Union leaders from the Singapore Shell Employees’ Union (SSEU-SHELL) and ExxonMobil Singapore Employees Union (EMSEU), together with NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Chan Chun Sing, got to experience firsthand what the future workplace will be like during a visit to the Accenture Internet of Things Centre of Excellence on 21 August 2017.
The centre was launched in 2015 to address the impact of digitalisation, and through an immersive interactive environment, stimulate innovation and the exploration of opportunities through the sharing and discussion of ideas.
Making use of a variety of sensors, digital systems as commonplace as mobile phones and tablets, the displays showed just how job processes can be made simpler in workplaces such as processing plants. Some of these systems even enable remote surveillance, remote control and data collection and analytics, all of which play an important role in enabling workers to be more efficient, productive and empower them to make decisions.
Takeaways
Key takeaways for the union leaders included how such developments could be useful in the areas of personal safety, plant safety and training.
“Such technology is very efficient, enabling us to do more through something as simple as a mobile phone. From a safety aspect, it means that we can minimise risks in the workplace, such as remotely checking on data through the phone instead of physically entering a hazardous area,” shared EMSEU Executive Council Member Tan Swee Kai.
The General Secretaries of both SSEU-SHELL and EMSEU shared with SG Chan how the visit has given them new insights to better represent their members in conversations with their companies on workplace changes. The experience will also help them better communicate the importance of training and upgrading to keep in pace with such technological changes.
