ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION

Launched in 1974,Armstrong steadily grew into a leading provider of noise, vibration, heat and safety management solutions, serving diverse markets across the automotive, electronics, industrial, medical and healthcare industries.The company is the only fabricator in Asia that offers 10 core precision engineering technologies in the foam, elastomer, film and adhesive product applications. It employs 3,200 people and operates 18 plants across seven countries.

Market volatility has significantly disrupted the company’s customers and supply chain throughout 2020, with some consequences that are still being felt until today, admits Phyllis Ong, Group CEO.“Nevertheless, our team and leaders have demonstrated agility and nimbleness.” As a result, Armstrong not only managed to sustain its size and profitability, but it also raised the trust level and market share with key customers as it continued to deliver despite difficult challenges.“The trust level among internal stakeholders has also increased as our leaders learn to work closer with each other, and trust each other’s business judgements and capabilities,” Ong observes.

PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY

Throughout the turbulent months, Armstrong had to adapt its resources according to market, customer, and supply chain needs. With delivery to customers as top priority, it decided to absorb some manageable risks in order to provide comfort and support to customers.“We believe that this crisis has actually been a good test for our customers – to demonstrate that they can truly depend on us during and after a crisis,” Ong surmises.

“We have always strived to be a lean enterprise moving towards Industry 4.0,” she reiterates, “so, during the crisis, we continued to invest and pursue our automation and systemization initiatives to attract and retain the best customers who drive innovation in their respective fields. Due to the desirability of our customers’ strong brands and products, we focused on supporting their needs effectively instead of being conservative.”

Armstrong has been gearing diversification to medical and healthcare industries while strengthening its current automotive, electronics and industrial businesses. In the past couple of years, many of its factories are certified with ISO13485 standards that are essential to serving medical and healthcare customers, Ong shares.“This is a natural evolution aligned to global trends of growth of middle income and ageing populations, as well as a more educated workforce, especially in Asia.As an agile organization, we need to evolve with market needs and serve the areas which most need our innovation, products and services.”

INVESTMENTS IN MANPOWER

Last year, Armstrong invested in attracting more capable leaders to prepare itself for a strong growth after the crisis. “No crisis would last forever,” Ong reasons, “so we evaluated what our long terms needs were and recruited many new senior leaders to be part of our exciting growth journey.”

Meanwhile, it embarked on a re-training program, which Ong sees as essential “to better align and calibrate our people’s understanding and capabilities (in order to) we can all stay relevant for the future”. Ong lauds the Singapore government’s efforts in providing subsidies to encourage such necessary activities. “It has done a wonderful job. Not only do our people get to take on new projects but they also get to select interesting workshops from globally renowned universities to pick up new skill sets, with good subsidies from the government. Essentially, the organizations pay less to learn more and do better in the long run.”

BROADENING THE DELIVERY

Armstrong has started working with clinicians and medical professionals in hospital settings in order to deepen its understanding and capabilities to serve the medical and healthcare industry better, Ong reveals.

It stems from the company’s passionate objective to become an expert in the medical and healthcare industries.“We recognize that clinicians and medical professionals who have direct experience and knowledge of the patients’ needs would appreciate a business partner who believes in experimenting with them, and could support their development of superior solutions even if the initial volume is low. This is an investment which we believe firmly in and will continue to drive efforts to be a competent and supportive development partner to clinicians and medical professionals.”

Armstrong has forged partnership with well-established hospitals and private clinics, meeting with their representatives over video calls as well as occasional physical meetups when necessary. “While we continue to drive digital transformation throughout our organization, we still need to engage beyond digital to be effective as human-to-human connectivity is equally important ,” On gs tresses .“Although digital tools are doubtless very helpful in facilitating and enabling productive and good work.”

OUR NEW BEST

Having survived a turbulent year, Ong has set her sights on three important changes that she plans to implement in the company .“Preparing my organization for a brighter, exciting and inspiring future is my job,” she affirms. She is bent on transforming Armstrong in the areas of human resources, digitalization and innovation, and enterprise growth in the medical and healthcare market.

“THIS CRISIS HAS ACTUALLY BEEN A GOOD TEST FOR OUR CUSTOMERS–TO DEMONSTRATE THAT THEY CAN TRULY DEPEND ON US DURING AND AFTER A CRISIS.” –PHYL LI SONG

INGRAINED SERVICE ETHOS

“Foundationally, our core business should serve our customers and also global communities. Specially as we gain greater strength and traction in the medical and healthcare market, we can do more good with accessible and high quality products for millions of people around the world in need of better care.

“Corporate social responsibility is important as an organization becomes strong and sustainable so we engage in such activities regularly. Understanding and respecting that our enterprise can do well and do good concurrently also help our staff feel positive about the company. For example, during this crisis, we designed and sold millions of reusable masks, and we also donated more than three million masks to do our part to help,” Ong concludes.