INSPIRING SUCCESS STORY

Tritan AMS: Unifying the organisation

through a shared goal with

SP’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

Key Highlights:

• Unifies and converges three separate companies’ cultures to one
• Fortifies collaboration among employees with a shared goal
• Develops a comprehensive five to ten-year business plan through workshops with managers across departments

Enterprise Profiles

Tritan AMS (Tritan) is a family-owned business in the advanced manufacturing sector. Founded 40 years ago, Tritan’s mission is to “make things better.” Today, the company offers a range of services including 3D printing, laser metal cutting, and even builds and sells machinery.

Tan Ru Ding, Managing Director at Tritan

Problem Statement

While the business has been around for decades, it was only in 2022 that the name Tritan was coined, upon merger of three separate companies into one. This meant that the organisation needed to streamline its operations and overall company culture. “Bringing together three separate companies that have been run independently for years is no easy feat,” says Tan Ru Ding, Managing Director at Tritan. “We needed to get everyone strategically aligned and to start collaborating more with one another.”

Impact Achieved

Singapore Polytechnic’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre (SP-AMC) brought together managers from across the company to undergo a full programme that would spearhead the organisation’s vision in the years to come. “We didn’t have a company direction prior to the engagement, and SP-AMC really brought people together through a unified mission,” shares Tan. “It’s a great achievement to see everyone working together with a shared goal and refreshing to see employees across the company challenging the upper management from time to time – something that had never happened in the past – so we keep each other accountable.”

To ensure that employees’ daily workflow were not interrupted by the programme, the more intensive planning stages that took place twice a week were held at the Tritan office. This allowed employees to easily tend to their work when they were needed.

According to Tan, engaging SP-AMC to run the programme was one of the best decisions made because SP-AMC could relate to the challenges that local small and medium enterprises (SME) face. “SP-AMC not only has deep knowledge and expertise in the field, but also understands the local context and various nuances of the industry, making their approach to the programme very relatable and relevant.”

He adds that the sessions were very down-to-earth and practical in nature, which made it a lot more palatable. “SP-AMC sent people with mechanical engineering backgrounds which was great, because they all spoke the same lingo,” Tan explains.

SP-AMC’s perspective

Through the SP Company and Workforce Transformation (CWT) project, AMC sat with Tritan to fully understand its objectives and the journey it has been through as a company, before laying out a plan. “Our approach is to meet organisations where they are, and support them in their transformation journey,” explains Dr KK Lee, Centre Director at SP-AMC.

Tritan’s use-case was unique as it involved bringing together three companies, and a lot of work was centred around building a new culture where every employee was heard and valued. “When organisations merge, there can be conflicts that arise due to the different ways of thinking, and our goal was to pull together the strengths of each company, and help Tritan streamline their mission. We also sat with the team to collaboratively build a five to ten-year plan,” explains Dr Lee.

Through this experience, both Tritan and SP-AMC have also formed an ongoing working relationship, which would enable both teams to check-in with each other from time-to-time. “It’s been a real pleasure working with Tritan as they continue to set an example for many local SMEs across Singapore on the importance of training. I believe we will continue our collaboration for many years to come, as we continue to learn from one another,” says Dr Lee.