JM Ice keeps things cool with bots and tech

Singapore

PUTTING robotic arms to work in an ice factory sounds like a massive short circuit waiting to happen.

But it is exactly what Jurong Marine (JM) Ice did in January.

Installing S$500,000 worth of robots has enabled it to shed its reliance on nine workers whose thankless job it was to manually stack 18-kg packs of ice onto delivery platforms, from where the bags go into cold storage or directly onto trucks for delivery to clients.

Eric Lee, one of the company's two executive directors, said: "We were facing a big headache as no one wanted to work as an ice-packer." It didn't help that hot days would send demand for ice up, which meant these workers had to clock longer work days.

With the robotic arms in, the workers aged between 30 and 60 have been redeployed to other jobs, such as that of keeping an eye on the…