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Every major bank and investment firm from the US and Europe operating in Asia is headquartered in Singapore. Singapore’s economy was recently ranked as the third wealthiest nation in the world, and the government anticipates sustained investment inflows into the country in 2012 with fixed asset investments expected to reach S$13-S$15 billion. Even this encouraging information does not shield the country which faces unique needs, such as productivity pressures, the rising cost of labour, and the increasing pressure to do more with less, as well as the growing demand for competitive processes in the Asian market.
Mark Woeppel, CEO of Pinnacle Strategies, recently announced that his Plano, Texas-based project management consultancy has opened an office in Singapore to address these specific challenges. Woeppel suggested, “We are in the distinctive position to help companies in Singapore with our Rapid Analysis Bottleneck Improvement Team (RABIT) and Viewpoint processes. Our unique, bottleneck focusing technology and solutions, combined with seasoned implementation experts and the talent from the local market, provides a results- oriented engagement approach.”
The manufacturing industry accounts for nearly one-third of Singapore’s GDP. While a small domestic market, Singapore’s economy is actively involved in the global marketplace. The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom ranked Singapore as the world’s second most open economy as well as one of the most stable in macroeconomic terms with no foreign debt, high government revenue, and a consistently positive surplus.
While Singapore has no natural resources and a very small land area, the economy is driven by exports in electronics manufacturing and machinery, financial services, tourism, and the world’s largest cargo seaport. The major manufacturing industries include electronics (semi-conductors, precision-engineering), pharmaceutical, chemicals, construction, and ship-building. The manufacturing industry has also seen great growth in both the pharmaceutical and bio-medical sectors.
By land, Singapore is served by 3,297 kilometers of paved highways, 138.2 kilometers of rail (mass rapid transit and light rail combined), and island-wide bus and taxi operations. The transport system is efficient, safe, and punctual. By air, Changi International Airport is connected to 182 cities in 57 countries. It handles more than 4,000 weekly flights transporting passengers and cargo worldwide. By sea, the Port of Singapore (PSA Corporation) gives shippers a choice of over 200 shipping lines and access to some 600 ports in 123 countries. At any one time, there can be as many as 1,000 ships docked, making it the busiest container port in the world.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the Singapore economy grew by 4.9 percent in the past two years, with a GDP of S$326.8 billion in 2011. Since 1995, its government has maintained zero foreign debt, a strong balance sheet, and assets which outweigh its liabilities. Furthermore, Singapore is considered to be the world’s fourteenth largest exporter and fifteenth largest importer.
The new Pinnacle Strategies’ offices, (located at 28 Maxwell Road, #03-05 Red Dot Traffic Building, Singapore 069120) became necessary according to Woeppel because, “Other consultants are not doing a good job of building customised solutions to fit the unique situations that clients’ face. Usually they come in with a ‘one size fits all’ approach; they don’t do a good job of identifying the tools and solutions that will fit a specific situation.”
Woeppel also revealed that a client prospect in Singapore shared that while a consultant may know lean, have implemented in a particular environment, say, aerospace, when they go to a different environment, like engineer-to-order (ETO), they are lost. Other firms do a poor job of bringing deep skills to bear on a project. Typically, the consulting firms bring in one expert with some experience along with many inexperienced junior people. The people that design the solution do not stay to see the implementation through to fruition.
Bringing Theory of Constraints to project management in Asia Pacific
Many project management firms in Singapore and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, offer a fixed price for a project. The result is that consulting projects often run over-budget. Woeppel warns, “The client bears all the risk of the project. We believe it is only right to offer a fixed price for a certain outcome, and then deliver it. We also know it is critical to bring deep experience to the market. There is simply a lack of deep experience in manufacturing, operations, and project management at these other firms. Other consulting firms do not a do a good job of managing the change process; so projects, while they achieve results initially, do not sustain the results.”
Theory of Constraints (ToC) based technology allows Pinnacle Strategies to get results; while TOC is a dead story in the USA, it is, for the most part, unknown in Asia. There are only a handful of people that know the technology well enough to get a good implementation. Without proper knowledge, people with the best of intents, make the process worse. Theory of Constraints ensures that all of the non-constraints are fully subordinated to the constraint. This means doing less for most people…too often people with the best intent do too much and make the system worse, not better.
Recognition of the void in the Asia Pacific market, especially the manufacturing sector, positions Pinnacle Strategies to uniquely address what other consulting project management firms are not able to provide.
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