EXCELLING IN INNOVATION & TEAMWORK

It is easy to be beaten down by a problem and feel helpless in the midst of difficulties.

But not Military Expert (ME) 2-2 Lim Zhi Cheng, who always looks for the silver lining in a dark cloud.

"Every problem I see gives me an opportunity to make improvements and do better," said the PS21 ExCEL (Public Service 21 Excellence through Continuous Enterprise and Learning) Awards Innovation Champion (Gold) winner. He is a Master Technician Trainer in 1st Army Maintenance Base.

For his vision and far-sightedness, ME2-2 Lim received the prestigious award - the highest honour among the PS21 ExCEL awards - from Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretary (Finance), Mr Peter Ong.

"The spark of an idea, together with the hard work of public officers, helps the public service to meet that challenges we face today and the issues that lie tomorrow," Mr Ong told award winners and attendees in his opening speech to the PS21 ExCEL Convention 2014, held at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) on 29 Oct.

PS21, the Singapore Public Service's change movement, encourages public officers to embrace change and work improvements, so as to keep the Public Service at the leading edge of contributing towards Singapore's success. Organised by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), this was the first time that the PS21 ExCEL Convention was held in conjunction with MINDEF's annual Productivity and Innovation in Daily Efforts (PRIDE) Day 2014, which took place the day before in NYP. The Singapore Public Service's change movement, PS21 encourages public officers to embrace change and work improvements.

As team leader, ME2-2 Lim shares his ideas with the rest of his WITS (Work Improvement Teams) members, who work together to bring these ideas to fruition. This includes the invention of a Fuel System Analyser (FSA), a project he worked on with his WITS team, Team STRYKER.

Using a variable resistor controller, the FSA allows technicians to assess the parts of the Bionix Infantry Fighting Vehicle (BIFV) that are damaged without have to carry out trial-and-error tests. Previously, damage assessment entailed fitting various parts from a working BIFV into the damaged vehicle to determine the source of the damage.

The team's solution cut down the time needed drastically from 600 minutes to just 28 minutes. The project received the Merit award in the International Exposition on Team Excellence, an annual event held by the Singapore Productivity Association.

Working with the experienced innovator, who has won many MINDEF and Singapore Armed Forces WITS awards over the last two years, has provided Team STRYKER with valuable mentorship.

Describing ME2-2 Lim's leadership style as teamwork-centric, Corporal First Class Kwoh Ji Wei, who has been in Team STRYKER since April 2013, said: "He emphasises brainstorming as a team. On top of that, he delegates tasks based on our strengths, which makes the team even stronger."

For The Maritime Security Team from Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), who won the Most Innovative Project/Policy (Silver) award for their National Maritime Security System, teamwork was taken to an even larger scale - that among ministries and agencies.

Working closely with the Republic of Singapore Navy and other maritime agencies, the team developed the National Maritime Security System. The system's key feature is its ability to paint a common maritime situation picture by drawing upon and sharing information from the various agencies.

Project Manager Chua Yat Seng explained that each agency has its own systems and databases, so it was a challenge for the team to "fuse all the data into a common picture".

In addition, the team developed an automated system that detects anomalies that could be signs of an impending threat. This has allowed security agencies to better monitor shipping, and provided greater lead time to respond swiftly to any potential maritime threats.

"All the hard work put into the project was well worth the effort when the system's capabilities were tested and demonstrated at Exercise Highcrest (a national-level counter-terrorism exercise)," added his teammate, Head Capability Development (Networked Systems Integration), Mr Oh Khoon Wee.

On DSTA's culture of innovation, Mr Oh noted that "we believe in not saying 'no' - we always want to challenge the status quo by doing things better".