Allan Ung
Founder & Principal Consultant, Operational Excellence Consulting (OEC)

Before founding OEC, Allan held senior regional roles at IBM, Microsoft, and Underwriters Laboratories, where he worked at the intersection of technology, quality assurance, and enterprise transformation. Earlier in his career, as a consultant with Singapore's National Productivity Board (now Enterprise Singapore), he co-led national Cost of Quality (COQ) and Total Quality Process (TQP) initiatives across manufacturing and service industries — work that helped participating companies cut quality-related costs by an average of 42.3%, with total savings of S$3 million and some individual companies reducing costs by more than 80%. In 1993, he was selected for an advanced management consultancy training programme in Japan under the Japan International Cooperation Agency's Colombo Plan framework, studying productivity and quality methods at the Central Japan Industries Association (Chu San Ren) in Nagoya.

This foundation — rigorous diagnostics paired with practical, shopfloor-ready execution — has carried through three decades of consulting. Allan's client work through OEC spans manufacturing and technology leaders such as Cisco, Panasonic, Tokyo Electron, Lam Research, and Micron; logistics and shipping (PSA Corporation & NileDutch); defence and security (ST Electronics, Defence Science & Technology Agency); and public sector bodies including the Ministry of Social and Family Development, Ministry of Education, and Health Sciences Authority.

Areas of Focus
 

Allan's practice centres on a small number of frameworks he has developed to make complex improvement methodologies more actionable for leadership teams and practitioners alike:

The 4-Lens Critical Thinking Model brings together Analytical, Lean, Design, and Systems Thinking into a single decision framework, helping leaders select the right mode of thinking — or combination of modes — for the problem in front of them, rather than defaulting to a single methodology regardless of fit.

The OEC Green Lean Matrix connects the eight classical Lean wastes to specific GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) disclosure categories, giving organisations a structured way to translate shopfloor waste-reduction work into ESG reporting metrics that hold up at the board level.

The OEC TPM Maturity Diagnostic replaces conventional pass/fail maintenance checklists with a four-level maturity rubric spanning 40 dimensions, giving organisations a more precise baseline from which to plan the path toward self-sustaining, world-class asset reliability.

Credentials

•  Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), National University of Singapore
•  Colombo Plan Scholar, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — Management Consultancy, Central Japan Industries Association, Nagoya
•  Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Japan
•  Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (North Carolina State University)
•  JIPM-Certified TPM Instructor, Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance
•  TWI Master Trainer
•  ISO 9001 Lead Auditor
•  National Assessor, Singapore Quality Award
 

Philosophy

Allan's approach is grounded in a straightforward conviction: sustainable improvement is built on disciplined systems, capable leadership, and consistent execution — not one-off initiatives. His practitioner-led programmes and diagnostic tools are used by organisations across manufacturing, technology, and public-sector settings seeking a structured, evidence-based path to operational excellence.

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