Nominations Open for MAXA 2007

MAXA finalists include established manufacturers – 3M, Beyonics, Kenwood, Siemens and SSMC

1. Tetra Pak Jurong Pte Ltd has been selected as this year’s MAXA winner, with overall excellence in innovation, operations and sustainability. MAXA represents the highest level of recognition to outstanding Singapore-based operations that have achieved world-class manufacturing standards.

2. In addition, Kenwood Electronics Technologies Singapore was selected for the Innovation Award, while 3M Singapore Pte Ltd and Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte Ltd (SSMC) were awarded for Operational Excellence. For successfully leveraging Singapore’s advantages to grow its operations and business locally and regionally, Beyonics International Pte Ltd was selected for the Singapore Advantage Award.

3. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who announced the creation of a national award for manufacturing in 2005, will present the 2007 MAXA winners with the award at a ceremony held in conjunction with the opening of Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2007 tonight.

4. Mr Alberto Tureikis, South & South East Asia Supply Chain Director of Tetra Pak Jurong Pte Ltd, said: “We are greatly honoured to emerge as the overall MAXA winner amongst the top manufacturers in Singapore. This helps to raise the manufacturing standard in Singapore. We at Tetra Pak believe in manufacturing excellence. This is essentially how we conduct our business locally as well as globally. Our people are engaged and motivated to contribute actively to the achievement of both business and personal objectives.”

5. Tetra Pak Jurong Pte Ltd stood out for its production system, which leverages the company’s unique approach to ensure operational improvement and downtime minimisation. Being one of the biggest Tetra Pak packaging materials factories in the world, the Singapore plant also serves as a research and development (R&D) and application development centre. Tetra Pak Jurong is also a model for encouraging innovation throughout the company with it implementing hundreds of new ideas contributed by its employees each year.

6. Kenwood Electronics Technologies Singapore, which manufactures high value-added communication equipment here, led in product and process innovation, including collaboration with local research institutions to further boost in-house R&D capabilities. The Singapore plant leads others in the Kenwood network as a total solution provider, creating value through world-class practices.

7. On operational excellence, 3M Singapore Pte Ltd was commended for its management of its supply chain and commitment to preserving the environment. This consciousness is also complemented by the company’s strong focus on employee training and effective human resource deployment in the areas of research and innovation to anticipate and meet customers’ and partners’ needs.

8. Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte Ltd, which was also presented with the Operational Excellence Award, is a model wafer fab operation. The company attributed its win to its strong performance-driven culture and an outstanding manufacturing system and continuous improvement infrastructure. It also practices process innovation in rapid time-to-market reduction by simulating potential design issues before prototyping. The company is also a strong corporate citizen, striving to reduce the environmental impact of its processes while expanding its process technology portfolio and wafer engineering and manufacturing services.

9. Beyonics International Pte Ltd, a home-grown contract manufacturer, has been able to make strong use of Singapore’s competitive advantages to create a reputation for delivering assurance of quality to its partners, leveraging on Singapore’s intellectual property (IP) regime, its labour force and excellent infrastructure. Beyonics has tapped on its well established position in Singapore to break successfully into the global biomedical market and is now making inroads into the automotive industry.

10. Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), said, “MAXA underscores the importance of manufacturing as a key driver of Singapore’s economic growth. It also reinforces Singapore’s continuing international competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. This year’s MAXA winners once again demonstrate how the world’s leading companies leverage Singapore’s strengths to deliver world class manufacturing excellence.”

11. Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Professor of Manufacturing and Director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University, United Kingdom and Chairperson of the MAXA 2007 judging panel, commented, “The overall calibre of participants this year has improved and this has made the judging process more challenging. The finalists are all winners in their own right for they have demonstrated effectively through their presentations and our deep-dive analysis that they are of global standing with world-class manufacturing capabilities.”

12. Dr Yoshiyuki Kaneda, Former Executive Deputy President and Representative Director of Sony Corporation and one of the judges for MAXA 2007, highlighted, “Benchmarked against international standards, we exercised the most stringent assessment of the participating companies in terms of innovations, operating systems and factors for sustainability. I was very impressed with all the finalists.”

