stallions – Business – TSG

3 Things To Look For In A Crab Stick Supplier In Singapore

stallions — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 05:57:26 +0000

Positioning your seafood business for success depends on several factors—food quality, customer service, store ambience, and reliable suppliers. Yes, your fish, shrimp, squid, and crab stick supplier is part of the equation, so be sure to choose a reliable one.

Compared to other seafood, crab flavoured sticks (also known as “crab sticks”) are harder to find. You can’t always buy them in the marketplace when your krabs inventory runs out. The reason being is that crab sticks are processed fish meat, not freshly caught from the sea. They are only edible imitations, hence the term imitation crab.

Before we look at the considerations when selecting a crab stick supplier in Singapore, let us first take a closer look at imitation crab its benefits, and how it is made.

More About Imitation Crab

Imitation crab meat is a seafood product made from surimi, fish flesh that has been deboned and minced into a paste. Surimi is then combined with other ingredients, such as starch, egg whites, salt, sugar, and crab extract to achieve the perfect taste. Once all ingredients are mixed, the white fish paste is heated and formed into stick-like cuts.

While crab sticks are not made from real crabs, the former also contains several nutrients found in the latter—but with lower nutrient levels.

The chart below illustrates the nutrient content comparison between imitation crab and real crabs.

Our nutrition table. Click to enlarge.

Aside from nutritional value, crab sticks also celebrate many good things, including affordability, convenience, and versatility. They are typically a third of the cost of real crab, pre-packed and can be served directly without further preparation, and are available in different recipe variations.

These characteristics of imitation crab have made it a popular alternative ingredient in many crab recipes, such as sushi rolls, crab stick omelettes, crab salad, crab cakes, seafood pasta dishes, and more.

What to Look for In a Crab Stick Supplier

1 Supplier’s Stellar Reputation

Brand reputation is a crucial consideration for choosing a supplier. Your business cannot afford to close for days and lose customers just because the ingredients were delivered late or the product quality is belatedly discovered to be subpar.

Reliable suppliers deliver goods on time and more importantly, are able to guarantee the quality and freshness of their products with proven accolades and certifications. To ensure you don’t fall victim to such instances, look for a surimi-based seafood product supplier who has a reputable long-term track record. .

Reliability and stability go hand in hand; one cannot exist without the other. You can remain at ease and fully focus on your operations with an experienced supplier whose reputation is as fine as gold. . Established suppliers have a stellar reputation and would uphold the extremely high standards of quality and safety associated with their names.

2 Excellent Customer Service

It is also worth considering how a supplier communicates with prospective and existing clients. Customer service gives light to what a client wants or needs and influences the overall service delivery. If a supplier is notorious for replying late, dropping calls, and customer cursing, that is a sign to stay back.

Suppliers with poor customer service may disrupt your operations and destroy your calm days. You may lose your sanity when a supplier becomes unreachable when there’s a late order, an invoice issue, or other unforeseen instances. Instead of concentrating on your operations, your team may be spending most of their time frantically putting out administrative and logistical fires created by such suppliers.

The bottom line is to deal with a supplier who possess a responsive customer service feedback system, openly communicates, and proactively provides solutions to problems. It also helps to think about the supplier’s location to reduce risks to your business.

If you run a food distribution or seafood business in Singapore, it is best to deal with a crab stick supplier in Singapore. Doing this eliminates language barriers and unpredictably longer delivery times, gives you greater control, fewer freight costs, and more.

3 Stringent Food Manufacturing And Production Process

Typically, businesses only look for suppliers who can manufacture and supply the product they want. With a heavy emphasis on the production capabilities of a prospective supplier, they may overlook an essential consideration: the food manufacturing and production process.

As discussed, imitation crab goes through an intricate process. Before you seal a deal with a crab stick supplier, do not focus alone on verifying the supplier’s production capabilities. Ask about the supplier’s crab imitation manufacturing and production process to ensure the products you purchase aresafe to serve and consume beyond any doubt.

