Find out how Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd leveraged on the WorkPro Job Redesign to maximise the potential of their workforce.
With more people cooking at home, frozen meals and finger foods are increasingly becoming staples in household fridges. Brands such as BIBIK’S CHOICE, EASY CHOICE and U1 cater to Singaporeans’ need for quality taste and convenience, such as offering breaded items which consistently live up to expectations of a crispy, flaky texture which holds up to three hours.
These brands belong to Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd, a HACCP and Halal certified food producer founded in 1985. Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd is an established player in the frozen food product industry and is well-known for using innovative methods in perfecting tasty recipes for frozen meals and finger foods. Among its popular products are tempura chicken, breaded chicken, barbecue patties, fish nuggets, and spicy fish patties.
Amy Goh from Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd said, “Preparation methods are researched extensively to ensure that our customers and their families can enjoy our products at its best. With Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd, customers get to experience the ease and convenience of ready-to-cook meals without compromising on taste and quality.”
With a total of 60 workers, of which half are local workers, the company’s workforce continuously improves and upgrades their knowledge and processes to meet the changing demands and challenges of the market. Together, they aim to deliver quick and delicious meal solutions to customers while adhering to the highest regulatory standards.
To achieve this, Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning system to automate the whole company. It also tapped on the WorkPro Job Redesign funding via NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) to implement an Insulation Box with Refrigeration System. This new system helped the company in creating physically easier, safer, and smarter jobs for its local workers aged 50 years and above.
“We came to know about the WorkPro Job Redesign Initiative through the SME Centre and came into contact with e2i through their referral. Jia Hui from e2i is always efficient in her works and is always ready to help us whenever we need,” Goh shared.
The new Insulation Box with Refrigeration System replaced the old refrigeration system for delivery trucks.
The old system was unproductive as workers, who were mostly older workers, had to unload the packed goods from the centralised production kitchen into the cold room first, then arrive two hours earlier to re-transfer to the refrigerated truck the next morning for delivery. Workers had to return to the kitchen and repeat the process twice more during the day due to size limitations of the truck. There was also a lack of storage area which slowed down Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd’s production.
The new system integrates an insulation box with a refrigeration system into trucks, using an electrical standby unit which allows the truck’s storage to be constantly cooled without the need to start the car engine. Workers only need to load the necessary orders required for several deliveries in one shot, which means they do not have to waste time reporting earlier just to load the goods using the old system.
In terms of productivity, it used to take three people 40 minutes and three trips to load and deliver one day’s worth goods in the old system, whereas with the new system, it only takes one worker ten minutes and one trip to load the same amount of goods for the day’s delivery.
This is great because workers can avoid the need to make repeat trips back to the warehouse to transfer foods, which enables them to beat the morning traffic. There are fewer safety risks such as tripping over, bumping into colleagues or having goods falling over due to rush in the morning to load goods. Workers also don’t need to climb in the trucks as often to arrange the goods repeatedly.
With trucks doubling up as storage space, Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd has more space to produce more goods and its productivity per square metre area was better utilized. The workers now have more time to plan the delivery route and assist other colleagues if needed. They also are freed up to chat and build relationships with customers by upselling and cross-selling products. Not only did workers benefit from better jobs, several older workers aged 50 and above enjoyed a wage increment due to their higher productivity.
This ability to deliver goods faster enabled Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd to have the capacity to introduce a work life balance policy to benefit workers. On the company’s future plans, Goh said that “We are always looking to invest in technologies and machines to improve our business and operations. We also have planned to sell our products in more convenient places through vending machines. Adding on, we will bring our products to international markets such as Thailand, China and Indonesia. This might be done through appointing a master distributor in that market or focusing on exporting.”
For more information on Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd, visit https://sinlihin.com.sg/
