Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

[The article was published in Lianhe Zaobao on 30 June 2024]

 

Summary

The bow of apology for the 2017 Bishan tunnel flooding incident thrust SMRT Chairman Seah Moon Ming, who usually kept a low profile, into the spotlight. Ever since he took over the reins of SMRT, Mr Seah Moon Ming devoted his full attention and efforts to managing the company and bringing about a cultural transformation within the organisation. This includes conducting frequent inspections in the wee hours of the night. Eventually, he led the SMRT team to successfully enhance the rail reliability of Singapore’s two longest-operating MRT lines. This week’s “Zao Ren Wu” column will detail the challenges he has faced in the past seven years and how he introduced and implemented the Japanese management concept of “Kaizen” (also known as continuous improvement).

 

Full Article Translation

“As the situation was grave at that time, I deliberated hard the day before (the press conference) on how we should make the apology so that the public can feel our utmost sincerity and determination in resolving the issues. We needed to seek everyone’s understanding and there was only one chance to do it right,” said Mr Seah Moon Ming.

As he recounted the press conference that took place on 16 October 2017, Mr Seah explained why he decided to bow in front of the camera and apologise to the public, even though he had only assumed the role of SMRT Chairman three months before the flooding incident on 7 October 2017.

In an exclusive interview with Lianhe Zaobao several days ago, he said, "I had to deliver our apology in the most heartfelt way possible, hoping that commuters and the public can accept it. Furthermore, I needed to plead with everyone to grant us a year to work on existing issues. Otherwise, there was no way we could solve the problems.”

In the following year, SMRT implemented "Early Closures and Late Openings" to provide maintenance staff with more time to carry out their work. With the support of the then-Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Khaw Boon Wan and the Land Transport Authority, SMRT devoted all their resources to repairing, updating and upgrading the system.

Mr Seah also implemented the Japanese management concept of "Kaizen" in SMRT, encouraging every employee to strive for excellence in their respective positions. It entails proactively putting forward suggestions to improve daily work processes and environment that will translate to an increase in productivity.

“Kaizen” is a Japanese phrase. It means making small, continuous and gradual improvements. It originated from the management methodology adopted by Toyota Corporation in Japan to make continuous improvements in their production, machinery and business operations.

 

Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

 

“Kaizen” – an integral part of SMRT’s work culture

Mr Seah shared that the word “Kaizen” is widely used by SMRT’s employees today. It has become a way of life for them and is ingrained in the company’s work culture. He likened that to Google being a part of many people’s conversations and lives.

Mr Seah, who just celebrated his 68th birthday about two months ago, talked about how he took a three-month Japanese course in the 1980s, as he was inspired by our founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. At that time, Mr Lee Kuan Yew praised Japan’s organisational philosophy centred on “Zero Defect” and encouraged Singaporeans to learn from it. This sparked an interest in Mr Seah to learn Japanese as a language to give him insights into Japanese culture and the way they think.

Around 1997, he attended a three-month “Kaizen” course under a Japanese master and obtained the “Kaizen” practitioner certification. At that time, he was managing ST Electronics, where he also implemented the “Kaizen” management concept. In 2008, he successfully led ST Electronics to become the first local information and communication system company to achieve a revenue exceeding 1 billion dollars.

Since February 2018, when “Kaizen” was first implemented in SMRT, the company has seen the completion of 8,000 projects and an accumulated cost savings of more than $500 million. Each year, the employees who put forward suggestions will receive a “Kaizen” bonus.

Using the first-generation trains manufactured by Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) as an example, Mr Seah illustrated that a levelling agent had to be applied during the replacement of the train floor mats in 2008. Due to insufficient application of primer, the floor bulged, which could cause commuters to trip.

If they were to contract another company to carry out repair work, it would cost $114,000 per train. To save cost, the maintenance team came up with their own solution to fix the problem. They removed the original levelling agent and then re-laid the floor mats, significantly reducing the spending to only $61,000 per train.

Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

 

Mr Seah who prefers to be hands-on with most things also walks the ground regularly with SMRT Group Chief Executive Officer Mr Ngien Hoon Ping. They often make trips to the train depots and tunnels among other work locations to observe and listen to various “Kaizen” projects submitted by the staff. These visits are also known as “Gemba Walk”. Every year, the two of them would clock around 100 hours on these walks.

"I make it a point to never lecture them when I am on these walks. I observe and listen to their presentations on the ‘Kaizen’ projects they have done, as well as encourage them by giving them a pat on their backs. The “Kaizen” mindset is now a part of SMRT’s culture, and employees are visibly proud of their own projects,” he said.

