1 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore face continuous challenges arising from limited resources. Firstly, with small and limited manpower, their workers have to be fully utilised and often, this translates to less time and opportunities for training and skills upgrading. Secondly, they may have limited financial resources for upgrading of systems and machinery that are needed to increase productivity, inadvertently reducing business opportunities and prospective growth which in turn decreases the attraction level for talents to join SMEs. These would lead to a vicious cycle of SMEs having workers who are less-skilled and facing constraints in its potential business and human resource development.
2 Specifically, SMEs in the traditional print industry are feeling the heat of this vicious cycle. With the proliferation of digital media and the change in demand patterns in recent years, the bid to get print orders has become very competitive. Other than increased competition for revenue, the industry has been hit by rising costs of energy and raw materials like paper, and also manpower shortage. Thus, to grow their businesses and stay ahead of competition in a sustainable manner, SMEs in this industry must find ways to improve productivity through better-skilled workers and better adoption of technology.
3 Markono Print Media Pte Ltd (Markono) is one such SME in the print industry that has a vision to embark on manpower, machinery and processing productivity plans to sustain its long-term growth. A unionised company with the Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union (SISEU), Markono dedicates much time and efforts to improve its workers’ productivity through job re-design and development of new skill sets.
4 Today, 40 union leaders, together with NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say, embarked on an NTUC Learning Journey to a SME for the first time, to gain insights on Markono’s various manpower, machinery and process productivity initiatives that would ensure its sustained growth and stability amidst the challenges faced by the print industry.
Manpower Productivity
5 To raise its manpower productivity, Markono has implemented various schemes to enhance its workforce’s skills at every level of the company. For example, supervisors and managers recently attended an enterprise and initiative training to enhance their individual creativity and mass integration skills. This translates into aligning efforts, which become crucial during critical periods such as implementation of changes to the company.
6 Additionally, Markono’s operations in the past involved various brands of machinery that required workers with different skill sets to operate the respective machines. When the assigned worker for a particular machine was away, there was no substitute worker and this resulted in zero output and low productivity. Last year, Markono embarked on brand standardisation of its press machinery and correspondingly, job redesigning for its workers. These workers are now trained, multi-skilled and better deployed to operate all machinery within the same brand so that operations and overall output would not be disrupted. Productivity has since improved. With machinery brand standardisation, Markono also saves on the cost of consumables and spare parts as it only needs to procure inventories for one brand of machinery.
7 Markono also believes that a conducive working environment will motivate its workers towards higher productivity. Thus, it has installed air-conditioning in the press room. The installation of air-conditioning came about after Markono’s management listened to workers’ feedback that the press room temperature can get unbearably warm during production. This cool initiative has helped to boost workers’ morale and enable the company to retain and attract workers. Beyond providing a comfortable environment, Markono also has in place a 5S programme to instill good housekeeping practices and a safe and healthy working culture within the company.
Machinery Productivity
8 Since the 1990s, Markono has been observing market trends – the print industry has moved towards high mix-low volume orders – and investing in relevant machines to meet changing market demands. Tapping on NTUC’s Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) funding through NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), Markono recently invested in a print image control scanner to raise its productivity. Previously, workers were required to visually match colours in new print jobs with past print samples archived physically in folders. However, as it noted that more customers have started to request for adherence to internationally recognised colour standards like ISO 12647, it responded effectively to meet this new market demand. With funding from the IGP, Markono invested in this print image control scanner that is able to match its printed sheets to the colour standards, which eliminate wastages from erroneous visual matching though physical colour folders, and thereby increasing reliability, quality control and productivity. It has also help to shorten the set up time for each print job, i.e., a reduction of 20 minutes, from the former 40 minutes. This increased overall production efficiency, reduced wastage and man hours, which in turn, allowed the company to take on shorter run jobs.
Process Productivity
9 Markono also tapped on the IGP to install a shop floor data collection software, which is an integrated IT system to track real time production output. Previously, the output from the shop floor is tracked manually and this process is prone to human errors and time lag. Additional man hours had to be allocated daily to verify the data. Now, the system collects data directly from the machines, tracking and recording production output, which in turn minimised manual data entry and improved data accuracy and integrity. The software also allows for more timely diagnosis of machine problems, which saw increasing efficiency and output by 10 per cent.
10 Markono also implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) that harmonises functions across departments such as finance, procurement, warehousing and distribution. The ERP allows management to closely and accurately track inventory of materials to control and reduce cost.
Sharing Gains with Workers
11 Workers’ welfare remains at the heart of Markono’s human resource policies. With the productivity enhancements, it will present an additional productivity-related performance bonus to workers at the end of this year if performance targets are met, as part of its efforts to share its gains and motivate them and boost their morale. Previously, the company gives Annual Wage Supplement (AWS) and no other bonuses. With this productivity gain sharing scheme, workers can look forward to an additional increase of 10% to their total compensation.
12 Mr Edwin Ng, Managing Director, Markono, believes in investing in manpower and machinery to enhance productivity and profitability, which will in turn benefit workers. “To remain relevant in the competitive print industry, we need to constantly streamline processes and utilise manpower efficiently. Thus, we have to invest in the right technology, create a conducive working environment and train and upskill our workers, so that we can raise productivity to meet the schedule and quality demands of our customers, thereby safeguarding our avenues of profitability. But this is not all. We are also a people-centric company that would share our productivity-driven profits with our workers to reward them for their efforts and commitment to change and adaptation.”
13 Mr Ong Ye Kung, Executive Secretary, SISEU, commended on Markono’s values and practices, “Markono is competing in an industry that has been topsy-turvy due to technology. But not only it is keeping up with the changes, it is seizing new opportunities, and involving its workers in the process. Markono demonstrated that any company in any industry can embark on productivity initiatives if it puts its mind to it.”
