b) Introduction

Company Background

Quantum Automation Private Limited (QAPL) was incorporated in Singapore on 3

December 1979. It began with the vision of providing the best technological solutions in the
business of engineering design, system installation, and commissioning and maintenance
services of electrical and mechanical equipment in commercial building controls systems as
well as home automation systems.

From being the pioneers to innovate a cashless Car Parking System to the
implementation of Internet related Building Controls and Automation, we have made a real
impact on improving human conditions and environments. Our aim is to revolutionize
technology even further, making it work for the betterment of all. In short, it strives to
provide a complete comprehensive set of solutions for commercial, institutional, government
as well as residential buildings. This focus has culminated in the creation of cutting edge
intelligent systems that exist in every facet of life. They are a group of professionals with a
great wealth of experience & deep knowledge of industry requirements; we possess the
capability of offering consultants and developers total turnkey solutions for individual
projects from beginning to end.

Initially 52% shares of QAPL was owned by SMB United Limited (which was listed
company in Singapore Exchange SGX, with major businesses in electrical switchgear
manufacturing), then the remaining 48% shares were owned by (a) Ko Sui Hung, (b)
Roberto Gatbonton De Jesus, (c) Chua Yiat Hin, (d) Lim Chin Keong, (e) Ng Cheng Leng,
and (f) Lee Boon Hwa. Then In August 2011, SMB United Limited acquired EDMI Limited
(which was listed in SGX with major businesses in Power Meter manufacturing). On
December 19, 2011, SMB United Limited acquired remaining 48% interest in QAPL, and
then QAPL became wholly subsidiary of SMB United Limited.

In February 2012, Osaki Electric Co., Ltd, Japan (which is listed in Nikkei Japan).
acquired 92.48% interest of the Company (SMB United Limited). Due to organization
restructuring after taken over by Osaki group, QAPL now is whole subsidiary of EDMI
Limited.
 Currently QAPL is operating Quantum Automation (Asia) Pte Ltd (based in Singapore),
Quantum Automation Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd (based in China) , Eswitch Engineering
Pte Ltd (based in Singapore), QA Systems Integration (M) Sdn Bhd (based in Malaysia), and
QA Systems Integration M.E. LLC (based in UAE). The office of QAPL is located at
Woodlands, Singapore; its address is 9, Senoko Drive Singapore 758197.

The following are the major products being supplied by QAPL:

 Intelligent Building Automation Systems
Integrated Security Systems
Soft Addressable Fire Alarm Systems
Public Address Systems
Intelligent Home Automation Systems
Public Display Systems
Automated Blind Systems
Cashless Car Parking Systems
Under Vehicle Surveillance Systems
Public & Lift Display Systems
Laboratories Environment Control
Others

Organizational Structure:

Quantum Automation consists of 9 major departments, namely Sales, Contracts, Finance,

Human Resource, Drafting, Project, Engineering, Service, and R&D. Total number of staff is
203 persons.

The biggest department is Service. It is headed by Service Director. This department has
headcounts of 97 persons. Majority of them are seldom stationed in office, except 2 admin
clerks. Then it is followed by engineering department, It has headcounts of 30 persons. Then
it is followed by Project department, It has headcounts of 32 persons. It consists of Project
Managers and Project Engineers. Sales department has 9 persons (sales managers, sales
engineers, sales support engineers). It is headed by Sales Director. Finance department (6
persons), HR (2 persons), Drafting (4 persons), Contracts (3 persons), and R&D (15 persons)
are usually based in office. Their job functions are based in office. They dont travel out of
office.

c) The purpose of newly proposed system.

Currently, leave application policy is very tedious & manual process, which requires
filling up & submitting leave application form, and discussing with supervisor about position
coverage & work schedules, and gets the supervisors approval signature. Since most of our
staff are stationed out of office most of the time, it is very tedious and wasting a lot time for
them to come back to office to submit leave application. Therefore, a cloud based online
leave application system is required to propose to the management of this company. Every
staff can raise leave application via any internet explorer with internet connectivity on their
computers, notebooks, or mobile phones. The leave application approval can be routed to
their respective supervisors via email notification. This will help to phase out the traditional
manual leave application process, and manage the leave flow of every staff well.

d) Who do you interview? What are their job titles? What are their job functions?
How are their identification of problem statement and your proposed solution? (Include
their business cards as appendix in your report)

In order to understand the frustrations and stumbling blocks in terms of technology that is
holding the company back from achieving greater success, our team conducted interviews
with officers across various departments. There were various issues raised, but one area
which was mentioned by many staff as a time-waster and should be rectified as soon as
possible to enhance efficiency is the manual leave application method. Many staff who are
based at project sites spent time travelling to office on certain days for the sole purpose of
applying for annual leave. The travel time is deemed by many as a major time-waster and
also affects their work at project sites.

The following were the insights shared by the various officers, related to this issue of moving
away from the manual leave application method:

Human Resource Manager

The HR Manager, Mr John Oh shared that almost every day, He received complaints
from staff that they had purposely spent an hour or so travelling to office that day from the
project site, simply because they had to apply for leave the next day. He recognised that this
travelling time is not productive, and felt that an online system, accessible via mobile phones
would be ideal for their company since over 50% of their workforce are based at projects
sites almost all the time.

He also estimated that the duration of unproductive time per month was 100 hours,
spent on this time-wasting travelling, and an additional 50 hours per month was spent by HR
officers in processing the manual leave application forms. If an online system can be
designed that would also enable automated storing into a database, which could directly be
linked to the payroll and income tax tabulation for the company, this would save an additional
50 hours of time for HR department.

As compared to the cost of investing in the new software, Mr John Oh estimated that
the investment would be recouped in terms of staff productivity in less than a year, and there
is an added benefit of staff morale. For example, He cited that her own HR officers have
voiced frustrations many times with regard to the manual paperwork all these while, and
many other staff have been giving feedback to Management that the company is not moving
on with times in this age of fast-changing technology.

Hence, this proposal would be a welcome change and would definitely be a boost to
the companys efficiency and innovative mindset moving forward.

Asst Engineering Manager

Asst Engineering Manager, Mr. Yap Choon Ming shared that he faced challenges with
workers suddenly asking for 2-3 hour time-out when at project sites, giving the reason of
going back to office to apply for leave. He found it hard to allocate such time-outs because
work activities at the site is almost always at a relatively fast paced speed and the project
teams are lean in size, which means that one person makes a key difference.

In addition, as Mr. Yap Choon Ming is the project team supervisor for a few sites, he
has almost 10 employees under his charge. Occasionally, he would need to reallocate his
resources based on his employees leave plans and thus far he has found it difficult to
accurately keep tabs of everyones availability because of the manual system. Hence, there
were times when a project lacked of staff purely due to an oversight of the employees leave
plans, which was already approved earlier. Mr. Yap Choon Ming was very glad when told that
the new proposed system would enable him to view a calendar with his entire teams
availability, updated real-time once applications and approvals are made.

Personally, he would also not need to go back to office unnecessarily with the sole
purpose of approving leave applications, because the new system would enable him to make
approvals via his mobile phone.