He has plans to implement Kaizen 3.0 this year, to help employees further excel and scale new heights in their respective domains of work.

"The main purpose of implementing “Kaizen” is to encourage employees to take greater ownership of the work they do. After two years of roll-out, we began to share the cost savings with our employees, so that with the extra income they receive, there is added motivation to do better," elaborated Mr Seah.

 

Lead by example: continuous learning, passing exams for maintenance technicians

Mr Seah also leads by example. Despite the heavy workload, he would make time to study and take courses every year to continuously expand his knowledge.

For example, in 2022, he completed an online course about electric vehicles at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). Each night, he spent two hours past 11 pm to pick up new knowledge about electric vehicles and their charging systems. Within a week, he completed all the courses and passed the maintenance technician exam.

With the rapid advancement of Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Mr Seah also attended classes to learn how to use AI and perform data analysis. SMRT utilises AI in many areas, such as deploying trains based on condition monitoring and knowing the real-time location of affected trains more quickly and accurately, in the event of a train service disruption.

Explaining what motivates and spurs him, he said, "I have high expectations of myself, and I believe in leading by example. I cannot only expect my employees to do things which I am unwilling to do.”

Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

 

After 11 years of hard work, the $2.6 billion renewal project to upgrade the six core systems on the North-South and East-West MRT lines saw its completion at the end of last year. By August 2019, those two lines, which used to experience frequent breakdowns, achieved the target of one million mean kilometres between failures (MKBF) set by the government. SMRT has consistently maintained that level of rail reliability since then.

At the May Day rally this year, then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong lauded SMRT and LTA for improving the nation’s rail reliability in his speech.

Seven years ago, Mr Seah accepted the heavy responsibility at a time when SMRT was plagued with issues. He stepped down from his position as GCEO of Pavilion Energy, which was under Temasek, to focus on tackling the problems SMRT was facing. He also used to be the chairman of the International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore).

At that time, Mr Khaw Boon Wan publicly expressed more than once that he believed, under Mr Seah Moon Ming’s leadership, Singapore’s rail reliability could catch up with the top systems in the world.

When asked why he agreed to join SMRT, Mr Seah revealed that in 2016, during a celebration for those who have their birthday in the month of April, Temasek Chairman Lim Boon Heng gave Mr Seah a "birthday gift" – saying that he hoped Mr Seah would agree to join SMRT.

I thought to myself, “What was he thinking then? "I am already 60 years old (at the time) and was just doing my part to serve the country, rather than look for another job.”

 

Berated for half an hour by a stranger due to frequent train service disruptions

He shared that when he first took office, SMRT had many problems; staff morale was low, and the public had a poor perception of SMRT. Once a commuter at Somerset MRT station berated him for half an hour. The commuter blamed him for the frequent train breakdowns.

Mr Seah said, “I feel the hefty weight of this responsibility resting on my shoulders. Sometimes, the pressure is so great that it feels like it is about to explode. Every day, we are solving problems. It takes resilience and a strong mindset of knowing that we can only succeed. We cannot afford to fail.”

Albeit rail reliability has improved greatly, he remarked that it is impossible to achieve zero MRT breakdowns. He can only promise to do the best they can.

For example, the recent service disruption on the North-South Line in early June was not something within control.  No one expected the lightning to strike the power control box along the tracks near Kranji MRT station and for the new surge arrestor that had only been handed over to SMRT for seven months to fail. According to the prescribed maintenance schedule, the concerned surge arrestor is only due for maintenance the next year.

"Many people, including my wife, tell me to quit while I am still at the peak of my career. Their advice is that since I have fulfilled what I was originally tasked to do, I can now wash my hands off things so that the next time something happens, it will have nothing to do with me... To me, if the country needs me to serve, I will continue. If it no longer needs me, I will quit. I am willing to quit, but I can't propose to quit because of the mentality that people advised me to adopt. That is a selfish idea," he remarked.

This interview came to pass after seven years of trying to arrange for this. Before the end of the interview, Mr Seah emphasised to the reporter multiple times that those achievements are not solely his own credit; they are the result of the hard work of an entire team.

 

Younger brother died in a plane crash, family in grief

Mr Seah Moon Ming came from a humble background and was the eldest in his family. He shared a close relationship with his brother who was four years younger than him. His brother died in a plane crash at the age of 25, leaving the family in deep grief.

His late brother Seah Boon Thong was a President’s Scholar in 1979. He served in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) after graduating from Oxford University. On 25 July 1985, he was operating an A4 Sky Hawk plane during a regular training session. However, the plane engine caught fire and crashed in the Johor Strait. His body was found on the sea three days later.

