SINGAPORE: NTUC FairPrice announced on Sunday (May 21) that it is giving up to S$100 worth of baby and family-related products to families with newborn babies over the next three years. 

A media release stated that the FairPrice FairMily Kit will be available to all Singapore citizen babies born between January 2016 and December 2019. “The scheme is anticipated to benefit 35,000 babies per year,” it added. 

The S$14 million initiative is part of the NTUC Good Start Bundle launched in April, which also includes NTUC Income’s complimentary health insurance coverage for newborns. Eligible parents can visit www.ntucgoodstart.sg to sign up for their kit. 

NTUC secretary-general Chan Chun Sing, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, said at the family event where the launch was announced that the scheme complements community efforts to better engage with and support families with newborns.

“(The initiative) is aligned to the vision of creating a more pro-family environment where marriage and parenthood are enjoyable and celebrated in Singapore,” he said.  

Said FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng: “The new FairPrice FairMily Kit serves to share the joy with parents and celebrate the birth of all new Singaporean babies within the community.

“At the same time, we recognise that milk powder prices have been rising and we want to do our part to help alleviate some of the costs with this kit.” 

In its release, FairPrice also announced it will be making available “better value milk powder” products before the end of June, adding that more details will be released closer to the date. 

The move comes after the Government’s call to review import requirements to address the rising prices of milk powder in Singapore. 

SINGAPORE: The hotel of the future in Singapore might look something like this – guests will be able to check in online ahead of arrival. A robot will serve them pre-ordered drinks, take their luggage up to their room and deliver room service orders. Room entry will probably be keyless, using a smartphone app. 

As incredible as this sounds, we are already seeing parts of this futuristic fantasy materialise in hotels today. Here in Singapore, the hotel industry has taken steps towards automation, which will enhance the guest experience and lift productivity.

This shift is part of the Hotel Industry Transformation Map, an initiative developed and implemented by STB in partnership with the Singapore Hotel Association, Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union and the Hotel Sectoral Tripartite Committee.

The roadmap aims to accelerate business transformation and forge a competitive industry supported by a future-ready workforce for sustainable growth. 

PRESSING MANPOWER CRUNCH

Automation will boost productivity by freeing up hotel staff from basic tasks, giving them room to focus on interaction with guests.

The manpower crunch is pressing. As more visitors arrive in Singapore, new hotels are being built to cope with the demand and this in turn increases competition for the same labour pool.

Visitor arrivals reached a record high of 16.4 million in 2016, a 7.7 per cent increase over the previous year, and this number is expected to grow further. Automation is therefore critical for hotels to sustain profitability.

NO FEARS THAT ROBOTS WILL TAKE AWAY JOBS

The pessimistic view that robots will take jobs away from workers is exaggerated, in my opinion. Automation will complement our work, by relieving staff of menial jobs and allowing them to interact with guests.

Being able to deliver quality service is what will draw job seekers to our industry, even as we face rising living costs, an ageing population that is exiting the industry and a younger, better-educated workforce that is shunning basic service-level jobs.

At M Social Hotel, guests and staff have cheered the arrival of AURA, the first guest-facing robot in Singapore’s hotel industry that delivers items like bottled water, towels, toiletries and packed meals. She can autonomously ride elevators, navigate to a guest’s room and announce her arrival by calling the room’s phone.

AURA can make late-night deliveries to female guests, avoiding potential discomfort that may stem from meeting male staff. At peak periods, robots like AURA can help with the workloads of front office, housekeeping and food and beverage departments.

Automation is one of many innovative new ideas to tackle the industry’s pain points – there are also other areas such as big data, robotics, analytics and material sciences.

In the future, hotels will have to work with solution providers who can energise our industry with their savvy and innovation. We will look to them to help address common pain points such as speeding up room cleaning, laundry management processes and enhancing labour productivity in general.

HOTELS CAN CONNECT WITH GUESTS ON DEEPER LEVEL

Yet, while robots can bear back-breaking loads, they can never replicate the personal touch, warm smile or listening ear of a fellow human.

Automation frees up time for our staff to anticipate guest needs, and engage them on a deeper level. It means that guests have someone to talk to, listen to them and care for their needs.

We have found that our guests, especially those under 35, greatly enjoyed AURA, as they understand that AURA’s aim is to cut waiting time and improve efficiency. During a period surveyed by our team, we found that AURA’s average time for a delivery to a guest was consistently about three minutes, compared to a human delivery time of about five minutes. 

