Sweet gains

USING only basic kitchen equipment, staff at the Sheng Kee Dessert central kitchen had to prepare, cook and package food products by hand. These manual tasks were often strenuous, time-consuming and tiring.

But soon after parent company Select Group implemented an automation project in 2011 - with investments in bulk cooking and automated equipment - huge gains in productivity and efficiency could be seen.

Instead of grinding sesame seeds and almonds by hand, electric stone millers and sieves halved the time needed to prepare the sweet paste desserts.