ST Engineering Annual Report 2020

CORPORATE OVERVI EW PERFORMANCE REVI EW SUSTAINABI L ITY CORPORATE GOVERNANCE F INANCIAL REPORT Technician checking on an engine nacelle, which is a key growth business for the Group more nimble and productive when the market recovers. Our smart solutions are either developed in partnership with vendor-partners or in-house innovations that leverage our expertise in unmanned systems and engineering. One of these innovations is DroScan, which allows us to use drones to carry out General Visual Inspection during aircraft maintenance. We are the first in Singapore to receive authorisation from CAAS to employ unmanned solutions for such a purpose, and we intend to use it not only for our own MRO operations, but to also support our customers. The application of smart technologies does not stop at our MRO operations; we aim to deploy robotics extensively in our OE manufacturing and freighter conversion operations as well. For instance, we are automating the floor grid drilling process of freighter conversion, a manual job that typically takes over 45 days, to improve efficiency. We will continue to explore how to automate low-mix, high-volume production systems so that we can do more with less, and return greater value to our customers. Maintaining Customer Focus Customer focus remains a top priority in everything we do. We are a close partner of our customers, and are ready to support them as best as we can to confront the challenges that the aviation industry is facing. As the industry strives to get back on its feet, we continue to support our customers in all their maintenance needs to keep their fleet operation-ready so that they can respond quickly to changes in the market. We will also work closely with longstanding customers who may be facing a cashflow constraint situation to ensure that their maintenance needs are taken care of at all times. Strengthening Capabilities in OEM and MRO Using the strengths we possess as an integrated aviation solutions provider, we are able to bring unique and bespoke solutions to the market that no pure OEM or MRO provider can. For instance, we can provide a solution that involves both converting and leasing a freighter that meets an operator’s specifications by leveraging the expertise that we have in both aircraft leasing and freighter conversions. We will continue to build on our diversified yet complementary aviation capabilities so that we can develop more innovative solutions to meet our customers’ evolving needs. With the addition of a portfolio in the design and manufacturing of nacelles, we have grown significantly as an OEM. Apart from serving as a growth and revenue driver, the OE manufacturing business plays a complementary and synergistic role to our MRO capabilities, which we continue to build upon. This can be seen in our expansion of MRAS’ aftermarket capabilities in nacelles, which allows us to grow into a nacelle centre of excellence that OEMs and operators can leverage for integrated solutions and services. Looking ahead, we will continue to grow our OEM and MRO capabilities, and strive to be a world-leading OE manufacturing and MRO solutions provider. 43 ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 20 /