Electronics transformation map can make all manufacturing in Singapore Industry 4.0 ready

It has a head start in technology proficiency, being a cluster that has reinvented itself several times, going up the technology value chain

Published Thu, Sep 28, 2017 · 09:50 PM

Manufacturing

LAST week's launch of the Electronics Industry Transformation Map (ITM) by Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran has been welcomed by the electronics cluster as a step in the right direction to prepare the sector for the changes that are sweeping through it, thanks to Industry 4.0. Within the manufacturing sector, an ITM for the precision engineering cluster was launched last year.

The electronics manufacturing cluster is the glamorous part of the manufacturing sector which is why the ITM for the cluster has garnered a lot of visibility. In 2016, electronics manufacturing accounted for 4.4 per cent of Singapore's GDP (gross domestic product), contributing close to S$90 billion in manufacturing output and employing about 70,000 workers.

ITM will use a two-pronged strategy to ensure that electronics continues to grow, with the aim of a manufacturing value-add of S$22.2 billion and 2,100 new PMET (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) jobs by 2020. According to the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the manufacturing value-add for the sector in 2015 - the latest year available - was S$19 billion.