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NTUC urges firms to carry out "best sourcing" in economic downturn
Channel NewsAsia - 2 hours 12 minutes ago
SINGAPORE: Going for the cheapest option is not the best solution for companies which adopt it as a way to ride out the current economic turmoil, says the labour movement.
Instead it is urging companies to take up "best sourcing initiatives" or BSI where expertise and quality of the service providers are placed above cost savings.
One local hospital shares how BSI has led to an increase in productivity and higher wages. At the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), the use of advanced technology and machinery has increased the productivity of cleaners and porters.
This is the result of the hospital’s BSI partnership with ISS Facility Service.
SGH’s director of operations, Loh Yong Ho, said: "We can actually increase the overall value of the entire value chain rather than just depending on costing as a guide to our outsourcing efforts.
"For example, we have worked together with them (ISS Facility Service) in the area of mechanisation. With the e—portering system, we have managed to increase productivity by almost 20% as well the salary for the workers in hospitals."
Cleaners in SGH, for example, take home a monthly gross salary of between $900 to $1,000, which is 20% higher than cleaners working in companies which enter into cheap sourcing agreements with their service providers.
In the last 10 years, ISS has invested more than $1.5 million to provide such up—to—date facilities to maintain its partnership with SGH.
ISS is optimistic that the partnership will continue to flourish despite the current economic turmoil.
Motivated by the success story, NTUC now hopes union leaders can also introduce this practice at their workplaces.
NTUC’s assistant secretary—general, Ong Ye Kung, said: "The Singapore economy now is no longer a cheap base, we cannot compare to China, cannot compare to India and cannot compare to Vietnam. So, we have to start competing on quality. (Being) cheap cannot be the solution for Singapore, it has to be of better quality, so it must be based on BSI or best sourcing."
He was speaking at the Learning Journey programme aimed to help union leaders keep in touch with the dynamics of the Singapore economy.
About 35 union leaders from the service, industrial and public sectors attended the last instalment of the programme.
— CNA/ir
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