EDB to fund 300 assessments for industrial transformation

Each company assessment will be conducted over two half-day workshops.

Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State, Trade & Industry and National Development announced that the Economic Development Board (EDB) will be funding 300 facilitated assessments for companies to help their industrial transformation.

In a speech, Koh said the assessments are part of Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index (Index) which was launched in November 2017. “Each company assessment will be conducted over two half-day workshops, during which companies will be guided through the Index evaluation process to identify high-impact initiatives and projects to implement,” he said.

Koh noted that the Index is an Industry 4.0 framework and a self-diagnostic tool will help companies better understand Industry 4.0 concepts, evaluate their existing facilities and develop a comprehensive transformation roadmap for their businesses. “The Index is designed to be used by companies of all sizes, across all industrial sectors, to determine how they may implement Industry 4.0 solutions in a systematic and comprehensive manner,” he added.

Moreover, to help scale and sustain the usage of the Index, EDB will be developing an accreditation programme to train a pool of qualified Index assessors. “More details on the accreditation programme will be shared later this year,” Koh said.

The minister also noted that more than 500 people across 200 local and international companies have attended the series of public workshops organized by the Economic Development Board (EDB) to share more about the Index. “I am encouraged that we have received positive industry feedback from both multinational corporations (MNCs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the usability of the Index and its benefits towards driving the adoption of Industry 4.0,” he added.

However, Koh noted that more that can be done to help more companies make better use of this Index. “Through EDB’s public workshops, some companies have shared that having a qualified assessor could help them conduct a more robust assessment and identify priority areas for transformation,” he said.