Global Speakers

Tan Chee Peng is a humble and practical Industry 4.0 practitioner with 33 years of experience. Having assisted his repeat MNC clients in the successful implementation of multi-billion project portfolios, he will be fondly remembered by more than 6,000 PMs/senior management from 67 countries across 6 continents for career-defining approach to making things happen and delivering business outcome.

First Class Honours, Imperial College UK; CITPM Senior; International Who’s Who of Professionals for 1999; Board of Assessor Singapore National IT Skills Certification Programme; Fellow Member and Roll of Honours Singapore Computer Society; Mauritius SAPES-recipient and Honorary 300 of the Singapore National Infocomm Registry for ICT Professionals, 2011-2013. Fellow Mauritius Institute of Directors (F.MIoD).

A Strategic Services Consultant specializing in Business-IT Planning, Industry 4.0 Programme Management and PMO/Business-IT process automation, previously the Vice President, Technology of Citibank N.A., Singapore; Managing Partner of Andersen Worldwide for Mauritius and East Africa, now Group CEO of the BTI Group with market presence in Asia & Africa.

Topic: Industry 4.0: Mindset & Digital Employee Challenges – Crossing the Rubicon

Dr Hauser holds Engineering Degrees in Shipbuilding and Computer Engineering, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics. He started his career as Research Scientist at Corporate Research of Siemens in Germany and headed thereafter the Siemens central research unit in Singapore. He then joined the technical service provider TÜV SÜD in Singapore to build up new innovative businesses.

As Director he is now leading the Centre of Excellence Digital Service in Singapore, a key unit in TÜV SÜD´s digitilisation strategy, and is driving the development of new solutions around safety, cyber security and reliability of smart systems in the strategic segments Autonomous Driving, Industrie 4.0 and Smart Healthcare.

Topic: New Smart Industry Readiness Index Prioritisation Matrix: Planning Tool to Guide Firms in Industry 4.0 Transformation

Dr Koh Niak Wu is the Founder and CEO of The Intelligent Warehouse (TIW), a company that is focussed on building intelligent systems that optimises resource allocation for 4-wall operations. He specialises in supply chain analytics, strategy execution and operations management innovation and was the recipient of the of the 2017 Supply Chain Innovation of the Year award (start-up category).

Dr Koh was formerly part of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics team at Dell contributing to strategy analytics. He was also in the Planning and Operations Management Group at SIMTech, A*STAR where he gained valuable insights into the evolution of industries.

Additionally, Dr Koh is an Adjunct Faculty at the Singapore Management University (SMU) and Singapore University of Social Sciences where he shares his views and cross-industry experiences in supply chains and operations management. He is also a Resource Person with the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and has been sharing his views on the future economy across Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Koh codes, believes in the power of operational analytics and how it shapes business decisions. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Robotics from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor of Engineering (Double 1st) from King’s College London.

Topic: The Need for Intelligent Warehouses to Spearhead Singapore’s Growing Digital Economy

Dr. Liu Qiao is responsible for 3M Japan R&D as his recent overseas assignment. Liu worked both in academia and in automotive R&D, Service and Business at Hitachi and Toyota before joining 3M.  Liu successfully led Toyota’s first Canadian hybrid vehicle program and its market introduction. As a founding member of Toyota Research Institute of North America, Liu drove establishment of Toyota’s technologies, engineering platforms and programs which impact millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide. Liu led 3M’s effort on building technology platforms, infrastructure, and product pipelines to mechanize, electrify, and digitize advanced 3M materials to accelerate business growth globally. Liu was recognized as the Smart Industry 50 Innovators on the leading edge of digital transformation.

Topic: 3M Case Study: Innovation by Leveraging IoT and The Value of Connected Products

Goh Puay Guan is an Associate Professor at NUS SCALE and NUS Business School, and Academic Director of the MSc in Industry 4.0. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of Switzerland-based Log-hub AG. Prior to that he had 20 years of corporate experience throughout Asia in P&L, strategic planning, and commercial investments. As Vice President of Business Development and Commercial, he helped Sembcorp Development Ltd to evaluate and build up its logistics assets footprint, and was concurrently General Director of its Vietnam subsidiary. He led Batamindo Shipping and Warehousing Pte Ltd to attain the ASEAN Business Award for Growth (SME) by the ASEAN Business Advisory Council in 2013. He was a Top Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) 2012 Merit Winner for Business and Entrepreneurship category, awarded by Junior Chamber International (JCI).

