Nicholas Tham

(Senior Research Engineer)

Engineering

R&D Centre

Joined Panasonic in 2016

“At Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., we are empowered by our open organizational culture. This culture supports an open door policy where the management team sets our overall strategy, while always being willing to listen to our opinions and ideas through regular and open communication. In addition, we are trusted to take charge of what we do and be flexible and responsive in how we approach our tasks. I believe that this connection and approach is critical within an organization as it builds trust, cohesive working relationships and teamwork among our teams.”

In 2016, upon completing my four year Honours Degree Programme from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and the University Scholars Programme (USP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), I embarked on my career at Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. as a Mechanical Engineer under the Research and Development (R&D) Department. Upon joining, I was awarded a scholarship through the Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP) offered by Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) to pursue my PhD studies with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). In my research work, I was tasked, as part of the overall research collaboration with the Singapore Center for 3D Printing (SC3DP) in NTU and Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., to develop never-before-seen 3D printing technologies. My time with both Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. and NTU has allowed me to gain extensive industrial work experience while tackling deep academic questions, an opportunity rarely granted to PhD students like me. Today, I am currently in the final lap of my PhD and despite some pretty tough times, it has been a fruitful and rewarding journey overall.

 

The division I am currently in, the Business and Development Division (BDD), is relatively new, but we are already working to break new grounds in the work we do. I am fortunate to have helpful colleagues and superiors and we share a very cohesive working relationship. Through them, I am able to acquire additional knowledge as they are highly experienced in their various specialized fields. At Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., we are empowered by our open organizational culture. This culture supports an open-door policy where the management team sets our overall strategy, while always being willing to listen to our opinions and ideas through regular and open communication. In addition, we are trusted to take charge of what we do and be flexible and responsive in how we approach our tasks. I believe that this connection and approach is critical within an organization as it builds trust, cohesive working relationships and teamwork among our teams. As responsible employees, we should equally prioritize the demands of our career and personal life. Personally, I always make effort to effectively manage my time at work and at home. In my free time, I escape and recharge through ice-skating as well as spending quality time with my family and friends on a regular basis.

 

Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., at its core an electronics manufacturing company, recently started on our digital transformation journey. Building upon our strong manufacturing foundation base and rich history, we are gearing up to realize our final transformational goal as a Solutions Engineering company. I’m especially glad for my role in our company’s transformational journey. From my vantage point, I am excited to witness the commercialization of our innovative technology and how these could bring about disruptive business value to both our internal and external stakeholders and in turn make significant contributions to the society.