HP unveils S$100m campus, home to its first advanced manufacturing centre

Facility lets engineers design, experiment, implement solutions to improve manufacturing processes

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S advanced manufacturing sector has received a fillip with the opening of HP's new Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) campus at Depot Close.

HP on Wednesday officially unveiled its S$100 million new APJ headquarters located in the Telok Blangah district of Singapore. Spanning over 450,000 sq ft, it is also home to HP's first Smart Manufacturing Applications and Research Centre (Smarc) in the world.

Smarc, a 6,000 sq ft facility, allows engineers to design, experiment and implement solutions to improve HP's manufacturing processes. The target is to boost productivity by at least 20 per cent.

The centre is manned by a team of engineers who oversee more than 50 supplies manufacturing lines globally. It will leverage technologies such as additive manufacturing (3D printing), advanced robotics and large-scale data analytics. Successful developments from Smarc will be implemented across HP's supplies manufacturing lines across the world.

Richard Bailey, president for APJ at HP, said: "The Singapore campus is a reflection of our drive to constantly reinvent the way we work as well as develop new technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency across our global operations."

S Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) and guest of honour at HP's opening event, highlighted Singapore's commitment to ensure the sustainability and competitiveness of its manufacturing sector.

He said: "We have implemented an array of programmes towards this objective, and welcome more industry partners to join us in this journey by investing in advanced manufacturing technologies and skills upgrading."

The minister noted that the government has identified advanced manufacturing as a key growth area for Singapore, and committed S$3.2 billion to research and development (R&D) in advanced manufacturing and engineering under its Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan.

He added: "HP is also an important partner in our efforts to raise the capabilities of our SMEs (small and medium enterprises)."

Mr Iswaran said that HP has for instance, partnered local SME suppliers Mega Plus Technology and Super Pak Manufacturing - under Spring Singapore's Partnership for Capability Transformation programme - to create a more environmentally-friendly packaging for ink canisters.

HP's new APJ campus will bring together for the first time more than 3,000 employees from 35 nationalities onto a single location to carry out sales, operations, logistics and R&D and marketing for the region.

Designed to leverage natural lighting and intelligent controls to conserve energy, it features a new Customer Welcome Center that will allow customers and partners to explore tailored HP solutions based on their needs or target vertical markets.

HP's new campus is developed by Mapletree Industrial Trust. HP Singapore, which was established more than 47 years ago, has since served as the company's APJ headquarters.

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