If you’re reading this story through a pair of Dailies or Freshlook contact lenses, there’s a possibility that they were made right here in sunny Singapore.
This is because Alcon Asian Manufacturing and Logistics Pte Ltd, the American company behind the popular Dailies and Freshlook brands of contact lenses, operates a state-of-the-art ophthalmic medical device manufacturing facility in Tuas Biomedical Park. Thanks to high-tech automated processes, the facility manufactures millions of pairs of contact lenses annually.
Beyond technology and stringent standards, Alcon is also focused on the development of its workforce.
In the last five years, the company has been working closely with the Labour Movement through the Chemical Industries Employees’ Union (CIEU) and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) on a series of initiatives to help the company attract, develop and retain talent.
Examples of these collaborations include participating in e2i’s job fairs as an avenue to find skilled talent. Another key area is in capability development, where Alcon’s human resources and management collaborate with e2i specialists on a framework to help employee develop skillsets through in-house training.
e2i and Alcon have also been organising digital workshops to give its workers a better awareness and understanding of technology and its benefits.
Working with Technology
But what’s life like in a manufacturing facility that’s almost fully automated? For 36-year-old Rahmat Rasidi (pictured below), a preventative maintenance senior technician, it’s something he takes pride in as he ensures maintenance work on the machines in the production lines is done well and on schedule to keep disruption to production at a minimum.
“I have to learn a lot of things, such as how to maintain the various types of machines and equipment during scheduled maintenance. These machines also have to be calibrated after we have completed servicing to ensure that they work well.
“While there is some measure of manual work, such as opening up the machines and physically working on the parts, the use of different diagnostics and calibration tools makes the work easier and more accurate. It is now a plug-and-play process through a computer, and the programme automatically completes the otherwise tedious calibration work,” shared Rahmat.
He added that his approach to technology is one that is focused on the outcome. Once aware of the benefits, learning how make use of it becomes far easier.
“I’ve been in the manufacturing industry for 14 years now, and technology has helped us perform better at our jobs. It has made work much easier, less physically demanding and helped us achieve better outcomes, more consistent results and better accuracy.
“Training is also very important because if we don’t continuously keep learning and staying updated, we won’t be able to perform the necessary maintenance work on the equipment. New training may take place whenever there are new updates to the machines, but there are also different training opportunities that include us going for Workforce Skills Qualification courses that help to further develop ourselves,” he added.
Quality Control
Elsewhere along the production line, moulds are used to produce the quality lenses used by millions of contact lens wearers each day. This is where Mold Tool Setup Senior Technician Cassandra Sim (pictured below), plays a big role in ensuring that each and every lens that is produced adheres to the strictest quality standards.
“These checks happen every day whenever maintenance is done on the machines in the production line. While colleagues like Rahmat work on the machines, we will be checking in on the moulds. This happens every day because the quality of the molds can change with time,” said the 24-year-old.
Although the moulds are still physically assessed for quality and performance, digital diagnostics tools help technicians like Cassandra make better decisions.
“The biggest impact is in the reports that get automatically generated are far more accurate than if I were to manually take the readings myself. Having machines that standardise processes can help us better achieve consistency and accuracy, which is very important in helping us achieve the highest quality standards for the products we produce,” shared Cassandra.
A graduate from Nanyang Polytechnic with a Diploma in Biomedical Engineering, Cassandra shared the job has been a real eye opener for her. Especially when there’s so much experience and practical knowledge to be learnt from her colleagues, many of them much older than her.
She added that while it wasn’t difficult to adapt to technology and automation in the workplace, her focus is on new ways of doing things and trying to use the tools available to her to optimise her work processes and be more productive.
