So high tech sia! Robocutter now used for landscape workers!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Nowadays everything so high-tech! Even the landscape workers now use robocutters to increase their productivity!
Miyagi writes on his experience looking at this new robocutter that was bought using IGP grant from e2i.

http://miyagi.sg/2014/07/robo-cutter...ing-landscape/

I was invited to check out a demon*stra*tion of this machine called the “Robo-Cutter” and I got really excited because, WTF, it’s a robot that cuts grass, right?

No it wasn’t what I expected — there wasn’t any arti*fi*cial intel*li*gence about it, and it couldn’t deploy itself auto*mat*i*cally where it sensed the grass was tall. It was really just a remote con*trolled grass-cutting tractor.

I put my dis*ap*point*ment aside, and spoke to the per*son who was head*ing the demon*stra*tion, Mr Neo Say Hwee of Ho Eng Huat Con*struc*tion Pte Ltd.

He had pur*chased the Robo-Cutter for some*thing close to $100,000. Close to half of it was sub*sidised by the Employ*ment and Employ*a*bil*ity Insti*tute (e2i), which has a grant called the Inclu*sive Growth Pro*gramme (IGP).

In one fell swoop, Mr Neo cut down on his reliance for cheap for*eign labour, which was utilised in land*scape main*te*nance tasks for the old grass cut*ters. The Robo-Cutter can now do the equiv*a*lent job of half a dozen masked men (grass-cutting nin*jas), while using only one trained operator.

While I don’t have the exact num*bers to crunch, I think that while the gov*ern*ment con*tin*ues to tighten the sup*ply of cheap for*eign labour, com*pa*nies like Mr Neo’s will still stride for*ward when grants like IGP are applied judi*ciously to help inno*v*a*tive addi*tions, like the Robo-Cutter.

More impor*tantly, the employ*ees trained to oper*ate these smart machiner*ies will be able to be paid more. The job is also made eas*ier and safer as they are able to oper*ate the machine from a dis*tance under the shade, low*er*ing the pos*si*bil*i*ties of heat and other injuries.

This, I think is the best way to go about the increas*ing required wage. A manda*tory min*i*mum wage level with noth*ing else is just going to see com*pa*nies like Mr Neo’s being forced to pay more for grass-cutting nin*jas, and the costs inevitably will be passed on to their clients.

Unfor*tu*nately, many main*te*nance con*tracts in this par*tic*u*lar sec*tor are still mired in old terms and require*ments. They restrict com*pa*nies’ abil*ity to take the leap and inno*vate, like how Mr Neo has done with his company.

Con*tracts still stip*u*late how many per*sons are required to do the job, and buy*ers tend to want a dis*count when you tell them you are going to use fewer men. Worse, some may be shocked and not want to award you the con*tract when you tell them you are going to use a robot and one man.

Terms need to be changed. Buy*ers need to know that the essence of the con*tract is in whether a job can be done well and quickly, regard*less of how many peo*ple are used. With the labour sup*ply crunch sev*eral indus*tries are fac*ing, it will make the most sense to do this, and make the best use of every worker by giv*ing them the best work oppor*tu*ni*ties and do the best to reward them once the job is done in a safer and more effi*cient way.

As you can see, it takes an effort in con*cert — the buyer, the con*trac*tor and the worker have to change the way things are done in order to move this along, in order for all three par*ties to benefit.

When I’ve worn my other hat as a small busi*ness and start up con*sul*tant, I’ve heard excuses like “I dowan to take Gah*men money sekali got strings attached”, or “Cus*tomer don’t want to change con*tract”, even when pre*sented with really, really attrac*tive grants and cash incen*tives which have no strings attached (unless you think that “strings” include pay*ing taxes).

It is exas*per*at*ing. If these com*pa*nies don’t revisit the oppor*tu*ni*ties avail*able now to ben*e*fit every*one, they’re going to be in for a rough ride when they’re left behind, while the early adopters reap the ben*e*fits of a trans*formed economy.

It is timely this National Day (the one before the Big 50) that we pay heed to these steps and not just wish for it to hap*pen. We need to work towards this trans*for*ma*tion. The buck stops with everyone.


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