Thales Digital Factory expands to Singapore

Thales has announced the addition of Singapore to its Digital Factory network to accelerate innovation and digital transformation for the Group and its customers, in Asia-Pacific. Known for its technology investments, vibrant ecosystem and connectivity, Singapore is a prime destination for innovation to thrive. The country is building an environment to spur Singapore-based companies to innovate and believes that digital investments can help Singapore capture value and create new opportunities. The Digital Factory in Singapore will allow Thales to leverage its innovative services in aerospace, space, ground transportation, defence and security.

Thales Digital Factory was launched in July 2017 in Paris as a fully-fledged internal digital company whose mission is to accelerate the digital transformation of Thales and its customers. It has been expanded to Montreal in April 2018 and already hosts more than 230 experts in digital technologies (Cloud, Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, …) and methods (design thinking, lean start-up, agile software development) to develop innovative products in close collaboration with future users... The Digital Factory delivers first version of those new digital services in a few months to quickly test operational and business value, through Minimum Viable Products (MVP). With already 15 MVPs delivered within a year in domains such as air traffic management, avionics equipment repair, drone operations, airport passenger experience, maritime traffic, metros maintenance, the Digital Factory allows Thales’ customers to quickly experiment new solutions at a fast rate to improve their operations and customers experience.

“The Digital Factory network will play a crucial role in shaping innovation across industries and markets and will allow organisations to capture those opportunities at a rapid rate,” said Olivier Flous, Vice-President Digital Transformation and Digital Factory of Thales. “The opening of the Singapore centre brings us closer to our Asia-Pacific customers and partners, to foster closer collaboration in addressing the challenges local organisations face. Beyond capitalising on the strong innovation landscape, we also hope to develop and deepen the talent pool of digital specialists in Singapore, making us a true partner to the innovation ecosystem in the country.”

“The launch of Thales’ Digital Factory is testament to Singapore’s digital capabilities and innovation capacity to target the growing business opportunities from the region. Thales’ first Digital Factory in Asia also serves as an example of how industrial companies are riding the digitalisation wave, and creating exciting jobs for Singaporeans in specialised areas such as data analytics, cybersecurity, machine learning, and software application development,” said Mr. Tan Kong Hwee, Executive Director, Capital Goods & Mobility, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

Digital Factory in Singapore is expected to house a team of 30 experts by 2019, including data scientists, software engineers, designers, scrum masters and cybersecurity experts, recruited internally and externally, with the intention to at least double in size over the next 3 to 5 years. It represents over 20 million euros of investment over the next five years.