Chang Cheng Group Pte Ltd is a food and beverage company that was founded in 1994 as a single economic mixed rice and vegetable stall in Toa Payoh. Today, the Chang Cheng Group has over 220 food outlets and 28 traditional coffeeshops in Singapore, employing over 1,000 workers. Unionised with the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), the company has been working with NTUC’s e2i since 2015 to increase productivity and redesign their work processes to make work easier, safer and smarter for their team. The formation of a Company Training Committee (CTC) with FDAWU in 2020 has also allowed the company to work closely NTUC Training and Placement Ecosystem for the curation of various training programmes in areas such as culinary, workplace safety and leadership for its workers.
Project details
In 2020, the company worked with FDAWU and the NTUC Industry Training and Transformation (IT&T) team to undergo the Operation & Technology Roadmap (OTR) process to identify these key areas that were needed to support their 5-year business and workforce transformation plans:
- Adopting new technology: The new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system enables real-time monitoring of individual dish sales and provides valuable information to ensure that the stalls are always prepared to serve what customers want, while also reducing wastage from over-preparation of low-demand dishes.
- Upskilling and job redesigning: Traditional roles, such as chefs and kitchen helpers, have also been redesigned into ‘food technicians’ tasked with ensuring food quality, delivering exceptional customer service and operating onsite machinery.
Outcome and benefits
The CTC collaboration has helped to:
- Train more than 500 of its workers in F&B technologies such as procurement, payment and bookings
- Upskill over 70 lower-wage and matured workers to take on new job roles, resulting in higher wages under the Inclusive Growth Programme and WorkPro Job Redesign Programme
- Fill 200 job vacancies across multiple roles within the organisation through active participation in job fairs organised by NTUC’s e2i
Additional coverage (NTUC): Chang Cheng Group: From modest economic rice stall to F&B powerhouse.
