North American manufacturing controls integrator RoviSys opens Southeast Asia project support facility in Singapore
April 2009
RoviSys Asia Company Pte Ltd
2 International Business Park
#03-25 The Strategy
Singapore 609930
SINGAPORE — In spite of the current economic conditions, a US company that provides automation services to manufacturers is following through on long-developed plans to establish a Southeast Asia base here.
The RoviSys Company is moving into a project support office this month at The Strategy Building at International Business Park in Jurong and is hiring local engineering staff. One of the largest independent automation system integrators in North America, RoviSys has 200 engineers and developers based in Ohio and North Carolina.
“We’re working out details on the final configuration and build out of our space, but the phones are on and we’re meeting with and serving clients,” said James Riccardi, an automation project manager who serves as managing director for RoviSys Asia Company Limited. The company has made a half-dozen job offers to local engineers.
“We couldn’t postpone any longer,” Riccardi said. “We have projects here worth more than $10 million and the expectation of earning more business in the region. We think, and our clients think, that the current period will pass. They want to be ready when it does.”
RoviSys (www.rovisys.com) provides automation solution engineering and implementation services to life sciences, chemicals, glass, oil and gas and other process manufacturing companies. Advanced automation services include process control systems, validation services, distributed control system migration, electrical engineering design and industrial campus energy management and related solutions.
Work in Asia include optimization and chemical automation design projects in China, automation of high tech glass production in Korea, Taiwan, Japan and India and life sciences and solar panel production in Singapore.
The new hires will supplement the dozen RoviSys employees already based in the region, Riccardi said. Local staff could expand to 20 to 40 people within two years, he said, although the company remains cautious for now.
“We’re fortunate manufacturers in the region are continuing to invest in improving their production capabilities and that we are positioned to meet their needs at this time,” said Riccardi. “We certainly believe Singapore remains the best base for our business in Southeast Asia.”
Riccardi’s project experience includes managing validated control systems for greenfield and existing pharmaceutical operations. He has also worked on glass batch house, synthetic fuel and other operations. He worked for ABB Bailey and Air Products and Chemicals before joining RoviSys in 2000. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and is a registered professional engineer (PE) in Ohio.
Founded in 1989, RoviSys has completed more than 3,000 projects for batch and continuous process manufacturing clients throughout North America, South America and Asia.