If you are running a big, established food distribution operation or seafood restaurants with several branches in Singapore, visiting the supplier’s facility makes perfect sense. Many suppliers will simply tell you how they produce the food items you need. However, only a few best suppliers will allow you to verify claims by visiting their factories.

What to Look for In a Crab Stick Supplier

Crab sticks are indeed a cost-effective alternative to crab meats. Not only is imitation crab affordable, but it is also tasty and can be eaten on its own or conveniently incorporated into a variety of multi-cultural recipes..

At Thong Siek Global, we offer frozen and chilled surimi- based seafood products that are safely processed under stringent requirements in a state of the art 150,000 square feet modern facility in Singapore, and another factory in Malaysia. Our products not only include crab sticks, but we have also pioneered in curating innovative varieties of seafood products with a uniquely Singapore twist, such as cheese tofu fish cake, ngoh hiang meat roll, cuttlefish, sliced abalone, breaded scallop nugget. and many more.

We have been awarded multiple accolades and certifications, notably the highest-grade AA in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety in 2020, the SFA Food Safety Grade A Gold Award for the past two decades, and also Halal Certification for seafood products by the Muslim Religious Council of Singapore.

Working together in a balance of innovation and tradition, our commitment to be best-in-class and surpass industry benchmarks has positioned us globally as a leading manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of surimi-based seafood products. Learn more about our complete line of products here or leave us a message at enquiry@thongsiek.com.

Thong Siek Is One Of 144 Companies That Have Signed The President’s Challenge

stallions — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 05:54:29 +0000

Firms in HDB estates should consider hiring residents with disabilities, says President Halimah

SINGAPORE – More employers in the heartland should look into providing job opportunities for persons with disabilities (PWDs), President Halimah said on Friday (Jan 22).

This would allow PWDs to overcome constraints such as long commutes or issues with taking public transport, so they can seek jobs and become meaningfully employed.

Madam Halimah encouraged more employers in Housing Board estates, and not just those in industrial areas, to look at processes and redesign jobs to make them more accessible to those with disabilities.

“These are small steps, but it goes a long way in creating a fairer society,” she said.

Madam Halimah was speaking after a visit to Thong Siek Food Industry’s facility at Senoko Way, where she was led on a tour of its manufacturing processes for food items such as fishballs, fishcakes and crabsticks.

The company has tapped technology to improve its productivity and efficiency, such as using QR codes to track the amount of raw materials in the inventory as well as machines to automate some work processes like vacuum packing.

Thong Siek is one of 144 companies that have signed the President’s Challenge Enabling Employment Pledge so far. The pledge signifies a commitment to providing more training and employment opportunities to persons with disabilities.

Ms Chan said she enjoyed the job as it allowed her to interact with her friends at work, and she enjoyed picking up new skills.

When she began her role packing 10 assorted yong tau foo pieces into a package, Ms Chan could correctly place only one or two pieces. With time and training, she can now confidently pack all 10 pieces accurately, said Thong Siek deputy chief operating officer Lim Xiao Fei.

The company plans to hire 10 more persons with disabilities by the end of 2021, said Ms Lim.

The turnover rate for persons with disabilities is lower than those of other workers, she added. “It’s a very stable workforce, so we want to continue to grow this workforce in our production (staff).”

Thong Siek Awarded The Highest BRC Certification: Grade AA In The BRC Global Standard For Food Safety

stallions — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 05:53:06 +0000

Thong Siek is exceptionally proud to be the first Singapore manufacturer of Surimi-Based Processed Seafood to obtain the highest-grade AA in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. This award acknowledges the high standard of food safety and best practices that Thong Siek adheres to. We have committed years of hard work to achieve current standards.

BRCGS is a robust Global Food Safety Standard developed by food industry experts from retailers, manufacturers and food service organisations. It imposes sets of system which ensure good management practice and frameworks on product safety, integrity and quality so customers can be confident in a company’s food safety program and supply chain management. All BRC audits are carried out by a global network of highly trained certification bodies and training providers.

