JTC has partnered the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) to anchor two of the latter’s advanced manufacturing research institutes in the Jurong Innovation District (JID).

With this, the two facilities – Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) and National Metrology Centre (NMC) – will now be relocated at CleanTech Park’s CT2B and CT3 in the JID.

The move furthers JID’s goal of bringing various nodes of the advanced manufacturing ecosystem into a “one-stop campus”, said JTC chief executive Tan Boon Khai at the inaugural Jurong Innovation District Day on Thursday (Oct 19).

“A key piece of our efforts today is to provide a mutually reinforcing ecosystem to serve as an area for our SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and startups to collaborate with our MNCs (multinational corporations) and large local enterprises, to give more local companies a boost in innovation,” added Tan.

The research institutes will partner companies and other industry stakeholders to co-develop advanced manufacturing technologies with the aim of accelerating the move towards net-zero manufacturing, said JTC and A*Star in a joint statement on Thursday (Oct 19).

This is in line with the Singapore Green Plan 2030, and the Republic will continue to pursue green growth and industry transformation by harnessing sustainability, said a spokesperson from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

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“Singapore will continue to foster a vibrant ecosystem of companies, investors, innovators, research institutes to capitalise on technology and develop green solutions which can be innovated, tested, scaled and commercialised from Singapore.”

Key areas of manufacturing focus for Singapore include the green economy, bio-based economy, mobility and next-generation hardware “which will create highly-skilled jobs with more automated, digitalised and cleaner work environments”, the EDB spokesperson added.

As the manufacturing sector transforms, Singapore companies will have to embrace sustainability to stay competitive, Dr May Win Naing, A*Star’s director for science and engineering research, told The Business Times, adding: “If we do not start getting into sustainability, I think we will be left behind.”

The new technologies required to drive sustainability will also create new jobs, and this will hopefully attract fresh blood into the sector. “Manufacturing has not been sexy for a very long time. Many of the older SMEs are moving out because they cannot compete on costs,” said Dr Win Naing.

“But now with the new technologies required... (such as) battery recycling, we... need new skill sets. So because of that, we hope that manufacturing will become a little more interesting.”

SIMTech will work with industry partners to co-develop high-value manufacturing technology and human capital to enhance the competitiveness of Singapore’s manufacturing industry.

Meanwhile, NMC will continue its work in conducting data-driven sensor calibration, to provide reliable sensing of environmental metrics such as indoor air quality, temperature and vibration fluctuations. This helps with improving energy efficiency for building ventilation, reliable factory machine prescriptive maintenance and product quality prediction to reduce waste, respectively.

“The Jurong Innovation District has gained ground and momentum in its development as a catalyst for the growth of an advanced manufacturing community,” said JTC’s Tan.

The dedicated advanced manufacturing campus currently hosts more than 100 players along the value chain, from research and capability developers to advanced manufacturers and training providers.

Besides A*Star, manufacturing companies such as Shimano, Hyundai Motor Group and Konica Minolta have also opened facilities in the JID.

Separately, Workforce Singapore (WSG) on the same day rolled out the Sectoral Job Redesign Initiative, to support businesses in their workforce transformation efforts as they embark on Industry 4.0 transformation.

Through the initiative, JTC tenants can receive enterprise-centric support to identify key productivity drivers, implement sector specific solutions and reskill their workforce to take on redesigned job roles in growth areas.

Participating companies may tap WSG’s Job Redesign Reskilling Career Conversion Programmes to support their workers in undertaking new or redesigned job roles.

In the last five years, close to 3,200 mid-career workers have participated in WSG’s Career Conversion Programmes for the manufacturing sector.