The facility also operates three larger autonomous vehicles that can move parcels between different levels of the building. Collectively, these upgrades halve the processing time and triples SingPost’s small- and medium-sized parcel processing capacity from 100,000 to 300,000 parcels per day, which means its total daily throughput – when combined with existing large parcel operations – is 400,000 parcels. REDUCED MANPOWER NEEDS In terms of manpower, automation has reduced staffing requirements from about 300 workers to between 150 and 200. However, Mr Chong said the reduction would largely affect temporary workers rather than permanent staff. “The fact is actually we don’t have enough permanent staff. We leverage a lot on temporary staff, so with this new equipment, we will need less temporary staff. “But for our own staff we will also upskill them, train them. Those who are able to, they could move on to the new roles,” he said. Mr Chong said the company would need workers with new skill sets to support its automated operations, including engineers who can manage systems, analyse operational …