He is the author of Supply Chain Management: A Concise Guide. published by Pearson (1st Ed. 2005, 2nd Ed. 2015) and has written on technology innovation and corporate transformation for Forbes, The New Paper, and Channel NewsAsia.

Topic: Supply Chain 4.0 – The Next-Generation Digital Supply Chain

Leonard Thangavelu is currently the Country Manager (ASEAN & ANZ) of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry – International Representative office in Singapore.

Leonard has more than 25 years of experience in general and specialized management in manufacturing, Information Technology and Supply-Chain sectors to companies across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and South America, and, Africa. He has successfully managed and grown businesses with a particular interest in organizational improvement embracing technology and traditional practices across channels. His diverse commercial background equips him with a deep understanding of financial, sales and marketing, customer service and human resource trends to device winning strategies and motivating teams to grow an organization.

Topic: Smart Manufacturing 4.0: How Abu Dhabi Is Poised to Be the Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Hub of UAE

Wendy Teo is currently the Assistant Director, Industry Capability Development, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), spearheading digitalisation initiatives for the Maritime Sector. Wendy started her career in Logistics, driving growth in key regional accounts in FedEx Express prior to joining the Public Sector in 2010. She has since found her passion in driving digital transformation for the Logistics sector and now the Maritime sector.

Topic: Edge Computing: How Edge Computing will Improve Manufacturing Reliability, Speed and Resilience

Dr. Marius Erdt is Deputy Director of Fraunhofer Singapore / Fraunhofer IDM@NTU where he is also Head of Visual and Medical Computing. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. From 2012-2013, he was Head of Medical Computing at Fraunhofer IDM@NTU. From 2007-2012, he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Germany in the cognitive computing and medical imaging department as a post-doc and research associate, respectively. In 2007, he was affiliated with Siemens Medical Solutions as part of his studies. He received a PhD in Computer Science from the Technische Universität Darmstadt with summa cum laude and graduated with distinction from University of Koblenz-Landau with the German degree of Diplom-Informatiker (eq. MSc Computer Science).

His research interests include Visual and Medical Computing, in particular, statistical shape modeling and machine learning based approaches, as well as Virtual and Augmented Reality. He has led various research projects in the field of Visual and Medical computing and has strong experience in managing R&D projects together with the industry to apply latest research results in real-world applications.

Topic: AR-based Maintenance: Bringing New Vision to Maintenance and Repair of Manufacturing Equipment

Derek is an innovative business growth leader with a proven track record over 15 years of achieving business objectives and spearheading meaningful progress in complex and matrixed MNC environment.  Derek is currently leading in Big Data Advanced Analytics Product Planning and Research & Development, Customer Success Management, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Industrial IoT, Smart Factory, Industry 4.0 efforts at Keysight Technologies. He has He has cross functional leadership in global account management, change management, research & development, manufacturing, quality assurance, planning and logistics.

Topic: Real Case Studies of Applied Advanced Analytics in the Electronics Manufacturing Smart Factory

An industrial engineer by trade, Willson has implemented improvement projects in manufacturing industries ranging from aeronautics to smart meters, wineries, gourmet chocolates, glass production and pharmaceuticals. He founded Arcstone in 2013, after he had been designing production simulation software for the world’s largest bio-manufacturers. Focused on blending machine and human operations, he developed the Arcstone Operations Platform (arc.ops) to efficiently provide visibility, control and optimisation to a massive range of industries. The platform enables companies to automate, integrate and streamline entire processes within a facility at fractions of market cost. He continues to drive a data-centric manufacturing revolution in Southeast Asia, encouraging like-minded companies to upend the status quo for manufacturing enterprise solutions through the Singapore Manufacturing Consortium (SIMCO). Willson holds a MSc from INSEAD Business School and a BS in Industrial Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Topic: Data-driven Smart Manufacturing: How Data Empower Decisions on The Shop Floor

As the current term chairman of the Smart Automation Industry Group – Singapore Manufacturing Federation, Brandon’s vision is to establish smart automation benchmarking standards and adopt guideline to help manufacturing members speed up their transformation towards achieving smart manufacturing or Industry 4.0 level. As the new chairman for APAC board of MESA International, his objective is to propagate these valuable insights to the APAC manufacturers and introduce the new APAC perspective to MESA to continuously drive towards a better integration of global manufacturing eco-systems. Brandon is working with Intech APAC as director of Product Strategy & Commercialization. Prior to this, he was the country manager of ATS Applied Tech Systems, with 30 years of experience helping customers to redefine the “Smartness” in their manufacturing and assembly systems, is right at the forefront of the Industry 4.0 revolution. He is entrusted with the dream of creating a leading force that propels Asia manufacturing to the Industry 4.0 journey, that eventually saves our earth resources for building a better future.

