Geospatial Power! Chye Thiam Maintenance

In the second of our #GeospatialPower series, we speak to Mr Lim Jo Hann, Senior Vice President of Operations at Chye Thiam Maintenance on how the homegrown company is taking its first step in utilising #geospatial innovation to increase productivity and future proof their business.

Hi Jo, Chye Thiam Maintenance has a big portfolio. In a nutshell, what does Chye Thiam do?

Chye Thiam Maintenance (CTM) is a homegrown company in the environmental and facilities management industry. We started from humble beginnings in 1979 when our founder, Mr. Tan Chye Thiam, was asked to pivot from pig farming to either construction or maintenance. He chose maintenance, and the rest is history!

Today, we are a forward-looking organisation that has established ourselves as one of the largest and highest-ranked environmental services companies in Singapore.

We serve more than 50 clients, including prominent names like Esplanade, Resorts World Sentosa, and Changi Airport Group. We’ve handled significant events like the IMF meetings and Formula 1 races since their inception and continue to do so.

There was recent news on CTM deploying driverless road sweepers in a trial. Can you tell us more about these sweepers?

We are currently in the trial stage, and we hope to deploy two of our autonomous road sweepers at the Marina coastal area by the end of this year.

The road sweepers can operate around the clock under remote monitoring by an operator, enhancing safety and optimising operational flexibility and efficiency.

Safety is of paramount importance to us. Hence, if we were to successfully roll them out on a larger scale, we will still have a driver on board for a start.

Driverless vehicles are still in the exploratory stage in Singapore. Why is CTM pursuing this direction, and what technology do these sweepers use?

CTM is always looking to innovate to stay ahead of our competition. These autonomous sweepers are one of the ways we are utilising technology to automate our services.

In addition to using LiDAR technology, these sweepers utilise Real-Time Kinematics (RTK) enabled by SLA’s SiReNT to manage our fleet with real-time accuracy up to 3-5 cm.

This allows precise positioning, navigation, and tracking.

Other than autonomous sweepers, what other CTM assets do you think SiReNT can be used?

SiReNT can be integrated with AI to gather information about potholes, trees with long branches (which can pose a hazard to buses and other tall vehicles), and other infrastructure.

The idea is to scan the roads to first create a base map. We then scan these routes daily and use change detection for precise updates.

Our road sweepers or even our Combi-trucks that clean the drain inlet chambers go at a slow speed, so there is huge potential to scan in detail for various irregularities.

Photo: Enterprise SG

Sounds exciting! Are there any plans to scale up such automation?

We look forward to expanding our fleet by introducing more autonomous sweepers.

A few years back, we trialled a prototype to automate airport parking bay scrubbers, but the challenge then was visibility. With SiReNT, we can potentially have more precise positioning and navigation, crucial for airport safety and to avoid aircraft collisions.

Currently most of our sweepers are mechanical and manned by humans. We hope to optimise efficiency and reduce labour-intensive tasks by integrating more advanced sweepers into our operations.

Sustainability is big in CTM. How is CTM contributing to this area?

Sustainability is a core value at CTM, rooted in our founders’ principle to never be wasteful.

In our industry, the one thing we have in abundance is waste. With two-thirds of Singapore’s bloobin waste going to our Material Recovery Facility (MRF) at Sungei Kadut, we see a goldmine of resources! How do we then turn them into usable products?

Here, we have established our own circular economy, where we collect and sort waste at our MRF. Our goal is to further enhance our processes by sending recyclables to processing plants and finding innovative ways to reuse them in our operations, such as upcycling plastic bottles into polyester for client souvenirs and converting recycled paper into jumbo toilet rolls for our sites.

In response to growing electronic waste, we also commissioned an e-waste plant in 2021.

What are the top priorities for the organisation in the coming year?

Our top priority is really to future proof our organisation. They say that the only constant is change and it’s true – we must be open to changes. The challenges we face 40 years ago or even just 10 years ago, in contrast to today’s challenges, are very different. 

CTM continuously innovates to keep our competitive edge with new technology and solutions. We also have to ensure our people remain trained and equipped to stay relevant.

Lastly, CTM is three letters. Can you describe CTM in 3 words?

At the risk of sounding boring, I will say ‘Cleaning’, ‘Technology’, ‘Management of Assets”.  These are the three main prongs of what we do at CTM and we are proud of how far we have come today!

SLA’s #GeospatialPower series features companies that utilises SLA’s #geospatial data, technology and infrastructure to enable innovative solutions for a smarter, safter and more sustainable Singapore.