Meet Don Teng – the driving force behind OMRON APAC

Based in Singapore, Mr Don Teng is a veteran in the Factory Automation industry, with over 30 years of experience. Earlier this year, Mr Teng was appointed Managing Director of OMRON to oversee the business throughout the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. He recently visited Sydney for the unveiling of OMRON Oceania’s new trading name “OMRON Automation and Robotics” and to celebrate OMRON’s global long-term vision Shaping The Future 2030 (SF 2030). In this interview Mr Teng explains how this innovative long-term strategy plan will benefit OMRON customers in the APAC region.

Firstly, congratulations on your new appointment as OMRON Managing Director for the APAC region. Tell us a little about your background and experience? What are some of your greatest career achievements to date?

My professional journey started as an Equipment Engineer with a Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing company in 1991 before taking on the role as Sales Application Engineer. I have long been fascinated by the world of industrial automation technology, and its potential to transform manufacturing, With a strong passion for automation, I was eager to learn about other aspects of the business and later joined OMRON where I took on several different roles over the span of 15 years including product management, marketing, and eventually management. Inspired by the concept of creating harmony between men and machines, I am a strong advocate for workplace safety and the protection of employees who work with machines. In recent years, I have also been involved in the development of new innovative automated packaging solutions for FMCG manufacturers in Indonesia. This has enabled them to become more sustainable through innovative ways of recycling and the reduction of packaging materials.

What is OMRON's long-term vision for APAC?

Based on our global vision for the industrial automation business – “Enriching the Future for People, Industries and the Globe by Innovative Automation” – we aim to translate it in the APAC region by working together with the customers and partners to solve the issues of the manufacturing industry.

Strongly believing in creating human-machine harmony at the shop floors, we will continue to bring in advanced ILOR+S (Input, Logic, Output, Robotics and Safety) solutions based on our futuristic concept of innovative-Automation for solving innumerable issues at the shop floor ranging from productivity to quality, speed and safety.

Our long-term vision – Shaping The Future 2030 (SF 2030) – takes into cognisance the fast changing, dynamic, diversified, and complex world of manufacturing led by Industry 4.0 & digitisation in the APAC region. We believe that with our unique automation capabilities based on human machine harmony, we will be able to contribute towards creation of sustainable and innovative factories coexisting with the environment and wellbeing of people.

How can automation and robotics help to create more sustainable supply chains?

From replacement to collaboration, the manufacturing world has been witnessing a significant transition in the human-machine relationship over the last few decades. One of the primary characteristics of this evolution is the merging boundaries between factories and society necessitating the transition from collaboration to “harmony between people and machines” in the manufacturing sector.

With climate changes and unprecedented situation like Covid in tow, consumption orientation is getting replaced with sustenance orientation. The makers are now pondering over social needs, more than ever, rather than only industry and production-based needs. All this, in turn, is demanding the data efficiency driven systems to do more by transitioning to knowledge driven systems thus delivering more sustainable results and sustainable entities.

OMRON’s key objective is to improve manufacturing and supply chain operations appropriately and effectively so that it supports a sustainable society.

Sustainability is a key focus of OMRON’s SF2030 long-term vision. How will customers benefit from these initiatives?

OMRON is a company that listens to its customers. We work closely with our clients to improve their sustainability. One area we are now focussing on is the concept of waste reduction and recycling. For example, we help customers by providing more sustainable packaging materials for their manufacturing operations. Packaging is harmful to the environment. By reducing the amount of packaging materials or by using bio-degradable materials we help customers to improve their sustainability and save costs. Helping customers reduce their energy consumption is another key focus. We can give manufacturers the tools to effectively monitor their energy efficiency. And we work with them to ensure their machines and systems are more energy efficient. The end result is increased production and a significant reduction in downtime and operating costs.

As highlighted in our SF2030 long-term vision, OMRON aims to undertake deployment of Innovative-Automation concept to bring in more technological innovation and enhance respect for the environment too because we believe both are essential for manufacturing and production sites. If we can achieve our goals, we will greatly contribute to a more sustainable future based on harmony between people and machines.

For example, our automation solutions will bring in more productivity and energy efficiency leading to digital transformations that will contribute towards decreasing carbon footprints and enhancing carbon neutrality.

By incorporating automation technology such as robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital process automation into the supply chain, a business will get to reduce the manual, repetitive and hazardous work in turn delivering lot of value to the workflows in terms of enhanced efficiency, productivity as well as creativity.

What are the main challenges now facing businesses in the APAC region?

One of the biggest challenges is inventory shortages and supply chain disruption as a result of the global pandemic.

We are now seeing more companies bringing their manufacturing operations back on-shore – and many of those businesses are now facing severe skills shortages. So, stock shortages combined with skills shortages have become an obvious problem.

How can businesses solve the skills shortage issue in the short term?

Skilled labour is vital in the modern workplace. Manufacturers now have to work smarter through automation. Automation and robotics can help to solve labour shortages in the short term. Of course, automation and robotics is knowledge based, so team members must be highly trained. With automation, re-skilling and up-skilling is vital in the factory of the future. Innovation cannot be successfully achieved without a skilled workforce. Employees should not have to undertake mundane tasks – let machines take over those tasks.

We want employees to do more creative jobs, working in harmony with machines.

What advice do you have for businesses in the APAC region looking to automate?

One of the key challenges is the initial capital expenditure required to make the digital pivot. Although the value that will be unlocked is manifold, the time and cost are primary concerns which holds back businesses from investing in automation and digitisation. This is where OMRON aims to create a difference and bring value by playing the role of a true automation partner, taking a consultative approach to ensure a tailor-made plan to suit an existing facility in the best possible manner. Advance proof of concepts and digitalization would enable our customers to visualize the system and its benefits beforehand enabling any troubleshooting prior to its deployment on site.

Looking ahead at the trends, the manufacturing scenario, within the four-walls, is expected to move towards data and analytics to identify gaps and bottlenecks in operations. Most organisations pursue it actively to seek improvement in productivity and efficiency. With the use of more data analytics and AI inside the factory , we can also expect a very healthy growth in deployment of robotics & AI solutions. For example, in a warehouse it can range from WMS integration (perhaps through cloud) to multiple modes of material transfer (both horizontal and vertical), automated cross-docks, picking, sorting, packaging, more usage of smart 3D vision, deeper exploration into assets traceability using GPS/5G both within and outside the warehouses, etc.

Relying on our level of expertise and overarching knowledge across all key manufacturing sectors, we sense a vast opportunity for OMRON to take deeper plunge and to leverage on these trends.

Finally, why should manufacturers in the APAC region choose OMRON?

OMRON is a forward-thinking company. We believe that automation must be innovative and that is why we are focussing heavily on “innovative-Automation” in our 2030 long-term vision. With over 200,000 products, OMRON can offer its customers total end-to-end automation solutions based on superior product integration. With a global network OMRON works closely with its partners to develop more efficient solutions.