Minister Lee urges more companies to adopt standards

Standards can streamline processes and simplify production and product specifications which help to raise their efficiency.

More companies have been urged to adopt standards and conformance as a key business strategy to achieve higher productivity and competitiveness. Speaking at the opening of the Quality and Standards 2010, Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Manpower, Mr Lee Yi Shyan said that to compete effectively in the global market, companies should leverage on the programmes available to implement standards so as to raise efficiency, enhance market access and catalyse innovation for higher growth, ccording to agovernment report.

Minister Lee cited the example of SPRING Singapore’s Standards Implementation for Productivity (SIP) Programme, which provides grants to help companies adopt Singapore and overseas standards for higher productivity. He said, “The SIP Programme has successfully helped some 30 companies to realise benefits of some $144 million over the last three years. These companies have gained from cost savings and increased revenues due to better process flow, resource optimisation and higher quality products. To enable more companies to benefit from the SIP Programme, the programme is extended to cover wider implementation of standards and technical regulations.”

Standards are strategic enablers which companies can use to raise productivity. Through the implementation of standards, companies can streamline processes as well as simplify production and product specifications which help to raise their efficiency. It also ensures that Singapore’s products and services comply with the requirements of customers and regulators overseas, thus enhancing their competitiveness and market access.

In addition, standards and conformance enables the creation of new value through innovation. By providing a common reference platform, it encourages companies to share knowledge, collaborate and build on each other’s technologies and develop more innovations. Widespread acceptance of the best state-of-the-art technology as the de facto standard helps to expedite the adoption of new technologies and speed up the time-to-market of new products and services. This is critical for new emerging areas like sustainable development and energy efficiency management, which may not have any existing standards.

At the same time, SPRING is stepping up efforts to raise awareness of standards and conformance as a key business strategy among students. SPRING Singapore’s Chief Executive, Mr Png Cheong Boon said, “We need to ensure that there is a pipeline of business leaders who understand the strategic importance of standards and conformance on business. Therefore, we are in discussion with several institutes of higher learning to include standardisation education in their curriculum, especially for disciplines such as business administration. We have started working with the Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School to develop business case studies that would illustrate the impact of standards on innovation and sustainability.”

About 400 participants attended the Quality and Standards 2010 Conference held at Grand Hyatt Hotel.