Building a digital ecosystem

As an organisation centred on innovation, Rolls-Royce is developing its digital capabilities through a coordinated approach across Europe and Asia. Specific to Singapore, there is a strong fit between our Digital Strategy and Singapore’s vision to boost its capabilities in driving a digital economy.

At the core of our company’s digital strategy is our consistent investment in Research and Development (R&D). Last year alone, we invested £1.3 billion in R&D initiatives to keep us at the forefront of innovation and help bring to life future-forward products and solutions. Furthermore, we have made a very deliberate and considered focus on building our digital capabilities and with that, a digital ecosystem. This will help us win future global market share and provide us with a complete end-to-end view of our products through its lifecycle – from Research & Technology (R&T) through to helping our customers maximise the benefits of their assets and optimise their operations.

A common thread of success in our digital activities to date is the collaborative work between SMEs, research institutions, academic partners and airline customers. This can be seen through the Applied Technology Group based in Seletar and the CorpLab in Nanyang Technological University. Our Customer Service Centre, which supports all airline customers across Asia Pacific, also enables a more responsive workflow.

For several decades, we’ve successfully used a collaborative approach and developed strong partnerships that go beyond standard endowments or research programmes. Such collaborations have seen the successful delivery of key technology programmes that have resulted in cross-sector applications. The Advanced Remanufacturing & Technology Centre (ARTC) is one such example. Launched in 2014, the ARTC follows an industry-led public-private partnership across sectors and supply chains. It is a platform for the public sector research laboratories to partner with academia and industries to help bridge technological gaps in the adoption of advanced manufacturing processes. One example is our collaboration at the ARTC with a local SME, AmpTec Industrial Heating; together, we developed a dry ice blasting machine, which is an eco-friendly technique for cleaning aircraft engine components without using industrial chemicals. Apart from creating digital efficiencies within the industry, projects like this is helping Singapore move to a more sustainable manufacturing process as well as opening up new business possibilities for local enterprises.

Digital and innovative excellence are increasingly seen as equally important facets of a country’s economic status and clout as well as major contributors to the global economy. The Government is also working closely with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to support 400 companies over the next four years to create roadmaps for operation and technology. This will enable enterprises to remain competitive and develop deep capabilities.

Earlier this year, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with A*STAR. The MoU will facilitate the growth and development of a local digital ecosystem encouraging SMEs to work collaboratively in technology centres. The Centres are essentially a ‘sandpit’ where SMEs and industrial players can work together to uncover a world of data and the huge potential that comes with it. They can find new patterns, solutions, and products to facilitate the areas of sensor technology and computational science development. These solutions could potentially be applied beyond the aerospace and marine industries, and to similar context industries like the healthcare and cyber security sectors. Such innovative playgrounds related to knowledge generation and sharing will help Singapore grow on a global scale, thus, creating in the process new jobs and opportunities, generating wealth and adding punch to the soft power of the city.