Topic: Visionary Keynote: Singapore’s Advanced Manufacturing Initiatives “Industry 4.0” – Transforming the City-State into Asia’s Future Manufacturing Powerhouse 

Based in SEA, Jim is Dyson’s Head of Applied Data Science and drives the data engineering program of all products in production – a key part in making Dyson’s machines more intelligent. He joined Dyson in 2012, as Head of Electronics SEA.

Jim graduated from the University of West-Brabant in the Netherlands specializing in Electronics Engineering. The bulk of his career was spent in Philips, the Dutch consumer electronics company, taking on roles ranging from development engineer to senior global project manager.

In 2010, Jim moved to Singapore from the Netherlands. Together with his wife Lyuba, they have a 12-year-old daughter, a 9-year-old boy and a 2-year-old baby boy. In his free time, he spends time with the family and blogs about smart data topics.

Topic: Dyson Digital Motor – One of the World’s Smallest, Fastest Motors

Ashish Dahiya is the Cluster Digital Leader for Tetra Pak as well as the Cluster Portfolio & Category Leader for the Processing Solutions business of Tetra Pak in South Asia, East Asia, and Oceania.

In his role as Digital Leader Ashish is responsible for defining the digital strategy and for driving the implementation of digital initiatives in the region. This includes building digital capabilities, developing new business models linked to Industry 4.0 solutions, as well as driving digital transformation in how Tetra Pak work’s internally and with its customers. He is also responsible for strategy and new business development for Processing Solutions & Equipment business.

Ashish joined Tetra Pak in 2010 as Director Strategic Planning for the Tetra Pak group and was appointed to his current role in 2016. He has more than 18 years of experience in marketing, strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and driving new business growth with multinational companies in USA, Europe, and Asia.

Ashish holds an MBA from IMD (Switzerland), a master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University (USA), and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Electronics engineering from India.

Topic: Tetra Pak Case Study: Visualization Technologies Creating Value in An Industrial Environment

Ms Roxane Desmicht is Senior Director, Corporate Supply Chain (CSC) Asia Pacific for Infineon. Her organization covers the end to end Infineon supply chain with either a regional focus like warehousing or a global focus like product planning. Ms Desmicht is currently spearheading a ‘Smart Enterprise’ program for Infineon Singapore, leveraging on the various Industrie 4.0 elements and was actively involved in the Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index.

Ms Desmicht also sits in the advisory committees of SUTD Engineering System Design pillar and NUS Industrial System Engineering faculty. She is also Director of the Board for the Green Freight Asia association.

Ms Desmicht has an Executive MBA program at the China European International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and a Master in Material Science. She started her career as Product Engineer/ Program Manager within the Thales group, worked a few years in Altis Semiconductor as Front End Yield Manager, as well as several years for Infineon China as Supply Chain Director.

Topic: Smart Factory of the Future Case Study: Infineon transforms its Singapore Plant into a Smart Factory

In his current role, Dennise provides both technical and team leadership to deliver cutting-edge solutions as well as bring about digital transformation in surface enhancement and characterisation for all metallic alloys. He has completed more than five projects (end to end) in aerospace and testing-inspection-certification sectors.

When Dennise first joined ARTC, he focused on technology road mapping and building specific capabilities through equipment acquisition (tendering), hiring, coaching and obtaining accreditations. He co-developed and managed the quality systems that led to ARTC being awarded with ISO17025 accreditation for residual stress, providing ARTC with a significant competitive advantage in Asia Pacific.

