, I am pleased to announce the establishment of a third centre, called the “Singapore Productivity Centre” (SPC). This will be jointly run by the Singapore Productivity Association (SPA) and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and it will serve the Retail and Food services sectors. Aside from providing productivity consultancy, the SPC will conduct productivity training, organise conferences and workshops, and perform benchmarking and applied research studies.

7.      With a budget of about $10 million over the next three years, the SPC aims to benefit over 2,000 companies through productivity improvement projects, productivity training programmes, and conferences and workshops. The Centre will also train some 50 consultants.

8.      The SPC is in fact a further extension of the Retail Productivity Plan and the Food Services Productivity Plan announced in 2011.  When the plans are fully rolled out, they are expected to improve productivity for each company by an average of 20%.

Conclusion

9.      In summary, we are building our capacity for change in the industries.  By having more trained productivity consultants, we can help more companies troubleshoot their operational bottlenecks and identify gaps for productivity improvements.  By setting up more dedicated Productivity Centres, we can reach out to more SMEs in specific industries, share best practices and identify common, as well as specialised solutions for change and productivity improvement.

10.  Our competition does not stand still. Neither does our operating environment. Only by constantly changing and upgrading ourselves can we hope to stay ahead of competition. I therefore urge SMEs to come forward to make full use of these facilities to transform your businesses. Thank you.