Commenting on the accreditation, Thong Siek’s Deputy CEO, Ms Novelle Lim said: “It is a great achievement to be awarded Grade AA in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. The team has dedicated tremendous effort in setting stringent standards at Thong Siek. We are extremely proud of this achievement; this demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering the highest standards of food quality and safety.”

Smart Industry Readiness Index

stallions — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 05:50:58 +0000

Singapore’s Smart Nation ambitions are in full swing. Well-developed digital infrastructure and supportive government policies has made it a welcoming place for companies to setup operations and take flight their digital initiatives. In 2016, Singapore topped the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Asian Digital Transformation Index.

From smart home solutions, to the introduction of autonomous vehicles, to assistive and robotics technology in healthcare, Singapore continues to invest in research and development to build up its technological offerings and drive economic growth.

An industry that has an important role in this growth is manufacturing, which accounts for 20% to 25% of Singapore’s GDP. Countries like Germany and China have paved the way for smart manufacturing through their national initiatives Industrie 4.0 and Made in China 2025, and Singapore is following suit.

However, companies globally have struggled to understand what Industrie 4.0 truly means for them.

“Many manufacturers have provided feedback that Industrie 4.0 is often talked about in broad, all-encompassing terms in literature,” says Dr. Andreas Hauser, Director of Digital Service, TÜV SÜD. Industrie 4.0-related jargon and buzzwords have also been bandied about making it difficult for all businesses to understand what the offerings of Industrie 4.0 are. “There is a need to establish a common understanding of Industrie 4.0 by breaking down its concepts into digestible, key building blocks, and provide a clear articulation of the tangible benefits to companies,” says Dr. Hauser.

And this is where Singapore can do things differently. Enter: The Smart Industry Readiness Index (”SIRI”).

EMBRACING INDUSTRIE 4.0 ONE STEP AT A TIME

In November 2017, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) in partnership with TÜV SÜD launched the Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) to help companies evaluate existing manufacturing facilities, support companies in their transformation journey and drive the industry-wide revolution.

“SIRI is a world-first Industrie 4.0 tool used to drive both enterprise and nation-wide transformation of industrial sectors,” says Dr. Hauser. Its framework guides companies across the entire Industrie 4.0 lifecycle and has been built to offer a holistic and step-by-step guide to transforming business. “SIRI strikes a balance between technical rigour and usability and has been piloted with both Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Multi National Corporations (MNCs) across industries in Singapore,” says Dr. Hauser.

It was created after a thorough literature review of a wide range of Industrie 4.0-related concepts and frameworks. These included industry reports, landscape studies, business surveys, and models produced by leading associations and industry players.

Click to enlarge.

SIRI comprises three layers. At the top are the 3 fundamental building blocks of Industrie 4.0: Process, Technology and Organization. Underpinning these building blocks are 8 pillars of focus. These pillars the map onto 16 dimensions of assessment, which represent the key components that any organisation must consider.
For each of the 16 dimensions, SIRI provides an assessment matrix which companies can use to evaluate their current processes, systems, and structures within one to two days. The assessment matrix also doubles as a step-by-step improvement guide, as each dimension provides intermediate steps needed for companies to progress.

Singapore with its global trade and network would not be able stand alone in its efforts. So in spite of SIRI being a Singapore-first initiative, Dr. Hauser assures that it has been “fully aligned with global manufacturing standards, such as Germany’s RAMI 4.0 framework.”

What this also means is that SIRI is not confined to certain types of businesses only. Jackie Tan, Senior Advisor for Advanced Manufacturing, Digital Service in TÜV SÜD concurs, “It is scalable worldwide due to a global language being used,” says Mr. Tan, “And the project scope of each evaluation is also defined with the company, enabling SIRI to be applied to different types of industries and company size.”

