Innovationation 2006

13 October 2006 @ Singapore Expo

Welcome!
By tapping our personalised card* against the "swip spot", we are "recognised!"

*RFID (radio frequency identification) tag

What it suggests... if everyone of us is going to have such a all-purpose personalised card...
... in school
- when the pupil comes in the morning and flashes his card against the spot, his attendance is automatically marked and he is greeted with a welcome message by the school (that changes everyday...)
- with such an intelligent card that comes with all the bio-data and medical record, etc... linked between the organisations... the school captures all the necessary information that save the school cockpit team in the school to verify and ensuring all info is correct, an d the PE dept will know who are the pupils with medical condition and needs to be taken care of, etc... oh yes, our teachers no longer need to chase after the pupils for medical certificate if they were absent from class when unwell.
... at work
- when reporting to work, a cheery personalised message makes our day, won't it?














Hello, hello

The speakers dangles from the celling... you can listen to the brief on what's on the wall.

Does it resemble something that we once have fun?... replace the speakers with the cups and put it against your mouth... Remember those good old days?
















Once upon a time...

Oops! This reminds me the days when we did our NIE projects to find out trace the development of technology...

Yes, it tells us how intelligent mankind has been...

the Y2K Bug?!
Still remember the "Ho-Ha" it made?!
Everybody and almost everything... waiting for the moment to come "0000h", 1 Jan 2000. Lots of quesitons in heads of many... will the day come? or will everything comes to a stand-still?

We have been using technology for so many years... our reliance on technology grows every day, every moment, we did not really question what happens if technology simply evaporates from our world one day? Indeed, I guess not many people at that point of time did not think of how our behaviour is going to change, our habits are going to be affected if what to do if technology is suddenly withdrawn from this world, but everybody's thinking of ways to overcome, to find a way to manage the problem, to minimise disruption... interesting, isn't it? We don't look back, but forward...

... It's still very clear in my mind... the whole team of key personnel, including the admin staff were called back to the school on 1 Jan 2000. We were all at the AV room... while the Principal went through some kind of operational procedures, and each of us were tasked to check on some aspects - that has something to do with the system... That was the year that I spent my New Year day in the school :D
















Ball Game without ball

It's an old game played in a new way... clear and neat!
The "balls" are projected and moved according to the movements of the human hands detected by the sensors. Amazing...
* Free up game: that emphasize the themes of collaboration and convergence.
* The game took place on a round table and required 5 players to play by sweeping coloured balls into the right circles with their hands.
* Infra-red cameras above the table mapped out the position of the players' hands, allowing them to act as a cursor of sorts.

Swip, swip

Ah-ha... this is one of the many huge boards that we find everywhere in the exhibition.

Simply read the question/comment and tap our card against the option that we choose.

Indeed, this is one means to capture responses for a survey, too? Brilliant!









P-ism

A prototype... that tells us how small computers can be!

No longer need to lug the heavy notebook or tablet with us... just bring the 5 pens! The keyboard will be 'projected' on the base where we can 'touchless'-type (hahaha)... then the 'monitor' will be 'projected' Hm... will that mean some plain backdrop like a white wall is needed for the" shell-less monitor"?






What's your mood today?

More amazing than a crystal ball, huh?
By say a word into the microphone, the software interprets your mood!

Hey, tested with a cheery voice... guess what's the interpretation? "SAD" Oops! I'm confused! ;P



Fuel-cell Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are to be powered by these fuel cells instead of the conventional batteries we use nowadays...

Wah! I can do away with those bulky charges when I go overseas... hooray...
Oops, I'm going to bring "fuel" with me when going out... if I were to travel for many many days... there goes my baggage weight limits! hahaha...


On the ball at all times!

The phone enables one to connect to a hub at the locaton where one situates.

In the example showcased, when we make our learning journey to Victoria Theatre, there, we can connect to the local hub and download information pertaining to Victoria Theatre onto the phone to learn more about the place. To make the journey a meaningful one, the teacher can also also the pupils to attempt a quiz that will give response to the inputs immediately. Amazing! We no longer need to print worksheets for pupils to read or do, of course, no need to mark their worksheets! We can also save our breath to side-line as a guide to give 'commentries' to our pupils...
















Something to ponder...
"Leave... think and dream, and occasionally switch off the mobile phone."
Yes. Indeed, it set us thinking... since when we are so used to carrying a mobile phone with us, anytime, anywhere...

Still remember the giant handphone that the 'uncles' held and talked loudly? (as if scare nobody knew that they can afford wireless communication then.)

As the equipment gets cheaper, smaller, sleeker, it becomes a fashion to own one! OK, before that pager was very very popular. Remember the "peep" sound?

So, has mobile phone brought people closer to each other? Why own a mobile phone? or has it actually widen the distance between people?