Mr Seah recounted, “The day before the accident took place, I had dinner with him. Yet the next morning, I received a call telling me that my brother's plane had crashed, and he was missing. I loved my brother very much. In that instant, it came as a huge blow to me. I waited for three days before they found his body and I went to collect him in person to bring him home."

Based on Mr Seah Moon Ming’s understanding, his brother Seah Boon Thong could have chosen to jump off the plane using a parachute when the fighter plane caught fire, but he wanted to fly the fighter plane back to Singapore, instead of letting it land in the borders of Malaysia. However, the plane descended to a low altitude, and he did not have time to escape.

Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

 

The family was heartbroken by the news of his younger brother’s death. Soon after, his father also died of heart attack. Since then, Mr Seah Moon Ming took on the responsibility of supporting his family.

In fact, he secretly worked odd jobs to earn money since he was in primary school. When he received his first salary, he spent 50 cents to purchase a bag of wonton noodles for his mother. He gave bread to his brother and ate the burnt bread crust himself.

Mr Seah Moon Ming’s father came from a city in China called Putian, located in the Fujian province. His father was the 13^th child in the family. When his father was 9 years old, he was thrown onto a boat by his family that sailed to Southeast Asia. He then came to Singapore alone to make a living. When other children were schooling, he peeked through their classroom window to learn how to write by himself, and later on he could even read and enjoy martial arts novels.

Initially, his father opened a bicycle repair workshop with his savings and earned some money from it. Later, his father went back to Putian and got married according to his parents’ will. But not long after, he left his wife in China, gave the money to his parents and returned to Singapore to slog hard. Four years later, Mr Seah Moon Ming’s mother came alone to Singapore, by boat, to find her husband. A year later, she gave birth to him, and then his sister and brother were born.

The family of five applied for a one-bedroom HDB flat in Geylang Serai. Mr Seah said, "At that time, my family was very poor. A single egg with rice would be shared among our entire family. My mother would also add water and salt to a bowl of soup that was bought for a dollar, to go along with some rice and that would be our dinner."

Mr Seah Moon Ming’s father used to be a bus ticket inspector, and later a bus driver. In the early 1950s, his father also served as the acting chairman of a bus union, and he invited the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who had yet to enter politics at that time, to be its legal adviser.

His father also tried to start a business several times. He first opened a bicycle repair shop, then bought and sold motorcycles, and also opened a finance company. He failed many times but each time he failed, he would start all over again. He never gave up. This is the kind of tenacity Mr Seah Moon Ming saw in his father and it shaped him as a person. Mr Seah Moon Ming’s mother is 91 years old this year and she lives with him.

Mr Seah said, "I have been very diligent all my life. My parents are courageous people who have had a major influence on me. My father taught me two things in his life; the first is to live with integrity and have an upright character, and the second thing is to understand what is key in all that I do.”

Photo credit: SMRT Corporation Ltd

 

His passion for engineering since young led to him dismantling alarm clocks to understand how they work

The ticking sound from the movement of hour and minute hands in a clock fascinated Mr Seah as a child.

Growing up, his family was poor, and they did not have money to buy toys. So, he ended up playing with his mother’s alarm clock. He was intrigued by anything that moved. Out of curiosity, he often dismantled the alarm clock to understand how it works, but he could not put it back together afterwards, causing him to be beaten by his mother every time.

Mr Seah, whose background is a professional electronics engineer, had a passion for the field since young. “Engineers don’t like to talk too much, they just want to do the work,” he remarked.

Three years ago, he established the Seah Moon Ming Foundation. It contributes yearly to the bursaries and scholarships distributed by polytechnics, ITE, art schools, and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science school. The aim is to invest in the next generation of engineers, as well as uplift families with low income, so that the kids stand a better chance at succeeding. He also makes donations to Ren Ci Hospital and other medical institutions, in hopes of lending a helping hand to those in need.

This foundation is linked to his wealth management investment plan and is established as his way of contributing back to society. He did not disclose the specific amount.

Mr Seah currently chairs the board of NUS High School of Mathematics and Science and is the ex-chairman of Temasek Polytechnic.

When asked what sparked the idea of ​​setting up a foundation, Mr Seah simply said that as he turned 65 at that time, he wanted to give back to society. Especially since it was through a scholarship awarded by the Defence Science Organisation (DSO) that he obtained his master's degree in the United States.

He chuckled and said that if he was not an engineer, he would be an entrepreneur, like his father, to create products that benefit people.

Mr Seah has four patents applied under his name, including an infrared thermo-scanner used during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) period, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag used for library book and shelf management system, a remote Aircraft Interior Monitoring System from the ground and the early mobile phone micropayment system.