PILOT STUDIES IN THE AEROSPACE, PETROCHEMICAL AND FOOD INDUSTRIES

SIRI Assessment was piloted with 16 companies – MNCs and SMEs – from discrete manufacturing to process industry including Aerospace, Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical and Food & Beverage. The individual companies face very different challenges stemming from operations, supply chain, management or organisation.

“One of the challenges in global organisations is the different levels of familiarity of Industrie 4.0 concepts across the various technology and operations teams,” explains Mr. Tan. “When we held the workshop, the participants expressed that SIRI is informative in explaining the key Industrie 4.0 concepts, principles, and benefits. They also conveyed that SIRI and assessment workshops helped the team to gain a common, company-specific understanding of Industrie 4.0 and to consider all relevant aspects leading to a structured and concerted approach of their transformation roadmap.”

“While some companies may focus on increasing the production volume, others want to devise a general, actionable digital transformation strategy. During one of the assessments with TÜV SÜD, participants communicated their general challenge of adopting new technologies,” says Mr. Tan. “They stated that due to the plant being capital intensive and the need to follow stringent safety regulations, technology adoption is slower, and they often face lack of integration with legacy systems.”

After the assessment workshops, the participants shared that with the newly gained understanding of the concept, benefits of Industrie 4.0, and particularly its company-specific interpretation through SIRI, the transformation roadmap could be developed in a structured and targeted way. In particular, the comprehensive approach of SIRI with its three building blocks – Process, Technology and Organisation – and 16 assessment dimensions helped the company to include all relevant areas.

SIRI Assessment can also be applied to SMEs. One such example is a food manufacturer based in Singapore, Thong Siek Food Industry, that distributes their seafood products globally, mentioned that the assessment has helped them to better visualise their transformation plans in a holistic approach and forms the basis to drive alignment towards a common understanding and vision. The video below showcases an overview of SIRI as well as an interview with Thong Siek.

FORGING AHEAD FOR SMART MANUFACTURING

Singapore will continue to accelerate industrial transformation and has implemented more than 300 SIRI Assessments for Singapore companies with the Smart Industry Readiness Index to help them adopt advanced manufacturing.

SIRI will go beyond Singapore’s shores. It is currently being shared globally through trade missions across ASEAN and Europe, with plans to introduce SIRI globally. “At trade missions, we speak to government officials, manufacturers, technical providers and system integrators to showcase that TÜV SÜD is the right partner and has the competency for Industrie 4.0,” says Dr. Hauser. “The objective is to overcome challenges that manufacturers face globally, and eventually implement the Index for them.”

With SIRI framework in place, the future of smart manufacturing and Industrie 4.0 will seem less like a distant vision and more like an imminent reality.

Contact our expert today to start your transformation journey. For more information about implementing Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) for your organisation, please refer to link here.

From a kampung shed, how a family fishball empire was built on automation

stallions — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 05:50:00 +0000

The founders of the DoDo brand, now a household name in Singapore, have transformed the simple and much-loved fish ball into a multimillion dollar enterprise. But is the factory-made version just as good?

Today, the company processes over 15 tonnes of fish meat daily.

SINGAPORE: It was in a shed behind their kampung house in Changi where the Lim family first made fish balls by hand – scraping, seasoning, mixing and moulding yellow-tail fish into balls well into the night.

Patriarch Lim Boon Chay got into this trade out of necessity; as a provision shop owner in the 1970s, fish balls were among his best-selling items, but the quality and supply provided to him were inconsistent.

One of his customers recommended that he make his own fish balls, generously shared a recipe and taught him how to do it.

Mr Lim’s eldest daughter Novelle, who was a toddler then, recalled spending many hours playing at the shed, watching her parents and grandparents at work, and then helping out during the holidays when she was in primary school.

They even operated stalls at a wet market during the peak Chinese New Year period, when she would pitch in overnight.

That was how the DoDo brand of fish balls started, growing to a 150,000-square-foot factory in Senoko Way – and another in Malaysia.

