Agilent to invest S$85m over 5 years in Singapore

Singapore

AGILENT Technologies will invest S$85 million over five years in Singapore to double its production capacity by expanding its advanced manufacturing and applied research and development (R&D) capabilities here on the back of robust growth.

The new investment in infrastructure and skilled manpower will create more than 100 new jobs in R&D, advanced manufacturing, service and sales over this period of time to support the expansion.

The American analytical laboratory instrument maker and solutions provider will add 30,000 square feet to its existing facility in Yishun, equipped with state-of-the-art metrology, robotics and manufacturing control systems, enabling it to offer complete end-to-end manufacturing, test and supply chain management.

Agilent president and CEO Mike McMullen, who officiated the opening of the expanded facility on Wednesday, said the investment is necessary as the company is growing and that Singapore is a strategic location for the firm.

He noted that the transformation that Agilent went through in the past two years has allowed it to "refocus our resources in life science business and we are seeing a lot of growth".

He said: "We expect more growth and we invest in a lot of new product capabilities. We see this as a great place to make an investment because we have access to talents and the markets, but also at the same time, we need the investments because of the growth."

Asia is the company's largest and fastest-growing market, growing at a double-digit pace led by growth in China, noted Mr McMullen.

Agilent, which has been in Singapore for close to 50 years, has about 470 employees in the facility here, producing analytical instruments such as liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and DNA microarray scanners.

Among others, the company is adopting advanced robotics automation technologies to ensure product quality, collecting data for analysis and utilising predictive maintenance to improve workflow.

Chow Woai Sheng, vice-president and country general manager of Agilent Singapore, said the company is investing in both physical and non-physical workflow automation.

He said: "For example, manufacturing execution system software is basically crawling and extracting big data from all instruments. These are highly complex instruments that generate over 500 different data points every second.

"To be able to extract those information, interpolate and figure out how best to improve the design or quality of the product is at the core of this advanced manufacturing technologies."

Economic Development Board (EDB) managing director Yeoh Keat Chuan said: "Medical technology is an important sector in Singapore's economic future and we will continue to invest strongly in its growth."

EDB has been working with companies such as Agilent to co-locate critical functions such as product development and manufacturing in Singapore, complemented by impactful innovation partnerships with institutions and universities within the local research ecosystem, he noted.

Looking ahead, Agilent sees itself continuing with its innovation strategy, one of which is to make a complicated instrument simple to use, and thus create a good customer experience, said Mr McMullen.

Its recently launched mass spectrometry instrument, Ultivo, is 70 per cent smaller and just as powerful as the bigger ones. It was designed by engineers in the United States and Singapore working in collaboration, and will be manufactured in Singapore.

Mr McMullen said: "That means our customers will be able to outfit their labs with a lot more power in a more efficient footprint. There's really nothing like it in the industry, and we're pretty excited about it."