Seagate Technology International Accorded Top National Honour for Manufacturing Excellence

1. Seagate Technology International impressed the distinguished panel of judges to clinch the inaugural Singapore Manufacturing Excellence Award or MAXA. Seagate demonstrated overall excellence in the award’s three judging criteria namely innovation, operational excellence and sustainability.

2. Mr Chee Teck Huei, Vice President of Seagate's Ang Mo Kio Hard Disc Drive Manufacturing Operations, said: “Being the pioneer winner of the inaugural MAXA award is a demonstration of Seagate's manufacturing leadership and operations excellence as we benchmark ourselves against the best manufacturing practices from the global industry. Seagate will also continue to leverage our innovation and technology to continually scale our own operations processes to that of global-class standards to maintain business sustainability and bring value to Singapore's manufacturing industry. By constantly bettering our own operations and attaining a high level of business excellence, we hope to lead by example within the manufacturing fraternity, provide value-add to the Singapore economy and attract the best talents to both Seagate and Singapore.”

3. Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide range of applications, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Branded Solutions. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. Seagate has sited a range of activities in Singapore from regional headquarters functions to R&D to manufacturing. Its integrated operations in Singapore include two disc media manufacturing facilities, an assembly of high end disc drives in Ang Mo Kio, and a 250-man R&D Centre at the Science Park. Seagate recently announced that it will be increasing the headcount in this R&D centre to 400-man. Significantly, it will also be building a third recording media plant in Singapore. This investment of $1.3 billion will make Singapore the key strategic site for Seagate, supplying 80% of Seagate’s total requirement of recording media, a critical component used in the assembly of its disc drives.

4. The following companies - BD Medical (S) Pte Ltd and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care (DAP) Singapore - were also recognised with the MAXA 2006’s Product Innovation Award and the Singapore Advantage Award respectively. For the Product Innovation Award, the judges found that BD Medical continued to develop and manufacture a stream of highly innovative medical products to address its various customer segments. Philips DAP Singapore received the Singapore Advantage Award for effectively leveraging on Singapore’s competitive advantages to enhance its competitiveness in the global market.

5. Three companies - Kenwood Electronics Technologies (S) Pte Ltd, Leica Instruments (Singapore) Pte Ltd and MSD Singapore – were also commended as finalists. The winners and finalists will receive the nation’s top award for manufacturing from President S R Nathan at an award ceremony which will be held in conjunction with the opening of Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2006 tonight.

4. Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Economic Development Board (EDB), said, “This pioneer group of MAXA winners and short listed companies are of very high standards and come from diverse industries, reflecting Singapore’s status as a world class manufacturing hub. They have fully capitalised on Singapore’s capabilities and strengths to attain world standards in innovation and manufacturing excellence. Epitomising manufacturing best practices, I am confident that the inaugural MAXA winners will spur more companies to greater success and strengthen the ‘Made in Singapore’ brand name on the world stage as we strive towards our plan to double our manufacturing industry output by 2018.”

5. Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Professor of Manufacturing and Director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University, United Kingdom and Chairperson of the MAXA 2006 judging panel, commented, “The judging process was by no means an easy task. My fellow judges and I were impressed by the overall calibre of the finalists. It was evident from their presentations that they are all companies of global standing and world-class manufacturing capabilities. We questioned and scrutinised the companies in their innovations, operating systems and factors for sustainability, exercising the most stringent assessment in order to maintain the highest standards for MAXA.”

6. He added, “Seagate came up tops in all aspects and is indeed, a company at the cutting-edge of manufacturing excellence. With the presence of such impressive top-notch companies, Singapore looks poised to remain a competitive manufacturing powerhouse in the global economic landscape.”

7. Mr Hsieh Tsun-yan, Director of McKinsey & Company, a MAXA partner said, “The MAXA assessment process showed the strength of Singapore’s manufacturers. Aside from having strong operational performance, the companies visited in phase two all showed good leverage of the competitive advantages of Singapore, for example by integrating manufacturing with product launch, design or R&D processes, or by working in IP-intensive industries with time-sensitive product cycles. Those companies whose operational excellence seemed most sustainable were generally also those that most valued their people and that demonstrated a high level of innovation.”

8. Commenting on how the high standards set by the pioneer MAXA winners will impact on attracting talents to Singapore’s manufacturing sector, Professor Hardy Chan, Co-Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), also a MAXA partner said, “MAXA pioneer winners are role models and sources of inspiration for our engineering students to fully appreciate the challenges and rewards of manufacturing engineering. Our high tech manufacturing industry is vibrant and remains competitive because the companies know how to leverage on the advantages that Singapore offers. SMA's Manufacturing Systems and Technology (MST) Programme will continue to support MAXA most enthusiastically.”

9. MAXA 2006 launched in April this year attracted over 40 participants. All companies with manufacturing operations in Singapore are eligible to vie for MAXA through self-nomination. The companies that took part in MAXA 2006 spanned across eight different manufacturing industries namely biomedical sciences, chemicals, electronics, infocomm and media, transport engineering, precision engineering, food and emerging industries such as nanotechnology.

10. The selection process comprised three phases:

a. In the first phase, through their written submissions, companies were assessed on innovation, manufacturing excellence and sustainability in their Singapore-based manufacturing operations. Short-listed companies advanced to phase two for further assessment.

b. In the second phase, assessors from McKinsey and the Singapore-MIT Alliance made a two-day visit to the manufacturing facilities of shortlisted applicants and conducted interviews to validate the written submissions and to enable more comprehensive assessments. The finalists were then identified at the end of this phase.

c. In the last phase, each finalist made a presentation to and answered questions from a panel of eminent judges who then determined the winner.

11. The final round of judging was conducted on 28 October where the six finalists presented to and were interviewed by the judging panel chaired by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya. The other judges were Mr Goh Geok Ling, Chairman, Sembcorp Marine Ltd; Dr Yoshiyuki Kaneda, Former Executive Deputy President and Representative Director, Sony Corporation; and Mr Helmut Wieser, Executive Vice President and Group President, Alcoa Inc.

12. The winners, award partners and judges will be sharing their award experience at the MAXA 2006 Conference on 31 October. The speakers will provide insights gained during MAXA 2006 and discuss future trends and opportunities in manufacturing and innovation.

13. Jointly organised by the EDB together with partners, McKinsey & Company and the Singapore-MIT Alliance (comprising the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University), MAXA is benchmarked to global standards in manufacturing excellence and innovation. The award presents the highest level of recognition to exceptional Singapore-based operations that have achieved world-class manufacturing standards here.

14. For more information on MAXA, please refer to the MAXA brochure or visit www.maxa.sg.

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