The factory in Senoko Way.

Today, with a workforce of 500, the two factories process over 15 tonnes of fish meat daily and more than 60 varieties of fish-based foods, such as yong tau foo products, for Singapore and some 20 overseas markets.

But all this would not have happened if Mr Lim did not have the foresight to venture into automation early on.

“If we’d continued to make fish balls by hand, we wouldn’t have been able to grow the business because there’d be a limitation on the production volume,” said Ms Lim, the deputy CEO of Thong Siek Global, which also distributes the DoDo fish balls and other products.

KAMPUNG TO FLAT, SHED TO FACTORY

The family’s big break came in the 1980s, when they had to move from their kampung house to a public flat, forcing them to upgrade their fish-ball-making shed to a proper factory. But operations were still labour-intensive.

It was during this time that Mr Lim travelled to Osaka, Japan on a study trip, and learned that fish balls could be frozen and were found in many forms and flavours there.

“When he came back, he said, ‘Oh, this business can grow very big. It can grow beyond Singapore.’ And that’s when he started to look at exporting our products,” recalled his 42-year-old daughter.

Ms Novelle Lim.

He decided to automate processes to increase the output, and introduced the concept of vacuum-packed fish balls, which gave the product a four-week shelf life.

“I think, in the 1990s, we were the first company to sell fish balls in the supermarket,” Ms Lim said proudly.

After adopting the Japanese way of production, they were able to increase their output from three tonnes a year in the 1970s to more than six tonnes in 1984 to nearly 5,500 tonnes of all products today.

Their fully automated lines now include grinding, processing and auto-packaging facilities.

When they first ventured into mass production, however, their challenge was to maintain the taste and quality of their fish balls. They had to design processes to suit their recipes.

To start off, they decided to use raw materials from Japan. “We knew there was already processed fish meat that we could use. It was consistent in quality and there was no fish odour, as compared to handmade,” she said.

The fish paste, or surimi, from Japan is composed mainly of fish. “This was the turning point of the business. So our product became more consistent in terms of quality,” added Ms Lim.

“Along the way, of course, when we formed the fish balls into shape, it was by hand, (but now) we were using machines.”

Now, they import surimi from many countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

“They wash away all the blood of the fish … the water-soluble protein, and what’s left are the proteins that are good for making fish balls,” Ms Lim said, adding that the taste is no different from their handmade fish balls.

TAKING THE BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

The family also invested in equipment from Japan to blend the seasoned paste (it contains yellow-tail fish fillet) based on their recipe.

The paste goes along an automated line, where a machine moulds it in the shape of a fish ball, which then passes through a metal detector, is cooked, vacuum-packed and frozen before it is distributed locally or overseas.

For the fresh fish balls, there is a “hand-shaped” machine to mimic the irregular texture of real handmade fish balls.

Fish balls made to mimic the irregular texture of handmade ones.

Mr Lim is so particular about their quality of the products that there is even a machine called a texture analyser. It mimics the human biting action, testing the hardness and flexibility of the fish ball from the production line.

One of the staff also samples and grades the fish ball. “It should be springy and firm,” said one of the quality control supervisors.

The paste is regularly sent to the research and development team to test its quality before it is made into fish balls.

As a small and medium enterprise, the company faced challenges, such as funding and talent retention, when the business was growing.

But Ms Lim acknowledged the support from various agencies, such as the Economic Development Board, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority and Enterprise Singapore (formerly International Enterprise Singapore and Spring Singapore).

In 2015, Thong Siek Holdings received a further boost when food catering firm Neo Group bought a 55 per cent stake in it for S$7.35 million.

Following the acquisition, Thong Siek expanded into new markets such as North America, Europe and Hong Kong.

“We’ve come a long way, I think – from a family-run, backyard business to a structured, corporate business because we’re now part of the Neo Group,” said Ms Lim.

