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Changi Airport Group has established a digital factory designed to enhance passenger experience through the deployment of emerging technologies, following a partnership with Accenture.
Under the banner of DIVA - digital, innovation, ventures and analytics - the factory was launched to help the world’s seventh busiest airport for international traffic develop, experiment and deploy new digital products and services, from conceptualisation to market roll-out.
Housed with experts from both Accenture and Changi Airport, DIVA leverages new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital marketing, big data and analytics, predictive maintenance and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Managed in the same manner as a factory, DIVA focuses on delivering business outcomes at scale through "lines of production, predictable delivery schedules and quality controls". Such a model aims to enable new ways of working, with "design thinking, rapid prototyping and experimentation" at the core.
“Picture a start-up environment where employees begin by thinking about what the customer wants and work backwards from there - experimenting rapidly to develop innovative products and services,” said Fabio Vacirca, market unit group lead of Australia and New Zealand, South East Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East at Accenture.
“DIVA is enabling Changi Airport to re-evaluate how the airport operates and develop digital solutions to ensure that it remains a world-class leader.”
Aligned to Singapore Smart Nation ambitions, Vacirca said DIVA is a reflection of Changi Airport's efforts to keep pace with the ongoing disruption of business operations, representing the first development of such an initiative by Accenture in ASEAN.
Vacirca added that the global system integrator has also helped Changi Airport develop an AI-powered virtual assistant for airport operations, alongside a predictive maintenance solution for engineering and next-generation commercial digital marketing campaigns, powered by Accenture Applied Intelligence solutions and accelerators.
“By establishing DIVA with Accenture, we hope to continue to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation, by injecting new ways of working within our organisation,” added Jeffrey Loke, senior vice president at Changi Airport.
“DIVA is helping Changi Airport implement digital innovations, at speed and at scale, at the enterprise level, serving all Changi Airport departments, including commercial, operations, engineering, IT, and corporate marketing and communications.”
According to Loke, Changi Airport remains committed to “continually raising the bar” in performance and delivery of a real-time customer experience, having been voted the ‘Best Airport in the World’ on 10 occasions by Skytrax. This is alongside the development of Jewel Changi Airport, the lifestyle destination situated at the heart of airport which opened in April 2019.