We have also begun to automate in other areas, both in front and back office. For instance, we have installed a system to schedule room distribution for cleaning and alert staff of tasks. Another example is a kiosk that manages the breakfast queue and can enable self-service orders.

ALL OVER THE WORLD

Robots have started appearing in hotels all over the world, not just in Singapore. In Asia, there is the space-themed, robot-staffed Pengheng Space capsule hotel in China, as well as the Henn Na hotel in Japan, which has receptionist bots who can speak English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

Some hotels in the USA, such as the West Wing boutique hotel in Florida State, are using AURA’s siblings, also sourced from the American tech firm Savioke. Interestingly, two of these three countries are facing an ageing population and changing workforce, similar to Singapore.

UNLOCK INSIGHTS FROM DATA

Personalisation is the future that hotels look to. We want to personalise the guest experience down to the finest detail, empowered by technology such as automation and analytics, given the wealth of data available on individuals today.

Some of this data will come from robots, who can gather information on customer satisfaction, response and purchase patterns through their interaction with guests.

In the future, they will serve as a vital tool to unlock data-driven insights, just like how today, they have become our means to unshackle the hotel industry from its labour and resource constraints.

Aung Kyaw Moe is Director of IT, Asia at Millennium Hotels and Resorts.

SINGAPORE: From garment factories and precision engineering firms, to dive shops, a music studio and a personal finance startup – these are among the motley crew of tenants who do business out of Singapore’s oldest flatted factory.

While it may look unremarkable, the 52-year-old building along Commonwealth Drive is what is left of an industrial cluster, which back in the day played a key role in operationalising Singapore’s early industrialisation drive, providing businesses with affordable industrial space.

“This flatted factory was actually opened by a minister (then Minister for National Development Lim Kim San),” said longtime tenant Chen De Li, pointing out that as Singapore’s economic development took off, such factory openings subsequently became “non-events”.

First mooted by the Economic Development Board and managed by its Industrial Facilities Division (which would later become JTC), the flatted factory comprises two buildings – the five-storey 115a, where most of the tenants are located, and the two-storey section, which has a coffeeshop on the ground floor.

The 240,000-square foot factory was divested to government-linked company Mapletree in 2008, and according to JTC, this allowed it “to focus on its strategic infrastructure developer role”.

THE FLATTED FACTORY TODAY

Today, in Singapore’s post-privatisation phase, 115 Commonwealth Drive is just like any other building in the competitive, largely private-sector-controlled industrial space market. But with its glory days behind it, it is no longer the pick of the bunch, with the upkeep and maintenance of its facilities described by one tenant as “very basic and minimal”.

At the same time, ageing tenants in sunset industries have hollowed out. One tenant, who only wanted to be known as Mdm Koh of Soon Hong Dressmaking, said she plans to discontinue her business and retire, as she is already 68. “Right now, I’m keeping it going at the request of my longtime customers. I give it about two years before I stop.”

Mr Chen De Li, 65, who imports and distributes desktop components, is in a similar position. “I know it’s a dying trade, so I don’t want my son to come and take over,” said the proprietor of CDL Trading, adding that he has tried unsuccessfully to shift to other business lines over the years.

And it’s not just Mr Chen and Mdm Koh who are struggling. Sally Chua, a tenant of 19 years, says many tenants have fallen on hard times in the last five years. “They haved either down-sized or closed shop.”  

“These were mainly occupied by small-time ‘cottage industries’ type of businesses, including dress-making, semi-conductor and electronic components, photography, medical and scientific equipment, and confectionery packaging,” said the 48-year-old.

Ms Chua’s company, Singapore Kitchen Equipment, is arguably one of the most successful in block 115. It expanded from a single unit to 19 over the years, and listed on the secondary board of the Singapore Exchange in 2013.

In a way, Block 115 Commonwealth is a microcosm of Singapore: capturing the diverging fortunes of companies and the evolving business mix as the country’s comparative advantages changed over time. Its newest tenant, personal finance portal MoneySmart, reflects this shift.

“We need more space, and besides there’s a time limit to how long startups can stay in Block 71, as it’s meant to be an incubation centre,” said founder and CEO Vinod Nair, explaining his decision to move from a neighbouring flatted factory, Block 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent.

