Back in 2008, Doreen Neo made a decision that took many by surprise.
Instead of climbing the corporate ladder at an established aviation corporation, she opted to start afresh at a small firm founded by her parents, in a trade few would consider – the waste management and recycling industry.
“I love mother earth. I want to protect her in whatever I do.” Doreen said with great fervour. “And, personally, I see vast growth potential in waste management, with a lot of room for learning and personal growth.”
A Steep Learning Experience
Six years on, Doreen has no regrets in exchanging her corporate suits for a construction hard hat at Soon Yong Huat Engineering Construction Pte Ltd. However she readily admits her initial years were fraught with difficulties.
“Learning how the recycling process works is a totally new experience for me. Getting to know the faces in the waste industry is challenging too,” she explained. “On top of that, there are so many facets in the recycling business. It covers not just our business in construction waste, but wood waste, plastic waste and so much more.”
To enable herself to deliver her best, Doreen developed a thirst for knowledge. She learnt all she could from her parents and picked up tips from seniors within the company. She signed up for relevant courses and even went on study trips to learn how the British and Taiwanese recycle their waste.
“Being a lean company, we are expected to handle a lot of things ourselves. If we do not know anything, we have to find out and learn how to do it,” Doreen said when asked what motivated her.
“My boss always gives me a lot of opportunities to see how other people carry out their recycling. Being my parents as well, they fully understand why learning is important to my work.”
Learning From The Experts
About two years back, Doreen felt an even greater push to upgrade herself. As a manager overseeing administrative matters, workplace safety, health, quality control, she saw the need to develop specialist knowledge to take the company to a higher level.
Encouraged by her boss, she completed a diploma in construction management to facilitate a better understanding of the construction industry. The next year, she took up the SME QIANG programme to learn how to improve the company’s productivity.
“Around early 2013, the company was very keen on operation improvement but was clueless about quality tools, and did not know where to start. My boss signed a team of us up for the SME QIANG programme as he hoped we could learn something to improve the company’s productivity,” she recalled.
Applying Expert Knowledge
The SME QIANG programme exposed Doreen and her team to a myriad of productivity tools that they could apply to the company’s operations. It also equipped them with practical training to analyse existing business processes to achieve productivity gains.
Under the guidance of their experienced trainer, they were able to apply Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) techniques, Identification of Wastes and Eliminate, Combine, Re-arrange, and Simplify (ECRS) to increase work output. Furthermore, they were able to reduce their machinery start-up and shutdown time, as well as ease workers’ fatigue and waiting time of trucks at the gates. These efforts resulted in a 20% increase in productivity.
“We really liked the way the course was contextualised to our daily operations. Not only were we able to assess our operations objectively, we could share with the rest of our colleagues what was learnt. So, everyone in the company – from the drivers to the management – benefited tremendously from the training, recommendations and outcomes,” she said with a wide smile.
Having experienced first-hand how training could turn the company around, Doreen hopes to be able to go for further training courses. She believes continuous learning is pivotal in empowering herself for her job and in expanding the company in the years to come.
“Continuous learning is super important. I can’t emphasise it more. This is because when you continue to learn new skills, you learn to do things differently, make better decisions, and ultimately be better in managing yourself, your people and your business.”