Speech by Deputy Prime Minister And Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean at MINDEF Pride Day 2010

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

National Productivity DriveIn 2009, the Government formed the Economic Strategies Committee to formulate the strategies needed to drive Singapore's economy in the future. One key recommendation was that we must significantly improve our innovation and productivity levels. For companies in the private sector, productivity is measured by dividing output by input. For MINDEF and the SAF, productivity is harder to measure as our output cannot be quantified in dollar terms. For us, output is the effectiveness of MINDEF and the SAF in our mission. We can, however, ensure that there is continued innovation and productivity gains by focusing on processes that will help us reduce the manpower and dollar resources required for a given output. At the organisational level, our whole effort at transforming the SAF in fact translates to a major productivity improvement. The 3rd Generation SAF will achieve greatly increased effectiveness with lower levels of manpower. Such improvements must take place at all levels. It is therefore critical that the PRIDE movement that we started in 1981 continues to grow and spread throughout MINDEF and the SAF, to always want to achieve the most with the resources allocated to us. Thus, I am heartened to see today the outcome of the efforts that you have all put in last year. It shows that the spirit to innovate and make improvements to your daily work is alive and well, within the individual as well as the unit.

One Idea, Many PossibilitiesIt is therefore apt that this year's MINDEF Pride Day carries the theme "One Idea, Many Possibilities - Innovation Begins With You". Even the most mundane incidents can spark creative solutions. Let me illustrate this with an example. Military Expert 2 (ME2) Ong Chin Lin was at home when his father complained to him that the TV remote control could be faulty. ME2 Ong knew that infrared signals transmitted by the remote control were not visible to the naked eye. Nonetheless, this challenge of detecting whether infrared signals were being emitted from the remote control intrigued ME2 Ong and got him thinking. He did some research and found out that infrared signals could be captured by a photo-transistor which would then convert the signals into electricity. Pass this electricity through a light emitting diode and one could then see if an infrared signal was being transmitted.

ME2 Ong took this idea to the Air Logistics Group - Rotary Wing where he works as a senior assistant engineer. He designed an infrared light detector using a photo-transistor and an LED that could be used to test the infrared formation lights on the Chinook helicopter conveniently and even during daytime. In the past, such testing could be done only at night through the use of night vision goggles which could detect infrared lights visually. The same desire to work more efficiently also served to motivate CPT Daniel Quek and his team of engineers from the 3rd Army Maintenance Base. Wanting to improve their performance in servicing and repairing vehicles, they applied Lean Six Sigma techniques, which are a set of management practices to improve process flow and speed of delivery. They divided their entire work process into different inspection points, each run by a dedicated team of senior technicians specialising in that area of inspection. Selected spare parts are also ordered in advance so that the wait-time is reduced. As a result, more than 90% of the servicing and repair jobs are now completed within 10 days as compared to only 10% previously.

This is a remarkable improvement in productivity. Innovation Begins With YouWhat stand out in these stories are not so much the special talents but the commitment and dedication to duty that motivated these men to apply their ideas to their work. PTE Oh Rong Quan from 1st Transport Battalion was in the team responsible for designing the Commercial Bus Management System or CBMS which will replace the traditional pen and paper log sheets that bus I/Cs used to acknowledge service delivery. With the CBMS, service delivery is acknowledged by an SMS with date, time, and sender information. On his own initiative, PTE Oh then thought about the far-flung camps and training areas where mobile phone reception could be poor, and recommended an online portal to complement the SMS system so that in such situations, acknowledgement of service delivery could be made online.

When fully implemented, the CBMS removes the need for 1st Transport Battalion to check and file over 39,000 log sheets annually. This amounts to about 600 man-hours saved every year. Innovation in the Unit I would like to commend the Commandos for winning the MINDEF Innovation (Project) Award. They have filed a joint patent with Nanyang Polytechnic for a Programmable Pressure Activated Flotation Trigger Device. This device automatically inflates the life jacket when it sinks below a certain depth. So, even if a swimmer or diver becomes unconscious and sinks into the water, his life jacket will deploy and bring him back to the surface. I am also happy to see that some units have made innovation part of their unit culture. The Air Logistics Group - Rotary Wing is one unit that attaches great value to creativity and improvement in their daily planning and operations. The past two years have seen its commanders undergoing training to become Innovation Facilitators so that they can better identify, mould and develop ideas into concrete products. For its efforts, the Air Logistics Group - Rotary Wing is this year's winner of the 2010 MINDEF Innovation (Unit) Award.

Productivity and Innovation from Cross-Unit EffortsInitiatives through cross-unit cooperation must also be a strong feature of MINDEF's PRIDE movement. In this respect, I am heartened that Air Logistics Department, Air Plans Department and the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) have worked together to re-use hardware from retired aircraft for the mid-life upgrade of the C-130 aircraft. The easy solution would have been to acquire brand new systems. Instead, after in-depth study, our engineers were convinced that the hardware from the retired aircraft could still be used in the C-130 when integrated with new systems. This initiative resulted in cost savings of S$2 million and won the 2010 MINDEF SAVE Award. On the whole, MINDEF achieved total cash savings of S$206.7 million in financial year 2009, an increase of 48% from the previous year. This is a commendable effort. Other WinnersLet me also congratulate the six MINDEF Star Service Award winners. They are our role models who exemplify high standards in service delivery. For Organisational Excellence achievements, my congratulations go to the Air Logistics Group - Fixed Wing 2 for winning this year’s Minister for Defence Award, and the Naval Logistics Organisation for winning the MINDEF Excellence Award.

Conclusion In summary, while productivity is about enhancing the SAF's mission effectiveness by making sure its people are better organised, trained and equipped, and resources are efficiently used, productivity improvements are possible only when there is the desire in each person to do better. This is what I see every year, not only in the award winning projects, but also in my interactions with the servicemen I meet in the course of my visits. Keep it up!I wish you a productive and innovative year ahead. Thank you.