13. Mr Tan Teik Seng, Former Senior Executive Managing Director at Advanced Micro Devices Singapore, observed, “The level of operational efficiency and technological know-how displayed by the MAXA participants was most impressive. Judging by the high standard of the participants based here, Singapore’s manufacturing industry has the potential to grow even further, particularly in the high-technology, high-value sectors, and fulfil its vision to double industry output by 2018.”

14. This year, previous Singapore Quality Award winners from the manufacturing sector were invited to apply for the MAXA. In addition, the MAXA partners have also included recommendations from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) to furtherenhance and emphasise the importance of innovation and its management in manufacturing.

15. Mr Chinta Bhagat, Managing Partner, Singapore, McKinsey & Company, a MAXA partner said, “The MAXA finalist companies all showed a strong focus on leveraging Singapore's competitive advantage. They all operate on a global scale and leverage Singapore's connectivity in doing so. Singapore's IP protection regime and network of research institutions encourage many companies to locate R&D activities here. Many operations smartly integrate Singapore production within a supply chain that links lower cost facilities in the region. Sensitivity to environmental impact was also a theme with MAXA companies this year, demonstrating how minimising waste in manufacturing is an important path to long term sustainability.”

16. Professor Hardy Chan, Co-Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), also a MAXA partner said, “SMA congratulates the winners for being awarded the MAXA seal of recognition. Indeed, following a stringent judging process, this rare honour is only given to those who set technology and operations benchmarks. SMA is proud to have contributed expertise to shortlist the finalists.”

17. All companies with manufacturing operations in Singapore are eligible to vie for MAXA through self-nomination. The companies that took part in MAXA 2007 spanned diverse manufacturing industries such as chemicals, electronics and precision engineering.

18. The selection process comprised three phases:

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

ii. In the second phase, assessors from McKinsey and the Singapore-MIT Alliance made a two-day visit to the manufacturing facilities of short-listed applicants and conducted interviews to validate the written submissions and to enable an extensive and deeper understanding of the company’s business and operations model. The finalists were then identified at the end of this phase.

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

19. The final round of judging was conducted on 9 November where the six finalists presented to and were interviewed by the judging panel chaired by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya.

20. MAXA is organised by 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).

National Award Will Once Again Honour Companies With Best Manufacturing Practices in Singapore

1. Following the success of the inaugural MAXA (Manufacturing Excellence Award) last year, companies are once again invited to participate in MAXA 2007, which will recognise companies which have achieved world-class manufacturing standards in their operations in Singapore. Presented by the Economic Development Board (EDB), together with its partners, McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) and the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), the award aims to identify and recognise exceptional Singapore-based operations, benchmarked to global standards in manufacturing excellence and innovation.

2. The inaugural MAXA in 2006 was awarded to Seagate Technology International, which demonstrated overall excellence in the award’s three judging criteria namely innovation, operational excellence and sustainability. 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. They received the nation’s top award for manufacturing from President S R Nathan.

3. Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Professor of Manufacturing and Director of Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University in the United Kingdom and Chairperson of the MAXA Judging Panel, said, “All the submissions for MAXA 2006 were excellent. The panel of judges had difficulty in choosing the winners. The Award winners were world class and Singapore should be proud of having such excellent companies.”

4. Mr Chee Teck Huei, Seagate’s vice president, Recording Media Operations, said "Winning the inaugural MAXA was a strong endorsement of Seagate's manufacturing leadership and operations excellence benchmarked against the best global manufacturing practices. The award process and feedback from the award partners and panel of judges provided us with extensive learning and information from which we have made improvements to our operations processes to enhance our innovation and business sustainability. Being a MAXA winner has given our employees in Singapore a sense of pride in being a leader in the manufacturing fraternity in Singapore and in the Seagate family. It has also allowed us to attract the best talents to the company."

