SIMPLE IDEAS, BIG DIFFERENCE AT MINDEF PRIDE DAY

A whopping $163.6 million.

That's how much the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) saved in Financial Year 2011 through the collective efforts and innovations of its personnel.

This figure was revealed by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen in his speech at the MINDEF PRIDE (PRoductivity and Innovation in Daily Efforts) Day 2012 awards presentation ceremony at the MINDEF auditorium on 11 May.

Dr Ng, who officiated at the ceremony, said that "for MINDEF and the SAF to be world-class organisations, we must constantly renew this drive to do things better or find new ways, even new ideas to achieve our goals".

He added: "A personal commitment to innovation, higher productivity and continuous learning must be a way of life for the SAF to be an effective force."

Themed iMatter. iCan. iWill, this year's PRIDE Day promotes the idea that every individual has a part to play in building an organisation that continually strives for excellence.

At the event, 125 awards were presented to individuals, groups and units from MINDEF and the SAF in recognition of their outstanding and innovative contributions.

Bagging two coveted awards was Force Readiness Squadron (FRS) of the Republic of Singapore Navy, which took home both the Minister for Defence Award and the MINDEF Innovation Award.

The former award recognises outstanding achievements in productivity and innovation, organisational excellence, resource optimisation and staff well-being, while the latter is presented to the unit or department that has implemented quality projects that are highly innovative.

Asked what led to his squadron winning the awards, Military Expert (ME) 5 Terence Ong, Commanding Officer of the Platform Readiness Engineering Centre in FRS, said: "It's the innovative spirit that we have. Because we value innovation, we make it very much a part of the work that we do."

He also mentioned that his squadron has projects that are benchmarked against the best in other industries, with a couple of projects competing at the international level, and at least five at the national level.

On how the innovative spirit is cultivated in the squadron, FRS Squadron Commander ME6 Teh Chong Ann said: "The Navy is quite small, and we overcome our size constraint by innovating... When the leadership believes in and encourages innovation, people can see it, and will put their hearts and minds into innovating."

One unit that contributed a large portion of the cash savings was the SAF Ammunition Command (SAFAC). Through the implementation of the Just-In-Time (JIT) methodology in the ammunition stockpiling process, the unit saved an astounding $27 million in stockpile cost and received the Savings and Value Enhancement (SAVE) award.

The joint project by SAFAC and Defence Science & Technology Agency's (DSTA's) Guided Weapons & Armament Department involves leveraging on the production capability of the local defence industry and acquiring the majority of the stockpile only when required. In so doing, huge capital outlays, inventory holding costs and the cost of disposing expired ammunition were eliminated.

Commander SAFAC ME6 Lim Bock Aeng, who was at the event to receive the award, said: "It definitely feels good to save so much money, and we will try to look at other kinds of ammunition where we can apply the same concept to save even more for the SAF."

The PRIDE movement has been promoting a culture of organisational excellence, innovation and productivity across MINDEF and the SAF since 1981.

This year, the MINDEF PRIDE Day exhibition will be held in conjunction with the Army Open House at the Formula One Pit Building from 26 to 27 May, 9am to 8pm. It will showcase innovative projects by personnel from MINDEF, SAF, ST Engineering and DSTA.