The advanced manufacturing sector has received a boost with the opening yesterday of HP's new $100 million Asia-Pacific Japan campus in Depot Close.
The 450,000 sq ft facility in the Telok Blangah area will bring together for the first time more than 3,000 employees of 35 nationalities in a single location to carry out sales, operations, logistics, research and development (R&D), and marketing for the region.
It is designed to make the most of natural lighting and has intelligent controls to conserve energy. There is also a Customer Welcome Centre that will allow customers and partners to explore tailored HP solutions based on their needs or target vertical markets.
The facility is also home to HP's first Smart Manufacturing Applications and Research Centre in the world. The centre, which spans 6,000 sq ft, allows engineers to design, experiment and implement solutions to improve HP's manufacturing processes. The aim is to boost productivity by at least 20 per cent.
It is manned by a team of engineers who will leverage technologies such as additive manufacturing (3D printing), advanced robotics and large-scale data analytics. Successful developments will be used in HP's supplies manufacturing lines around the world.
Mr Richard Bailey, president of the Asia-Pacific Japan campus, said: "The Singapore campus is a reflection of our drive to constantly reinvent the way we work as well as develop new technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency across our global operations."
Mr S. Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry), said Singapore is committed to ensuring the sustainability and competitiveness of its manufacturing sector.
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$100m Cost of HP's new Asia-Pacific Japan campus facility.
450,000sq ft Size of the new campus in Depot Close, Telok Blangah.
3,000 Number of employees who will be working there.
"We have implemented an array of programmes towards this objective, and welcome more industry partners to join us in this journey by investing in advanced manufacturing technologies and skills upgrading," he said. He added that the Government has identified advanced manufacturing as a key growth area and committed $3.2 billion to R&D under its Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan.
"HP is also an important partner in our efforts to raise the capabilities of our SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises)," he said, noting that HP has partnered local SME suppliers Mega Plus Technology and Super Pak Manufacturing under Spring Singapore's Partnership for Capability Transformation programme.
The new campus was developed by Mapletree Industrial Trust.