5. MAXA underscores the continued importance of manufacturing as a major pillar of economic growth for Singapore. The MAXA winners will demonstrate Singapore’s capacity to host world-scale manufacturing activities as well as Singapore’s strengths in complex manufacturing activities. Companies participating in MAXA will benefit from an independent assessment, and by learning how their practices measure up to global best practices.

6. The MAXA framework and methodology, which focuses on three main factors – innovation, operating systems and sustainability – is developed by McKinsey, SMA and EDB. This year, the award partners have also included recommendations from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) to further enhance and emphasize the importance of innovation and its management in manufacturing.

7. “Manufacturing plays an important role in the Singapore economy, contributing to about a quarter of our GDP. In 2006, fixed asset investment from manufacturing grew to S$8.8 billion with $13.4 billion total value-added per annum generated from projects. The creation of 26,800 jobs was the highest since 2001. MAXA is one of the major initiatives to celebrate and create greater awareness among the international business community and Singaporeans that manufacturing in Singapore is thriving and of world class standards,” said Ms Aw Kah Peng, Assistant Managing Director, EDB.

8. Dr Roland Villinger, Director and Leader of the Asian Operations Practice, McKinsey & Company said: “McKinsey is pleased to partner the EDB and Singapore-MIT Alliance to offer MAXA. Over the years we have invested a great deal in understanding how the very best companies run their operations, and we have found that manufacturing excellence is a function of three major sets of factors: plant operating systems, people's mindsets and behaviors, and the management practices used to optimize resources. Participating in the award is a great way for Singapore-based operations to learn from their peers and to measure themselves against global benchmarks in all three dimensions.”

9. Professor Hardy Chan, Co-Director of SMA, added: “Through the assessment visits to the shortlisted companies, the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) was impressed with the high level of innovation in all aspects of manufacturing including product design, production, operating systems and supply chain systems that exist in local industries. This augers well for the continued competitiveness of Singapore industry in the face of globalization. MAXA is indeed an ideal platform for identifying and recognizing manufacturing excellence in the distinctive companies. SMA is looking forward to the prospect of working with EDB and McKinsey again in the MAXA 2007."

10. The eventual winner(s) of MAXA will be selected by a panel of four eminent international judges. The panel will be chaired by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya. The other judges are Mr Goh Geok Ling, Chairman, Sembcorp Marine Ltd; Dr Yoshiyuki Kaneda, Executive Deputy President Emeritus, Sony Corporation; and Mr Helmut Wieser, Executive Vice President and Group President, Alcoa Inc.

11. A MAXA winner is a manufacturing company, or an operating unit within a company, which demonstrates excellence in its operations, and continually innovates to be successful within the Singapore context.

12. All companies with manufacturing operations in Singapore are eligible to vie for MAXA through self nomination. The selection process comprises three phases:

a. The first phase assesses companies based on their written submission pertaining to manufacturing excellence, innovation, and sustainability in their Singapore-based manufacturing operations. Companies will be short-listed for further assessment in phase two.

b. In the second phase, a team of assessors will make a two-day visit to each short-listed applicant, and conduct plant visits and interviews to validate the written submission and to enable a more comprehensive assessment. Short-listed companies receive a report on the assessors’ findings. The finalists will be identified by the end of this phase.

c. In the last phase, each finalist will make a presentation to, and answer questions from, the panel of judges who will then determine the winner.

13. Companies interested to participate in MAXA can learn more about the application process at a briefing on Friday, 13 April 2007, 3.30 p.m. at the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation, The Enterprise #02-02, 1 Science Centre Road, Singapore 609077.

14. Application kits may also be obtained from the MAXA Secretariat at EDB, 250 North Bridge Road, #28-00 Raffles City Tower, Singapore 179101, or downloaded from the MAXA website, www.maxa.sg.

15. Completed applications must be submitted by 22 May 2007. The process will culminate in an award ceremony later in the year, where the winner will be unveiled.

16. EDB reassures that all information provided by companies entering the MAXA will be treated as strictly confidential and made available only to assessors authorised by EDB, McKinsey and SMA, and the judges.

See MAXA Partners

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