“We’re now more structured, with policies in place, with management systems … My dad has brought the company to this level. I think, together with Neo Group, we’ll be moving the business to the next level.”

IS HANDMADE BETTER THAN FACTORY-MADE?

Although automation has taken over the operations, some processes are still too delicate to be done by machinery and are largely done by hand, such as the cutting of yong tau foo and inserting the fish paste.

Apart from supermarket chains, some of the company’s clients include stall owners, who find it difficult to hire manpower to make the yong tau foo items from scratch.

“It’s really tiring. They’d have to get up very early in the morning, like 3am or 4am,” said Ms Lim.

“(Many) stall owners don’t do the fish balls from scratch any more. Some of them buy the yellow-tail fillet from us (or) the ready-made paste … They’d just need to form them into shapes – into the fish balls – at their stalls.”

She has become so familiar with the products, especially the yong tau foo, that when she patronises a stall, she can recognise the taste of the paste if it is from DoDo.

Yong tau foo products.

When asked if there is value in still making fish balls by hand, Ms Lim said it does “touch people’s hearts”.

“People think it’s different, although the taste and texture are the same as what we produce in the factory. It’s the sentimental value, I think,” she added.

She disagreed that traditional fish balls are necessarily better than factory-made ones. Her factory, she maintained, produces good fish balls, similar to what some hawkers make on their own.

To produce its fresh local fish balls, the factory uses yellow-tail fish from Indonesia, which the supplier fillets and freezes before exporting.

Yellow-tail fillet.

“The process is the same with the hand-scraped ones. We’d blend them, form them into shapes, and the difference is we won’t cook it, so that our consumers would buy the fresh fish balls to cook back home,” she said.

“The key to the taste is the raw materials we use.”

To her, making fish balls is not only a business, but also a passion, having grown up with the product.

“I think fish balls are now one of the signature products of Singapore. We’re proud to be part of this business,” she said.

“I’ve seen it evolving from a backyard business to automation, from the Singapore market to the overseas market. So I’ve this mission to grow this business and bring this product to the world.”

Key to manufacturing success in ASEAN

stallions — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 05:48:09 +0000

SINCE the early 1970s, the manufacturing sector has formed the backbone of the Singapore economy. In recent years, it seemed to have lost its shine, but reports now show that it’s making a comeback.

Singapore’s robust manufacturing figures for the first half of 2018 should allay fears of potential global trade uncertainties having direct impact on the economy. On a year-on-year basis, Singapore’s manufacturing output grew 3 per cent in August 2018.

With an average expansion of 1 per cent month-on-month, as seen over the past three months, Singapore is showing strong signs of resilience as the economy returns to normality after a period of recovery.

With ASEAN’s economy on the rise, the demand for Singapore-branded products and services are also growing in tandem as a rising tide lifts all boats.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to grow their businesses in the region have the opportunity to grow their revenue very quickly but they will do well to tap all the government support that seems to be readily available.

For example, earlier this year, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) launched a programme to help SMEs and multinational corporations (MNCs) across all industries accelerate their Industry 4.0 transformation.

Through the Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index, a tool to catalyse the transformation of industrial sectors, companies based in Singapore can access a reliable benchmark to help identify areas of improvement to help them speed up their regional expansion.

Recently, EDB announced the launch of the Index Partners Network to help manufacturers accelerate the execution of their Industry 4.0 initiatives.

This network complements the Smart Industry Readiness Index by building an ecosystem of partners, in the areas of technology, talent development and training as well as financing, that manufacturers can tap to bridge the gap between the planning and execution phases of their transformation journey.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS

With a forward looking and trade-friendly team, I was encouraged to learn that the EDB will also partner international organisations to help regional governments and companies adopt the Index.

To this end, it is heartening to know that financial institutions also form part of the network, through the development of programmes and schemes targeted at supporting SMEs.

In the financial industry, for instance, DBS is the first to develop a programme to support SMEs along their transformation journeys.