International Roundtable Discussions: Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Technology Success Stories and Takeaway Lessons from Key Players in the Region – Singapore

Joseph is currently the Operations Director for PSC Biotech and ISPE Singapore Affiliate President.  Currently he hold a Bachelor’s of Art in Business Management from Kingston University. With over 12+ years experience, Joseph has a wealth of expertise consulting for various Multi-National Pharma and Biotech Companies in US, Canada, Brazil, Singapore & China. He has managed various projects such as C&Q of start up facilities, Cleaning  and Process Validation. Some of his clients are J&J, Roche, AbbVie, Novartis, Merck and GSK.

International Roundtable Discussions: Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Technology Success Stories and Takeaway Lessons from Key Players in The Region

Alex received his doctorate degree in Metal Additive Manufacturing from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore under Professor Chua Chee Kai. In 2010, he was invited as an International Scholar to Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) in Belgium under Professor Jean-Pierre Kruth to work on metal printing. He has since personally worked with various industrial grade materials such as Titanium, Copper, and Aluminum alloys in metal printing and developed a novel methodology for multi-material printing in metal SLM printer. Between 2011 & 2013, he received Young Investigator Innovation Paper award from Ghent University, Belgium and Best Paper Award in the 6th International Conference on Rapid Prototyping in Leiria, Portugal.

He has extensive experience in securing grants and setting up of AM centers (more than 25 printers) as well as post processing facilities. Under his helm, he has secured more than US10M in grants and was involved in setting up South East Asia’s largest 3D-printing facility providing extensive 3D-printing solutions including industrial design for 3D-printing. His vision in metal printing as the future of Additive Manufacturing has driven him to further hone his expertise in metal printing. To date, he has filed 3 US patent applications under his belt for metal printing and its applications. He has a specific know-how to print metal parts that are deemed impossible to print.

Topic: The Current Positioning of Metal Additive Manufacturing & a Look at the Current State of the Industry

Bob Gill is responsible for managing ARC Advisory Group’s business operations and market research activities in Southeast Asia. ARC provides technology research, advisory and consulting services to many of the world’s leading industrial automation and software suppliers as well as to prominent end-user companies in the manufacturing and energy industries.

Bob’s work experience includes engineering roles (total 15 years) at British Aerospace, General Electric Company (GEC), and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech). He also had a decade-long career in industrial technology media as editor of publications including Control Engineering Asia, Industrial Automation Asia and Logistics Insight Asia, and editor-in-chief at Reed Business Information Asia and Contineo Media. 

Bob graduated from the University of Wales in Cardiff, UK, with a BSc in Electronics and an MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering. He also has a MBA from NTU in Singapore. As well as numerous articles for industry publications, he was contributing author to Action Learning Cases in Organisational Behaviour (2004) and Many Ships, One Boat: Expat Tales and Tips (2011).

Dr Lim Chee Wang is Manager of Digitalisation & Analytics at Makino Asia, overseeing Digital Transformation of the company’s operations, in particular Manufacturing.   He had also led the Advanced Technology Development within Makino Asia.  The team was responsible of developing technology capability to enhance CNC machining centres’ performance, ease-of-use and reliability, through the use of sensors, intelligent control and advanced algorithm.  Prior to joining Makino, Chee Wang was a Research Scientist, Team leader of Industrial Robotics and Deputy Group Manager of Mechatronics at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing (SIMTech), A*STAR.  Chee Wang holds a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), an MEng in Robotics from National University of Singapore and an EngD in Precision Engineering from Cranfield University.

Topic: Digital Transformation Journey: Aligning Business Objectives, Technologies and Data

Hong Yee Low received her PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1998.  She spent about 2 years in Motorola Semiconductor Sector before joining the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in 2000.  Her most significant research while in IMRE was in biomimetic nanoimprinting, a topic in which she has co-authored >100 peer reviewed publications and is a co-inventor in 25 granted patents.  In 2010, she launched and led an industrial consortium consisting of 4 institutes of higher learning and 15 international industrial members.    Besides research, she had served as a founding group head for the Patterning and Fabrication Capability Group between 2007-2010 and the Director for Research and Innovation between 2010-2012.  Since joining SUTD in 2013, her research in biomimetic nano-surfaces has expanded to 3-D fabrication, from passive to active surfaces and boosted design-centric approaches.

Topic: The Frontiers of Digital Design and Manufacturing: How the New Era of Manufacturing Will Be Enabled by Highly-Integrated Digital Advances  

Luc has been working in Engineering in the Aerospace sector for 12 years.

In October 2017, he joined Rolls-Royce Singapore as the Programme Manager for Smart Manufacturing.

