SIA Engineering launches Lean Academy to upskill workforce

SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC) has launched a training academy focused on Lean methodologies to upskill its workforce and boost competitiveness, even as it hunkers down for the pandemic to pass.

Training courses at the Lean Academy will subsequently be made available to the wider maintenance, repair and overhaul community. Lean methodologies optimise people, resources, effort, and energy within an organisation to create value for the customer.

It is part of the mainboard-listed aerospace company's programme to make work easier and faster for its some 4,000 strong workforce. SIAEC will invest more than S$10 million of the S$40 million earmarked for the second phase of the programme to accelerate its Lean transformation.

Chief executive officer Ng Chin Hwee said at the launch of the academy on Tuesday that the company has achieved 20 to 30 per cent improvements in productivity, and its goal is to achieve full Lean enterprise status by early 2023.

Lean courses will be delivered to all staff of SIAEC, with S$2.4 million in salary support from the Economic Development Board.

However, the Lean Academy will also roll out training to the wider maintenance, repair and overhaul community, after the SIAEC workforce has been trained in Lean.

"In the longer term, we will add Lean into our suite of training courses offered to the aerospace, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) community," said Mr Ng.

Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, who officiated at the launch ceremony, noted that global recovery for the aerospace industry remains uncertain and is not expected to be smooth sailing. She encouraged major players like SIAEC to lean forward and help uplift their industry sectors. "Overall, this will enable the Singapore aerospace MRO hub to grow in a more sustainable and efficient manner and as an ecosystem."

SIAEC has increased training hours per staff member from 40 to 50 hours a year as it makes use of the lull during the pandemic.