SIA Engineering Company

[specuvestor]

Thanks guys. Looks like SIE dropped the ball on this industy wide structural change. LLC has changed the landscape that with enough volume they realise they can acquire the skills to do their own MRO which was outsourced to specialists in the past

[blackclock]

Without MRO, looks like the aviation service sector is going downhill. Rolls Royce is not producing many high quality research jobs here. Most jobs at their Seletar facility are technician, assembling the engine. Those jobs can be easily replaced by cheaper locations like Thailand. Lockheed martin is helping Thailand to build up their aviation sector.

[dreamybear]

Yes, indeed.

I worked with the airline MRO sector before, most of the technicians are Malaysian Chinese(I think it may be the same for car workshops). Relatively, there are only a couple of S'poreans who worked in the white collar jobs(e.g. HR, Accts etc).

Even though SG may be a MRO powerhouse, the actual skillsets are not with the SG citizens. It is pretty much the same in other sectors I worked in, where S'poreans are few and far between amongst FTs. It also does not help when S'poreans only desire a managment position for practical reasons(higher pay due to rising cost of living, no need to do technical work, no standby duties => more family time).

SG as a country functions like a high level director / manager with no technical skills in the working world. Purportedly doing management(i.e. ensure everything go smoothly), but in effect, it's just a highly paid co-ordinator job, and easily replaceable in office politics.

SG is all good on the surface(high GDP, 3rd to 1st in 1 generation, world class financial center, etc), but I am not sure whether this economic model is sustainable in the long run.

[specuvestor]

Actually managers that can co-ordinate, integrate, optimise process flows and human resources, plan and strategise for future challenges and opportunities, law abiding prudent not bribe-prone are not that easily replaceable.

It's a natural progression towards service oriented rather than the previous manufacturing or engineering economy. Like I wrote on the SIA thread, if our focus is on being the 1st A380 roll out and the hardware we have, we are in trouble. It is how we make use of the hardware and deliver service and efficient / effective outcome that will be more important. In this case how can we adapt to the LCC requirement or provide better solutions or turnaround time that will change the cost / analysis metrics of the customers.

[blackclock]

dreamybear, thanks for sharing.
I agree with your views. Most S'poreans are lazy, to put it simply. Even presented a chance, most do not want to learn the technical stuff. During lunch breaks, it's often about which job pay best, where got easier method to get pay rise (with least amount of work). Very few people actually interested in Engineering. This explains why there's virtually Zero innovation so far.

S'pore's model is working fine when MNC continue to pump in jobs, cargo ships continue to bunker and tranship, regional countries allow their commodities to be traded here. If China were to disrupt this flow, a vicious cycle will happen. then, we are screwed.

[blackclock]

Malaysia consolidate role as Airbus’s regional hub for helicopter services
Now Airbus has MRO for plane & copter in KL. Further posing challenge to SIA Engin's position.

I think there's an Airbus helicopter plant in Seletar aerospace park. Probably that will get scale down?

https://www.verticalmag.com/press-releas...-malaysia/

Airbus Helicopters opens completion and delivery center in Malaysia

The new CDC will see Airbus’s new helicopters for customers in the Southeast Asia region being completed in, and delivered from this center of excellence, consolidating Malaysia’s role as Airbus’s regional hub for helicopter services, customer support and full-flight simulator training.

Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, officially opened the regional center on Aug. 6.

Speaking at the ceremony, Raymond Lim, head of Airbus in Malaysia, said, “The move to set up a regional helicopter completion and delivery center in Malaysia fully demonstrates Airbus’s unwavering commitment to the country’s aerospace industry, in particular the promotion of Malaysia’s growing industrial footprint across all areas of our business.”

“This expansion is part of our growth plan for the region, and will enable us to provide the best possible end-to-end support to our customers in this fast-growing region, backed by our extensive range of helicopter services,” he added.

The new regional helicopter center can accommodate up to four medium-sized helicopters at any one time. It is capable of assembling and delivering up to 20 helicopters per year from across all its rotorcraft models.

In addition to the new completion and delivery center, the company has also expanded its full motion full-flight simulation center with the addition of a Dauphin AS365 N3/N3+ simulator to its existing H225/H225M simulator. With two simulators in place, training of pilots and crew from customers in the military, parapublic and civil sectors through the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, can now take place in Malaysia.

[dreamybear]

Actually managers that can co-ordinate, integrate, optimise process flows and human resources, plan and strategise for future challenges and opportunities, law abiding prudent not bribe-prone are not that easily replaceable.

It's a natural progression towards service oriented rather than the previous manufacturing or engineering economy. Like I wrote on the SIA thread, if our focus is on being the 1st A380 roll out and the hardware we have, we are in trouble. It is how we make use of the hardware and deliver service and efficient / effective outcome that will be more important. In this case how can we adapt to the LCC requirement or provide better solutions or turnaround time that will change the cost / analysis metrics of the customers.

Yes, SG needs to move up the value-chain as cost competitivenss is no longer viable. The govt has been heavily promoting Skills Future Credits / Skills Future Programs for workers, but I wonder how successful it is or how the take-up rate is. At the same time, I think there may be a need for a consolidation of SMEs in SG so that they are big enough to compete internationally and not just locally.

The higher skilled strategy jobs are mainly top mgmt(CEO, Directors). If we go down a level lower, perhaps a small Project Mgmt Office(PMO) dept afforded mostly by big MNCs. Even then, most of the time, line managers/executives are asked to perform these roles as "additional" projects, e.g. project representatives from IT, HR, Finance, Supply Chain. If we talk abt SMEs, most of them are too lean to be able to afford any additional headcount.

And if we talk about Business Process Re-engineering(BPR), it's mostly confined to consulting firms like McKinsey, and maybe accounting firms but BPR doesn't seem popular with SG companies.

These higher level jobs are very limited in numbers and hard to come by, so it may not be able to provide enough jobs for S'poreans.

[dreamybear]

Just wondering why is this thread so quiet as I wld think SIA EC offers similar investment merits to SATS (miss the passionate discussion kicked off by buddy sillyivan's comprehensive sharing post   ).

SIA EC's share price has fallen to attractive levels(think below GFC and now at SARS level), and may be rewarding to investors when the Covid-19 pandemic subsides.

[karlmarx]

SATS is quite different from SIAEC.

Generally, all flights which transit in Singapore will require the services for SATS (ground handling, F&B for the long-haul flights) and SIAEC (line maintenance).

While regionally-based planes which stopover in Singapore may use SIAEC's line maintenance service -- SIAEC doesn't get all the business since ST Aerospace is also a competitor -- those which require MRO services on the airframe or components can choose to go to Malaysia, and more possibly, Thailand, where costs are cheaper.

Margins for SIAEC's line maintenance have been trending lower.

Between SATS and SIAEC, SATS looks more likely to at least sustain its business.

[weijian]

hi dreamybear,
Look back into prior SIAEC's thread and you will probably have your answer.

In a sense, SIAEC's glory days are over due to technological changes and OEM encroaching into their spaces. So without this crisis, SIAEC already its own headwind to deal with. Of course, maybe the next tailwind (the new aircrafts get older and need more inspections) will come for SIAEC but I am probably not well-equipped enough to know (maybe ksir might give some comments here?).

That said, It is probably apt to also say that certain things like baggage/cargo handling, security guards and inflight food probably wouldn't change for quite some time?