“What we saved in terms of rental, we put it back into doing the place nicely, so that even though the exterior may be a little bit grubby, people can enjoy coming in to work,” added the 36-year-old. He believes Commonwealth could be the next startup hub, due to “affordable rent, transportation links, and range of food options”.

THE FUTURE

The flatted factory does not boast iconic architecture, such as the nearby former Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market, which was gazetted for conservation in 2013. But some tenants and researchers believe the factory holds enough historical significance to qualify for conservation.

Mr Kwek, whose non-profit group runs guided tours with a flatted factory as a tour stop, says that apart from supporting entrepreneurs, the flatted factory also contributed to the overall Singapore Story.

“It facilitated female participation in the workforce. This was important because society at the time was rather patriarchal. But women were able to take (sewing) work home for example, or do part-time work in the factory and walk back to their homes to cook and clean,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Mr Chen, the desktop components supplier, reasoned that block 115 deserves to be conserved as “a lot of old flatted factories have been torn down already”, and that we “should leave something for the future generation to look at.”

“The thing about conservation is sometimes people don’t think about it until it’s going to be torn down. But while it was there, nobody cares about it. I feel if (the flatted factory) is actively used as a stop for heritage trails, then I think it’s worth conserving, because people are actually coming in to see it,” said Mr Nair.

Not every tenant feels shares the same sentiment. Mdm Koh, who has been based there for 30 years, says she would not be sad to see it go. “The building is so old, and there are these cracks on the floor. Perhaps it’s better for it to be torn down.”

In 2013, My Community submitted a conservation paper to the authorities proposing that more than a dozen sites in Queenstown – including the flatted factory – be conserved. To date, URA has gazetted three of those sites for conservation. The flatted factory is not one of them. When contacted for comment, Mapletree told Channel NewsAsia in an emailed reply that it “do[es] not have any redevelopment plans” at present.

It added that it “regularly evaluate[s] opportunities to improve the competitiveness of [its] properties”, and completed “lift modernisation, improvements to toilets and façade painting” at the flatted factory over the last two years.

MEET THE TENANTS

1. Singapore Kitchen Equipment 

The largest tenant at the flatted factory, occupying 19 units.

Managing Director Sally Chua says one very visible change over the years is the neighbourhood’s demographics. “I used to see many middle-aged and old folks, and those from the lower income group. But in the recent years, this place has morphed to become quite trendy with many young workers, especially the white collar PMETs.”

2. Lion Studios

One of the oldest recording studios in Singapore, built in 1979.

Director David Tan (left) and manager Rufus Varghese run one of Singapore’s oldest recording studios, Lion Studios. Constructed and opened in 1979 by then-Polygram Records, the studio has seen the likes of Bon Jovi, Teresa Teng, Jeremy Monteiro and Malaysia’s The Alleycats record sessions there.

3. Marlin Divers

Husband-and-wife team Martin Benedict and E Lin Pow are second-generation tenants.

Ms Pow took over the place from her parents, who ran an injection moulding business. The couple appreciates the vibe in the flatted factory, describing it as a “little community who helps each other”.

4. Kah Huat

A second-generation uniform business which has been operating out of the flatted factory for the last 18 years.

The business has been in operation for more than 40 years, and one of its longest-serving employees has been working there for 42 years (above).

5. MoneySmart

A personal finance startup, and the flatted factory’s newest tenant.

“When I first came here, the lifts were so slow and old. But the biggest jolt that took me to the past was going to the toilets. It’s got the 70s tiling,” says CEO Vinod Nair.

6. The Central Industries

The flatted factory’s first tenant – a printing company.

Second-generation owner Ong Siong Sen said one fond memory of the flatted factory was seeing singer Teresa Teng, who was at Lion Studios for a recording session. “I saw her, but I just walked past. There were many people looking. She was eating chicken rice downstairs.”

7. CDL Trading

A desktop component distributor and a longtime tenant.

“I live in Woodlands, but I’m so familiar with this place. Every morning you wake up, you drive – take the same road, you come here, walk up, and the place is there,” says proprietor Chen De Li, who chose not to be photographed.

8. Soon Hong Dressmaking

A dressmaking business which has been around for the past 30 years.

Mdm Koh, a dressmaker who has been at the flatted factory for the past 30 years, with a colleague. She plans to close the business.