S-Team Switchgear Pte Ltd, leading manufacturer of power and control switch boards, has attained the People Developer and Singapore Quality Class. Enterprise Today connects with the dynamic enterprise to shed light on its business excellence journey.

Set on becoming a world-class modular power distribution system provider, S-Team Switchgear Pte Ltd, a member of Natural Cool Holdings Ltd, embarked on its business excellence journey in 2003. This was just a year after it was established.

The company achieved the People Developer in April this year and the Singapore Quality Class in 2005.

The company has also been certified ISO9001:2000 by the Anglo Japanese American Registrars and accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. Its switchgear products are type tested and certified by the Association of Short-Circuit Testing Authorities and PSB Corporation Pte Ltd.

Developing people
Attributing S-Team Switchgear's success to its people, Managing Director Joseph Ang (below) said, "It is important to keep our people highly vigilant and capable of adapting to changing business needs.

"As S-Team Switchgear continues to innovate and manage changes for sustainable profitable growth, we need to engage all our people to grow in tandem with our expansion plans. The business excellence framework enables us to lead our people forward."

The company has introduced many initiatives to engage its staff, enhance their welfare and foster a conducive working environment. They include an ideas bank, waste recycling and good housekeeping practices at production areas. Informal gatherings help to improve team bonding. The company also offers good housing facilities for foreign workers, health screenings and safety programmes.

Rising up to challenges
A key challenge the company faced was incorporating customers' needs into strategic and improvement plans at the departmental levels, so as to align them with the company's overall business goals.

Other challenges were inculcating a positive, forward-looking and solution-oriented mindset in staff, as well as ensuring clear communications at all levels for the smooth execution of plans.

Rewarding journey
The business excellence framework enables S-Team Switchgear to enhance its management capabilities, achieve its objectives and add value to its stakeholders.

The company continually upgrades its expertise as well as software and hardware to meet the needs of its varied clientele - developers of commercial buildings, industrial buildings, factories, schools and residential properties.

The pursuit of business excellence has been very rewarding as the number of repeat customers rose sharply from 9.12% in 2005 to 54.35% in 2007 while complaints received per job dropped dramatically from 0.27% to 0.03%.

And despite expanding its market share from 3.13% to 5.43% over the same period, the company consistently achieved above-target delivery times.

Staff strength has grown along with business revenues. From eight partners, the company now has a 200-strong team.

Summing up S-Team Switchgear's experience, Mr Ang said, "We are glad to have set out on our business excellence journey in 2003. It has certainly provided us with a framework for challenging our people to scale new heights."ET