It starts from the point of undertaking the Smart Industry Readiness Index assessment to implementation of specific technologies and solutions.

We understand how quickly the business world moves and how economical SMEs can be and so our clients can now tap this index at a preferential rate to help them identify gaps in their innovation and digital process in a systematic and comprehensive way.

To further help customers adopt the latest technology that is relevant to their business, DBS also has a programme called TechMatch to help SMEs define, design and develop the right technology solutions for the business by matching them with digital solution providers that are relevant to their industry.

Such initiatives are particularly useful for SMEs.

An example is our client Thong Siek, a manufacturer of fish balls in Singapore – an SME in a very traditional industry.

Thong Siek has used the index to identify initiatives such as paperless production of fishballs and fully-automated packing.

It is also tapping the Index Partners Network to tie-up with us to help finance and execute its digital and business transformation even faster.

The need for rapid expansion comes at a time when the demand for ‘Made in Singapore’ goods is on the rise as they are now synonymous with quality and consistency.

With the need for food safety and traceability on the rise, the potential for cross-border collaboration in the packaged food and snacks industry between more developed markets in ASEAN is high.

The opportunity comes as developing markets in ASEAN are still forming proper food safety and hygiene standards and my F&B SME customers tell me that collaboration between Singapore companies and ASEAN markets can ensure better standards are put in place.

DEMAND FOR SINGAPORE-BRANDED GOODS IS HIGH

Revenue in the food processing sector – which hit US$128 million in the first half of 2018 – is expected to show an annual growth rate of 14.1 per cent resulting in a market volume of US$216 million by 2022.

Some four in 10 of DBS’ F&B SME customers have expanded overseas over the past two years, and this number is expected to steadily increase.

The strength in these sectors over the past 12 months has also seen more F&B mergers and acquisitions taking place within Singapore’s SME sector.

SCALING BUSINESSES THROUGH DIGITALISATION

With growing trade uncertainties on the horizon, a recent survey of 220 DBS SME customers conducted in the first week of August found that seven in 10 SMEs said that e-commerce channels and solutions would help drive and maintain their business growth.

Of those who did not think that e-commerce channels and solutions would help their business’ growth, the survey revealed that three in five did not have sufficient knowledge about digital sales channels and the resources to invest in digitalising their business.

In addition, the World Economic Forum reported that manufacturers do not fully benefit from the ASEAN B2B market due to limited visibility and lack of unified coursing platforms across the region’s diverse and fragmented SME supplier base.

To support the growth of SMEs in the region, public sector partners and large corporates must collaborate to close the gap with SMEs to address technological shifts and harness the new technologies.

This will help them expand into regional markets, grow revenue and drive economic and social development.

To facilitate closing that gap, DBS will be launching a B2B platform where SMEs can gain access to an e-marketplace to sell their goods and services to other SME businesses, large corporations and MNCs.

SMEs can also gain access to supply chain connections, financing and payment solutions typically reserved to large corporates or MNCs.

The greater regional market demand for manufacturing products and services originating from Singapore also presents opportunities for SMEs based here to upgrade their systems and equipment, automate processes and upskill their employees.

TURNING CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES

With so much going on, many of our SMEs grapple with a wide range of challenges, from managing technology disruptions and new regional competitors, to managing their day-to-day processes and cashflow.

However, the new age of manufacturing is full of opportunities if SMEs are willing to rise to the challenge of transforming their businesses to spread their wings across borders.

Industry 4.0 holds immense global opportunities for our SMEs in ASEAN if they are willing to embrace the spirit of collaboration to create interconnected networks of suppliers, partners and customers.

300 companies to get free evaluation ahead of move to Industry 4.0

stallions — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 05:47:15 +0000

SINGAPORE: A total of 300 Singapore-based companies across all industries can get a free evaluation of their readiness to move into Industry 4.0, as part of the Government’s efforts to drive the adoption of advanced manufacturing and help manufacturers build smart factories of the future.