Innovation Challenges

YCH Group is Singapore’s leading homegrown, end-to-end supply chain solutions partner to some of the world's largest companies and favourite brands across more than 100 cities in the Asia Pacific region. YCH focuses on boosting productivity and sustainability for its customers with its proprietary best-in-class suite of award-winning solutions across industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, electronics, chemical and healthcare, cold chain logistics, and e-Commerce. A strong proponent of innovation, YCH is recognised for its 7PL™ approach in seamlessly integrating supply chain strategy with execution.

YCH’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) department is responsible for all EHS matters and legal compliance in Singapore and other regional sites. The team’s responsibility includes ensuring that daily safety inspections and protocols are duly carried out, investigating accidents, incidents and non-compliance issues, and maintaining safety records for annual audits. Various departments are responsible for different operational safety inspections (e.g. facilities department is responsible for regular inspections to ensure fire safety). Before each inspection, YCH’s staff has to print a physical inspection form and checklist that guide the inspection procedures. The forms are then filed for audit purposes.

When safety incidents, accidents or near-misses occur, the department involved informs EHS either through email or Whatsapp messages. EHS carries out investigations with the department, which could involve going onsite to take photos and conduct interviews with staff involved in the incident. EHS may also conduct a manual check to review if the necessary inspections have been carried out by the department. EHS and the department discuss and co-develop corrective action plans with corresponding timelines. Based on the investigations and discussions, the department completes the safety incident form (either a physical form or on Microsoft Sharepoint) and submits it to EHS, which vets the form and manually assigns a case number. EHS informs the relevant departments on the corrective actions and timelines, and subsequently follows up with each department individually to ensure corrective actions are completed within three months (as per ISO requirement). The incident can only be officially closed by EHS when all corrective actions have been completed.

The solution should be an automated reporting and monitoring system that is easily accessible via a mobile app, and provides end-to-end visibility of all safety inspections, issues and incidents.

The solution should consider the following:

● Integration with Current Processes: The hardware solution must be able to be integrated with YCH’s current software application (which runs on Android operating system and web browser) with real-time syncing to WX3. YCH is open to hardware such as tablets, smartwatches, wrist scanners, ring scanners, or other kinds of hardware.

● Cost Effectiveness: The proposed solution should minimally be as cost-effective as existing RF scanners, ideally more.

Shiseido Company, Limited is a publicly-listed Japanese MNC cosmetics company which develops, manufactures and retails skincare, makeup and fragrance products. Shiseido Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. was established in Singapore in 2015 as the regional headquarters, including for innovation, for APAC, including Korea, Taiwan, ASEAN and Oceania. Its brands including SHISEIDO, Clé de Peau Beauté, NARS, Drunk Elephant, ELIXIR, ANESSA and d program.

Shiseido’s mission is to create “beauty innovations for a better world”. It constantly strives to leverage its brands, products and innovations to create meaningful interactions and experiences to enrich the lives and experiences of consumers. With the rising trend of online shopping, Shiseido sought to meet consumers’ needs by offering online beauty consultations through a chatbot. The current chatbot is only able to provide template answers to consumers’ queries on skincare and products (based on static data input and metadata tagging) and book consultations with actual beauty consultants to receive tips and tutorials. If there are questions it is unable to answer, it will refer them to the actual beauty consultants.

However, Shiseido noted that due to the lack of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, the current chatbot lacks interactivity and the ability to mimic real-world, dynamic conversations with consumers akin to conversational commerce. For any enquiries outside the standard list, consumers would still need to book an appointment with Shiseido’s actual beauty consultant, which is dependent on availability and leads to an increase in Shiseido’s labour cost. The team is thus seeking to enhance the experience of virtual beauty consultation using AI.

What are we looking for?

A human-like, AI-powered virtual beauty consultant that can hold conversations and interact with online consumers.

There are no restrictions on the geographical location of the problem solvers who may choose to apply to this challenge.

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The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) operates from four airbases in Paya Lebar, Tengah, Changi and Sembawang. The 807 Squadron is an Aircraft Operational Maintenance Squadron in Paya Lebar Airbase, responsible for servicing and maintaining the RSAF’s F-15SG multi-role fighter aircraft. The squadron personnel comprise Regulars, full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) and National Servicemen (NSmen) who may need to work odd hours to maintain the squadron’s operational readiness.

Currently, majority of the personnel in 807 Squadron do not have personal vehicles. This poses a challenge for them to access their respective work areas within the airbase, especially in bad weather. The distance between the airbase entrance and various work areas could be up to 3-4 km, and walking within the airbase can be hampered in bad weather due to a lack of shelter and uneven terrain. This has resulted in personnel being late for their work and extended work hours for those in the previous shift. To overcome this, personnel use commercial messaging applications to arrange with other colleagues who have personal vehicles to pick them up at a pick-up point near the airbase’s entrance.

For those unable to secure transport arrangements, there are a few options for them to reach their work areas. Besides the option of walking unsheltered, servicemen may be able to hitch a ride on pre-arranged military vehicles. They could also attempt to flag down other personal vehicles at the pick-up point or on their way into the airbase.

What We Are Looking For

The prototype solution should allow all servicemen to conveniently plan their journey to/from/within the airbase.

There are no restrictions on the geographical location of the problem solvers who may choose to apply to this challenge. However, there must be a branch/team based in Singapore as the prototype must be demonstrated in Singapore.

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The Ascott Limited (Ascott) is a Singapore company that is one of the world’s leading international lodging owner-operators. Ascott's portfolio spans more than 190 cities across over 30 countries in the Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the USA. Ascott has more than 70,000 operating units and about 51,000 units under development, totaling more than 121,000 units in over 770 properties. Ascott’s brands include Ascott The Residence, The Crest Collection, Somerset Serviced Residence, Citadines Apart’hotel, and lyf.

Ascott launched a Discover Ascott Star Rewards (ASR) mobile app in October 2020, which has been download by more than 200,000 users. The app gives users access to exclusive promotions and perks, facilitate reservations of lodging and facilities, check-in on mobile, in-stay requests and more. Users can earn rewards points as part of the Ascott customer loyalty membership programme when they stay at any ASR participating serviced residences and hotels. These points can be used to offset in-room purchases, and other facility services. On average, these users engage with the app twice a year to make their bookings with Ascott, and there are 2,000 to 3,000 daily active users.

What We Are Looking For

Ascott is looking for a proposed gamification solution, which should be engaging and delightful enough to attract users. The proposal should demonstrate how the experience is gamified for one or more traveler profiles (i.e., business executives, families, or digital natives).

There are no restrictions on the geographical location of the problem solvers. However, the prototype must be demonstrated in Singapore.

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