Making the best use of limited industrial space

Source : Business Times - 28 Oct 2008

JTC’s latest innovation is the small-footprint high-plot ratio factory concept. EMILYN YAP reports

AT just over 700 sq km, Singapore has always faced space constraints. But physical boundaries have not curtailed its development. On the contrary, they have fuelled creativity and innovation to make the best use of what land there is.

JTC Corporation is all too familiar with this effort. Responsible for spearheading Singapore’s industrial growth since 1968 - and celebrating its 40th anniversary this year - the agency has long made land intensification a crucial feature of its projects.

Having started as an industrial developer, JTC has certainly thought out of the box when it comes to factories. Concepts such as factories in the sky and factories piled on top of one another materialised more than 10 years ago.

Such innovations are ‘in line with our long-term thrust to optimise land use and enhance land productivity’, the agency’s former chief executive Lim Neo Chian said in 1997.

That year, JTC completed its first ramp-up factories. While these buildings rose a few storeys, occupants on every level enjoyed ground-floor convenience. This was because the ramps allowed trucks to drive all the way to a business’s front door to load and unload.

Encouraged by the positive response to ramp-up factories, JTC followed up with stack-up factories the same year. Compared with single-storey factories, the new buildings stacked factories several levels high, which increased the plot ratio of the land and the efficiency of the site.

Stack-up factories also offered occupants ground-floor convenience. There were ramps wide enough to accommodate even 45-foot container trucks, and two-lane driveways 10 metres across.

Aerial driveways

Ramp-up and stack-up factories are now common features of Singapore’s industrial landscape. But JTC is not resting on its laurels - it is hard at work to improve on previous innovations.

For instance, it is studying how to construct aerial driveways above public roads to connect with stack-up factories. These driveways would allow vehicles to reach second-storey units directly. The agency is working with organisations such as the Land Transport Authority to explore the concept, which could be piloted at Tuas.

Beyond individual developments, JTC has been implementing comprehensive programmes to encourage optimum land use. In 1997 it came up with an initiative called the ‘Industrial Land Plan for the 21st Century’.

Aimed at ensuring a continued supply of affordable industrial land to support manufacturing, the plan involved government assistance to improve land productivity, policy changes to encourage better use of industrial land and measures to aid estate rejuvenation.

As global competition for investments intensifies, JTC’s role has evolved. From building and managing industrial facilities, the agency is turning its attention to master-planning industrial estates, allocating land for industrial use and preparing land with the right configuration of facilities.

To take on these tasks, JTC sold a significant proportion of its flatted factories, stack-up buildings and ready-built assets in July. Not only will the divestment promote a more active industrial property market, it will also allow JTC to focus more on its core functions.

Looking ahead, one of the agency’s key thrusts is to keep maximising Singapore’s limited space. As the agency’s chairman Cedric Foo said at its 40th anniversary dinner in June: ‘We must continually innovate to find new cost and space-saving real estate solutions.’ And this issue is part of the agency’s latest strategic review exercise.

Staying true to this objective, JTC is working on a concept called the ’small-footprint high-plot ratio’ standard factory, which could cater to small and medium-size enterprises. Still under feasibility study, the concept consists of a three-storey standalone factory with a plot ratio of 1.3. The factory would have a floor plate of 400 square metres and a total floor area of 1,200 sq m.

In contrast, JTC’s standard factories today stand at two-and-a-half storeys, with plot ratios ranging from 0.8 to 1.1 and total floor areas of between 1,200 and 4,200 sq m.

The new concept will also have the switch-room on the roof to free up valuable ground-floor space. Existing factories typically have the switch-room on the ground floor.

JTC expects the concept factory to be a ‘win-win’ solution for Singapore and industry. Using less land, it will release useable space. As for its occupants, ‘land rents will definitely be lower than those of the existing standard factory in view of the smaller footprint and therefore smaller land take-up’, said a JTC spokesman.

Customised systems

As JTC pursues land optimisation, it also understands that some businesses prefer larger ground-floor space to move and store goods. The ’small-footprint high-plot ratio’ factory will therefore incorporate simple, efficient and cost-effective materials handling systems.

For instance, there will be a hoisting system going through openings on every floor so companies can move goods into, within and out of the factory. These hoists will replace conventional - and more expensive - cargo lifts.

To reduce outfitting costs for companies that require other types of handling systems, the new concept will come with bolting points and corbels. Companies will not need to obtain structural approval if they use these points to install customised systems.

The ’small-footprint high-plot ratio’ factory concept is aimed at SMEs that require smaller floor areas. And those in light industries may find these factories particularly suited to their needs.

JTC has started seeking industry feedback on the concept to help work out the details.

The idea could also catch on in the private sector. ‘By coming up with this, JTC will help to encourage private developers to adopt such a design for their standard factories’, said a senior property consultant.

But this is not the only project on JTC’s hands. Besides surface land, there is still the sea, air and underground to explore for space.

As JTC’s chief executive Ow Foong Pheng said in her message in the 2007 annual report: ‘In land-scarce Singapore, we need to take a relentless approach to find solutions to continue to support economic growth. JTC will invest more resources in research and development and focus on inventive industrial space solutions that will give us an edge in the global arena.’

Looks like innovation will be going into overdrive at JTC as it looks for more ways to maximise Singapore’s potential.

This is the first of a four-part series brought to you by JTC Corp