Can Singapore's labour crunch spark a robot revolution?

Tung Lok Restaurants (2000)

15/08/2016 24:00

* Restaurants, hotels face deep labour shortage 
    * Singapore wants businesses to adopt more robots 
    * But Singapore robot development still in infancy 
 
    By Aradhana Aravindan and Marius Zaharia 
    SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Sherine Toh says her best days 
at work are when none of the 600-or-so staff at Singapore's Tung 
Lok Restaurants  TGLK.SI  quits, though such days are rare. 
    The Chinese restaurant group is one of the thousands of 
businesses struggling with a labour crunch caused by foreign 
worker curbs, that threaten the city-state's already feeble 
growth rates. 
    "It has gotten much more tougher compared to the old days, 
five years back," said Toh, who has at least 20 vacancies to 
fill at any one time as head of human resources. The group 
closed some outlets because of the shortage. 
    The city's restaurants, hotels and retailers have become the 
biggest casualties of the labour crunch since Singapore 
accelerated restrictions on foreign workers in 2011 as political 
disquiet about immigration grew. But its highly-educated locals 
largely shun the late hours and unglamorous work. 
    To address the constraints, Singapore is pushing businesses 
to look to non-human solutions for their human resource 
challenges, including greater use of automation and robotics. 
    At Chilli Padi Nonya Cafe near a leafy university enclave, a 
tray-wielding robot roams the eatery, offering to collect plates 
from patrons in a childlike voice. Navigating its way through 
customers, it delivers the dirty dishes to the kitchen. 
    While tech powerhouses such as Japan, the U.S. and Germany 
invest billions in robotics to compete commercially in the 
emerging sector, Singapore's robots push is driven by a much 
more urgent need: the survival of some labour-strapped small and 
medium sized businesses may depend on them. 
    In the food and beverage industry, 90 percent of the 
businesses face the shortage and about a third are "really 
struggling," according to its lobby group. 
    "There is an increasing number of businesses that are up for 
sale," said Lim Rui Shan, executive director at the Restaurant 
Association of Singapore, which represents 2,200 outlets. "Some 
of them just shut down." 
    To encourage adoption, Singapore this year announced plans 
to spend S$450 million ($333 million) over three years to fund 
robot development and deployment. 
    Andrew Khaw, Infocomm Development Authority's senior 
director of productivity growth through information and 
communications technology, admits the take-up of robots is 
slower than he would like. 
    But he says the lack of manpower is a new operating reality 
businesses now need to accept. 
    "It's a bit of 'let's see who blinks first'. As far as the 
government is concerned, we can't go back on this policy," Khaw 
said. 
    Service robots can be found in Singapore - in hospitals and 
restaurants, as waiters or cleaners - but are less ubiquitous 
than might be expected for the aggressively tech-oriented 
economy. 
    James Xia, director at Unitech Mechatronics, which built the 
busboy robot Chilli Padi uses, sees export potential in his 
product but says development outlays mean commercialisation is 
slow. 
    Xia thinks more upfront government grants, rather than the 
current post-project reimbursements, could accelerate 
development. 
    Another firm, Aitech Robotics and Automation, has developed 
a tea-lady robot that delivers food and drinks throughout a 
seven-storey building to workers in their offices.  
    But the company's business development manager, Eric Lee, 
says orders are slow and doesn't expect to make any money on the 
showcase robot.     
    Weak capital expenditure amid the global economic slowdown 
has made it difficult for a virtuous robot development cycle to 
rev up in Singapore. 
    "In a hypothetical situation where there were no foreign 
manpower curbs, then (domestic) growth may have been a little 
bit higher," said Selena Ling, head of treasury research for 
OCBC. 
    For now, manpower is just one of many economic challenges: 
Singapore cut its 2016 growth forecast this month after revising 
down its second-quarter growth as the service sector contracted. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1AQ3LY 
     
    ($1 = 1.3499 Singapore dollars) 
 
 (Reporting By Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Sam Holmes) 
 ((aradhana.aravindan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6403 5659; Reuters 
Messaging: aradhana.aravindan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SINGAPORE ROBOTS/