How Rolls-Royce is Helping to Build Up Singapore’s Tech Core

In the complex world of future technology, talent is needed by skill—not scale. As Singapore evolves in terms of smart technologies, the way high-value manufacturing is done will change. Complex problems will transform quickly over time and will require agility in terms of resourcing and upskilled talent. As Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat highlighted, “Within each industry, we need to strengthen partnerships to deepen industry-wide capabilities. Even as our enterprises compete to differentiate themselves, they must come together to solve common challenges."

Bringing all parties together has to be a joint responsibility between the government, industry and academia. There is a world of skills out there in the SME space. Companies need to take that imperative step to work closely with local agencies and industry associations to find a way to reach the pool of skilled resources within SMEs.

The benefits of using this pool will overflow to all parties. Players in high-tech spaces like smart manufacturing will get flexible access to talent to respond to industrial problems on-the-fly. Deep-tech SMEs will get to upskill their workforce and deploy more high-value solutions in their industries. And as the SME backbone grows across different sectors, Singapore will experience an all-round boost in terms of industry and economy.

Several SMEs are already benefiting from such models. Zincode Technologies, a firm that provides consulting services for automation and improving productivity processes, recently collaborated with Rolls-Royce and A*STAR to industrialise an automated inspection solution for engine fan blades. Another deep-tech SME, Sysmatic Global, built the mechanical infrastructure to mount the cameras, lighting system and loading platform. This opportunity allowed the SMEs to participate in large-scale projects and expand their capabilities and horizons.

Singapore displays exceptional forward planning on the environmental issues of the future. As it develops economically and technologically, the country is also playing its part for sustainability.

Keeping up the momentum from the previous Budget, the government laid out a new coastal and flood protection fund, with an initial injection of S$5 billion to help protect Singapore against rising sea levels. With leading companies in the private technology sector also focusing on environmental issues, there is a convergence in their goals with Singapore’s agenda.

Sustainability has been a mission focus for many companies. At Rolls-Royce, we are incorporating initiatives like exploring sustainable sources of energy, investing in technologies for future products and pioneering new technologies like electrification. Customers like SIA are already collaborating with us to explore solutions that will dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Our latest products are demonstrating their potential to reduce carbon footprints. Advanced aircraft engines such as the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB is already reducing aircraft fuel burns by 15 percent compared to the original generation of Trent. Across the energy industries, grid-electrification technologies are being explored with many companies setting up new test cells for innovative power delivery modes such as microgrids. For example, NTU has partnered with several large technology companies for projects like the Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator-Singapore (REIDS). As the largest system of interconnected microgrids in South East Asia, it could power up to 350 four-room HDB flats for a year. The Rolls-Royce @NTU Corporate Laboratory is also currently exploring aerospace electrification and land-based energy storage solutions that will help to significantly reduce the CO₂ emissions.

Ultimately, sustainability must be ingrained across all business operations and value chain of activities bringing together technologies, products, services, operations and most importantly, the people. This is the journey that Rolls-Royce is undertaking at our Seletar manufacturing facility by committing to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Digital skills will continue to be a lynchpin of creating a future-ready economy. The Budget emphasised enhancing the digital connectivity of the nation, promising sustained investments in support of large-scale automation solutions, industrial robotics and accelerated pathways for productivity, efficiency and innovation. Only by raising digitally skilled professionals can companies and governments leverage the full potential.

In this respect, the new job matching initiative by NTUC is a step in the right direction. Training local talent from alternative and new sources, including retirees, part-timers and SMEs, can help build a supply for the Singapore digital workforce. Hence, companies, both MNCs and SMEs, should seize the day and tap into such programmes to co-innovate and co-develop solutions to raise production capabilities and meet global demands.

At Rolls-Royce, we continue making inroads for digital approaches, harnessing the fusion of the physical and digital, transforming products, services and operations. We are taking the next step in collaborating with the start-ups and tech ecosystem to drive innovation and accelerate value delivery for the industry—while sharing new digital skills and business opportunities in the process.

Digitalisation has the power to link companies of all sizes together, extending from the customers to operations. For customers, data-led digital platforms can integrate different data sets to provide enhanced insights and improve operational effectiveness. A recent example is Yocova, which is a new data exchange and collaboration platform for the aviation sector. It empowers major airlines with an online space for open, secure data sharing and insights, while offering an exchange through which ecosystem partners can access or sell data-driven assets and software applications.

At our Seletar operational facilities, we have been using digital twinning to enhance productivity and efficiency of our manufacturing processes and methods. By investing in digital solutions, we are able to significantly reduce the production lead-time, improve yield and quality and increase employee motivation. This subsequently led to partnering with an SME to develop a robotic and automation solution for a critical manufacturing process, a solution not readily available in the market. The Budget will allow more of such opportunities and successes across many industries, bridging skills and capabilities for industrial applications.