Despite low birth rates:Manufacturing in Singapore and interesting jobs are in sight.

Made in Singapore:

A positive sign has emerged and great opportunities to increase productivity inSingapore with less cost, but yet creating high skilled job functions - its on theway – don’t miss the boat.

A hot topic in recent time has been the high increase of migrants and temporaryworkers and the even more crowded streets and roads on the small place ofSingapore.

This can be a dilemma because Singapore also needs more and biggerbusiness to keep the universal wheel turning at a pace that does not createstress because among many other important parameters such as happy family -an interesting and satisfying job without stress is also a key component for howlife flows in a positive way so it not becomes stagnant. So instead of just seeingthe outside world pass by from a crowed street or small flat there is a way toachieve god balance.

Singapore has many opportunities to ensure such god balance of increasedcompetitiveness with high skilled jobs and be a centre of competence and be ahighly efficient production house because the foundation is already here with somemany top class education institutions and a very friendly business environment forcompanies all the way from small SMEs to big corporations.

Since Singapore already create so many highly competent young people with greatskills from educational institutions there is already a strong foundation to also keepthe manufacturing and production in Singapore.

By nature there is a need for goods anywhere in the world – also in Singapore andwith the high pressure on the environment the future might need to ensure theproduction can take place near the point of consumption. Traditionally productionhas been associated with the need for low skilled workers and many of them –maybe not so much any more because in recent years new and very smartuniversal industrial robots are available.

Singapore can embrace these new universal robots because they can be the key tofirst of all make jobs much more interesting because instead of previously needinglow skilled workers now we need high skilled robot administrators andcommissioners. With the emergence of new robot technologies the programming ofrobots has become intuitive and much more accessible and interesting to work with– it is fun and mind boggling because it speaks too many of human skills and itspeaks to our creativity so this is very interesting because working with such robotcreates even more ideas for increased productivity.

Robots does not take jobs away – they create more and better jobs and Singaporecan gain a great competence and competitive edge by utilizing these new universalrobots for production in Singapore. And over time Singapore can provide itsexpertise from such competence to endless other parts of the world that also needsto be able to produce at home and near the place of consumption.

Not only is this a good opportunity for the new young Singapore professionals, butalso a great plan for experienced citizens who have many years experience in theSingapore production life – and a good and interesting job for mature citizens is avery good retirement plan.

So if you are a Singapore production manager or owner – or plan to start aproduction – or thinking of outsourcing the production – then think again and seethe great opportunities in Singapore. Buy a robot arm so you can be independentand keep production in Singapore – buy a robot arm - it is easy to utilize a robotarm.

So secure your production flow and make sure you can put the quality stamp on your product as “Made in Singapore”.

Already surveys in Europe shows that companies regret out sourcing and at many places in the world we until now have consideredlow cost area is now reaching the Levis Point which mean the cost, of taking current production down at home and moving to set upnew production far away from point of idea and consumption, is reaching an amount that is higher than keeping the production athome. Now instead manufactures can produce more by introducing the latest technology in automation and robotics.

Operators become partners of Robots and release them from the mundane work and upgrade the people to robot trainers or robotadministrators or robot team managers and now they have a job that is better than before. Robots are lifting the atmosphere at thework place.

Hidden benefits of robotics:

Good automation brings consistency – no stops – uninterrupted production flow. Some positive experience is that many continuoustasks are much faster to complete – there is no interruptions for breaks – phone calls – other instructions or normal small talk. Whenfirst automation is set in motion it continues and complete much faster. In many case other process machines like CNC and InjectionMoulding machine or similar machines does actually not work to capacity because of unnecessary waiting time to be reloaded while theoperator is busy tending another machine – a robot will tend right away.

Some companies who cleverly have introduced robotics to reduce their operational costs – suddenly get a positive surprise that theyalso could produce 3-4 times more then previously because of optimized cycle time for the work piece.

So this is a hidden benefit – not only will a robot help to increase your productivity by providing a constant - uninterrupted andconsistent work flow, but it will also contribute to full capacity on associated machinery. This means implementing robots is not just onecost reducing component, but typical several cost reducing components - and for sure several components of increased productivity.

State of the art technology creates State of the art technology jobs. Overcome the psychological obstacles to implement robotics byusing state of the art technology a range competencies and interesting jobs are developed and utilized in Singapore like -

Skilled workers

Electricians.Machinists.Equipment operator.MechanicsTool makers.

Scientists and Engineers

Software.Mechanical.Physicists.Biologists.Civil.Industrial.

Technicians.

CAD/CAM designers.Electrical.Electronic.

Managers.

Project managers.Network.Supply Chain.

With a Universal-Robot arm there is no need for specialized software programmers and is easy to implement. Universal-Robot has acollaboration function which makes the robot stop if it hit an unexpected force. A thorough risk assessment must however always bemade.

And the robot hand (often also called end effectors) which typically needs to be customized to be able to handle a particular work piececan very often be put together from very simple grippers and modular building sets. Such robot end effectors can in many case be airchuck for open and close grippers or electrical gripper which also has open and close functions or Vacuum pads and many creativemodular building blocks are available for such purpose.

So from getting the robot into the workshop or production facility to action can be done in matter of hours or even minutes in somecases.

Author:By Zacobria Lars SkovsgaardAuthorised Universal-Robots Distributor.

www.zacobria.cominfo@zacobria.com