4th Professional Sharing Session, organised by CPDD

12 October 2006 @ Edutorium

• Gaming in Education (by Richard Sandford)
• IDM (Interactive digital media) (by Yang Tien)
• iN2015 (intelligent Nation 2015)

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Gaming in Education

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IDM

• i-Create

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iN2015

• i-Access
• i-Learn
• i-Experience

Talk: Achieving Cost Effective Service Excellence - Lessons from Singapore Airlines

6 October 2006 @ IPAM
Speaker: Dr Nitin Pangarkar

The Agenda was

• Difficult Industry economics yet superior performance by SIA
• Key drivers of SIA's performance
• How SIA achieves operational excellence
• How SIA achieves service excellence
• Sustainable competitve advantage

Several interesting strategies employed by the airline were shared:
...frame the mental model ...what qualities to look out for as a Number 1 ...who to benchmark against ...how airline manages cost ...what's the philosophy

Some points shared:

1. There isn't many suppliers of aircrafts in the market, however, the airline sticks to mainly 2 key players in the market - Boeing and Airbus... why? Because of reputation and reliability of these companies? Well, the speaker did not elaborate on this aspect... however, he pointed out that, it eventually has something to do with deployability of pilots, too! Certainly, as he pointed out, the design and therefore the management of the cockpit does not differ much from one model of the plane to another... hence, that enables the airline to deploy its pilots easily.
2. Because it keeps to the 2 key choices, it also means that in terms of maintenance, the airline can easily house spare parts for the plane, hence making it easily available when in need. This is definitely much more cost efficient if one gets a 'range' of aircrafts and therefore having to deal with higher costs in terms of maintenance. Indeed, the speaker gave another illustration: When buying a car, it's much easier to get the spare part of a brand that is popular and common on the road and therefore get the problem more easily rectified as compared to having a car that not much of its spare parts are carried locally, having to fly it all the way into the country - the cost and delay... {the same logic applies to the air business, too...}
3. Indeed, because it carries a young fleet, it has kept its maintenance cost low. Being new, regular maintenance is already factored in, for the first few years of operation. Of course, new planes can save up to 20% of the fuel. Indeed, interestingly... the life-span of any aircraft is around 30! and planes move on to other owners before 'repair maintenance' creeps in, and therefore saves up lots of money on this. What does the 'unanticipated manintenace' cost emcompass? The cost when the air plane is on ground (that's definitely very expensive, not to talk about landing fees alone), and also the cost of flying in the technical personnel/experts and etc - avoiding these penalities can lead to hefty savings!
4. Certainly, having a notable and 'household' brand in the business brings in other advantages such as having better negotiating power in terms of getting and transferring ownership of the aircrafts. One point to note is fleet acquisitions are financed by cash rather than debt... and that certainly makes a huge difference. Of course, it also looks at the timing of acquisitions, that probably generates more returns!
5. Another interesting point of the air-business is: Cost of any unsold seats is unrecoverable - ie. the products are 'perishable' in that sense. For instance, if there are 5 seats unsold, then there's no way to recover the cost (ie. through the ticket price of these seats!), once the plane takes off, it's gone. How about reducing the cost of the tickets? This strategy does not work, especially in a long run! There are budget airlines to compete with. Hence, the best strategy is not to be engage in the competition of price. Hence, other strategies like the Frequent Flyer programme kicks in! Of coures, I guess that's also where the "Star alliance" programme where several airline join hand to provide the inter-connected flight servces. This definitely helps to fill up the remaining seats. Well, the mathematical concept of Operational Research comes in, the airline would have recover its operating costs when x% of the seats are filled, and the rest would be the profit. Isn't it amazing that the airline's breakeven load factor is 70% while its average load factor is 74%?
6. Another interesting point is the landing fees charged by the various airports. Only after talk then realised that Changi Airport charges a much lower rate as compared to Tokyo-Narita and Hongkong airports! So, what has it do with the whole business? Link it to the previous point :D
7. Training/Development is another strategy that they keep the cost of pilots low! Yes, training costs alot... and one thing is, the airline believes in sending the pilots for trained. Of course, the airline has a bigger say in the paycheque in the days the pilots are committed to company.
8. Surprisingly, the cabin crew salaries and allowances are also lower than developed carriers. Of course, the speaker cautioned us it's in comparison to the developed carriers such as BA and UA. He also brought our attention to the make-up of the cabin crew - it's multi-national! So, that's one big cost saver?!

Drivers of Productivity

1. Recruitment - "picky" top managers are involved... and the format is like a simulation - "party" where the various attributes that make a good cabin crew are assessed. But why the top managers? Reason being, to identify the suitably of candidates who may eventually have to serve the 'big shots' in the first and business classes in the flight!
2. Incentives - apart from the basic salary, its allowance is also tied to the company's performance, hence the better the company performs, the more and better incentive one can look forward to.
3. Organisation - teamwork is key, especially the inflight services.
4. Training - Everybody has to undergo training, ongoing.
5. Technology - Big spending on technology to improve overall service; and there is clear customer benefit kept in mind. Technology here goes beyond just ICT (that includes online booking and online check-in service), it includes other improvements such as cabin services (like TV in demand, bigger foot room). Of course, on-going feedback gathering.

Cost-conscious Culture

Profit orientation and cost conscious

• Top management harps on the message "We don't want to be the largest company. We want to be the most profitable"
• From day 1, employees are told that the airline has to swim on its own and it will shut down if it makes losses

Cost-consciousness message is reinforced through actions

• The approach: It saves internally while it spares no effort in bringing up customer services

Service Excellence

• Innovation - continuous, incremental discontinuous
• Implementability of innovations
• Recruitment, training and incentives
• Empowerment for maintaining quality

Operational Excellence

• Holistic perspective - SIA believes in being better in 1% in 100 things than 100% better in one thing - just a little bit better than competitors in everything
• Continuous improvement - Benchmarking against other industries (eg. customer service) & closer monitoring of competitors
• Strong customer orientation - technology for customer's benefit and not for technology's sake