The Smart Manufacturing Joint Lab Programme was established in September 2017 by Rolls- Royce, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Singapore Aero Engine Services (SAESL) to push the boundaries of industrial, academic and business partnership.

The S$60 million programme focuses on developing next-generation aerospace manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capabilities enabled by advanced processes, automation and digital technologies. Tapping the capabilities of A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre’s Model Factory, the Joint Lab is supported by 120 staff across all three organisations.

Prior to Joining Rolls-Royce, Luc worked for A*STAR as a Senior Project Manager. He managed several projects with Industrial Members of the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), and drove the construct of a new Public-Private Programme which was to become the Smart Manufacturing Programme with Rolls-Royce.

Luc also spent 4 years in France working for Safran Helicopter Engines where he was responsible for the transfer of an Engine Programme from Rolls-Royce to Safran following a sale. That involved transferring 30 years’ worth of Engine design and development information, as well as all the available hardware (Engines, spares, machines, tooling, fixturing). This 4-years project was completed on time and on budget.

Following his graduation, Luc was hired and trained by Rolls-Royce on their Engineering Graduate Leadership Programme and spent the first 7 years of his career working for Rolls-Royce in various Engineering roles and locations including the UK, Scandinavia and the US.
He has a Master of Engineering from the National Engineering School of Metz, France.

Topic: Rolls Royce Smart Manufacturing Program: Creating Tomorrow’s Technological Solutions

Fenny is a passionate and inquisitive leader, currently leading Operations Excellence in one of Sinarmas transformative business units – Bizzy Distribution. With experience in FMCG Supply Chain in Indonesia and SEA, Fenny defines supply chain strategies and implementation to achieve organizational goals. In her previous job in Unilever, she also has managed various transformation projects in planning, manufacturing and logistics.

Born in Indonesia, she returned to Indonesia after completing her scholarship studies in NTU and working in Singapore. Infused with her love to problem solve, she has found her passion in driving digital transformation for Logistics, right at the time when Indonesia is ripe for it.

Topic: Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food Case Study: How one of Indonesia’s Largest Integrated Agribusiness Company Embraces Supply Chain Transformation and Digitalisation

Peter has completed his EMBA in May 2017 from Rutgers Business School, the Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. His proficient is in Manufacturing Engineering has a total of 28 years in Manufacturing Industry and the 13 years is working in Fong’s Engineering till present.

In 2006, he joins Fong’s and set up the Programme Department and back then was the first time that Fong’s been adopting the Programme and Project Management. During his tour of duties in Fong’s, he has been in Production before setting up the Assembly facility for Medical Device in 2007. In Sales & Marketing as well serving all the customers need directly in the front line bringing in several businesses contributing to the customer satisfaction and company growth.

Today, he is back into his original function role in Programme and Project management with an additional task of identifying, coaching to develop the Leaders for Tomorrow.

Topic: Incorporating Industry 4.0 into Your Organization’s Strategy: Gaining Organization-wide Buy-in 

Jay Jason joined MFS as Strategic Procurement Director on Oct 09, 2018. He has over 28 years of work experience in the Global Electronics Manufacturing industry, particularly in the top-notch EMS sectors.  Prior to joining MFS, Jay Jason was the Global Strategic Supply Chain Director of Flextronics International. He has wide exposure in the areas of B2B, and E2E supply chain solutions and implementation involve countries include Brazil, Mexico, Hungary, USA, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. He holds a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Business Finance management from the University of Northumbria (UK). An Advanced Diploma in International Supply Chain Management, SIMM, Singapore. A Diploma in Material Management, (SIPMM, Singapore), and he has completed a two years Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK). He will be graduating in Sept 2019.

International Roundtable Discussions: Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Technology Success Stories and Takeaway Lessons from Key Players in The Region

Intercultural and international minted People Manager and Director with technical skills in database, Big Data, SAP technologies as well as manufacturing Applications. Running bigger multi-national projects with team members in different time zones (USA, EU, AP) is a big challenge but manageable. IoT and Industry 4.0 are Christian’s new passion since he moved into his new position at responsible for IT and Factory Integration on our large manufacturing site Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia. Believing new Big Data technologies can help us to explore data in different ways.

International Roundtable Discussions: Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Technology Success Stories and Takeaway Lessons from Key Players in the Region – Malaysia