The video provides an in-depth look into Dyson's global headquarters in Singapore, shedding light on the company’s expansive operations and innovative facilities. Highlights include a tour of their top secret labs, insights into testing procedures for Dyson's diverse product line, and a showcase of their cutting-edge technology. This comprehensive tour emphasizes Dyson's commitment to global innovation and technology leadership.

Dyson's decision to relocate their headquarters to Singapore in 2019 is examined in detail. This move was driven by the strategic advantages Singapore offers, such as advanced talent and a supportive government infrastructure, which are crucial for Dyson's growth, particularly in the Asian market. The company's significant investments in the region highlight its aspiration to evolve into a global technology brand that tailors experiences to diverse cultural contexts.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. anechoic [ˌænəˈkoʊɪk] - (adjective) - Free from echoes and reverberations; used to describe a space or chamber that absorbs sound. - Synonyms: (echo-free, soundproof, acoustic)

So this is the acoustic chamber. Hi. It's a semi anechoic chamber.

2. prototype [ˈproʊtəˌtaɪp] - (noun) - An initial or preliminary model of something from which other forms are developed or copied. - Synonyms: (model, mock-up, template)

Justin helped develop the Dyson zone, a wearable purifier cum headphones which had more than 500 prototypes created over five years.

3. controversy [ˈkɑːntrəˌvɜːrsi] - (noun) - A prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion. - Synonyms: (dispute, debate, argument)

After nearly 30 years in the UK, the choice to move its head office to Singapore in 2019 wasn't without controversy.

4. hypocrisy [hɪˈpɑːkrəsi] - (noun) - The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. - Synonyms: (duplicity, insincerity, deceit)

James Dyson was accused of hypocrisy.

5. raking [reɪkɪŋ] - (verb) - To gather or collect abundantly or in large amounts, often used in the context of revenue. - Synonyms: (collecting, accumulating, amassing)

It might be one of the world's most recognizable vacuum makers, raking in revenues of $8 billion in 2022.

6. gazetted [ɡəˈzɛtɪd] - (verb) - To officially announce or publicize, often referring to the listing of something in a legal publication. - Synonyms: (published, listed, notified)

St. James, a former coal fired power station, opened in 1927 and was gazetted as a national monument in 2009.

7. scrutiny [ˈskruːtəni] - (noun) - Critical observation or examination. - Synonyms: (examination, inspection, review)

But the company's growth in the region has come under scrutiny.

8. pioneer [ˈpaɪənɪr] - (verb) - To develop or be the first to use or apply a new method, area of knowledge, or activity. - Synonyms: (introduce, initiate, establish)

When you want to pioneer and come up with new technologies and new products, you often are faced with hard decisions.

9. inspire [ɪnˈspaɪər] - (verb) - To fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially something creative. - Synonyms: (motivate, encourage, stimulate)

We really are looking to personalize that experience for everyone around the world, but also really understand some of those cultures and diversities that will really inspire us to create new ideas to solve problems.

10. compensation [ˌkɑːmpənˈseɪʃən] - (noun) - Something, typically money, awarded to someone in recognition of loss, suffering, or some form of inconveniences or provision. - Synonyms: (reimbursement, recompense, payment)

We actually work on real hair, and we actually obtain them from organizations that get this hair through ethical means and proper compensation to all the donors.

Inside Dyson's secret labs in Singapore - where prototypes are tested

I'm here at Dyson Singapore getting a special tour of their global headquarters and their top secret labs. You can smell the mint. Okay, so imagine this is urban sewage. What they do is put the visor back up. You're not smelling it anymore.

This is the machine that started an empire. What kind of products get tested in this room? All dysentery products, from our floor care to our hair care products. And they're giving us exclusive, exclusive 360 degree access inside the inner workings of a multi billion dollar tech company.

It might be one of the world's most recognizable vacuum makers, raking in revenues of $8 billion in 2022. But Dyson is also known for other home care appliances, such as bladeless fans, air purifiers, and hair care products. Similar to many startups, Dyson had its beginnings in a humble coach house in Bath, United Kingdom.

It was here that inventor James Dyson developed his first iconic vacuum cleaner, creating more than 5000 prototypes in the process. Production began in 1993, and Dyson expanded rapidly, opening stores in Australia, Europe, the United States and Asia.

Today, Dyson has technology campuses in the UK, Malaysia and China, but its global headquarters is in Singapore. After nearly 30 years in the UK, the choice to move its head office to Singapore in 2019 wasnt without controversy. It seemed the company now saw the biggest opportunity for growth in Asia.

And as a vocal supporter of Brexit and one of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, James Dyson was accused of hypocrisy. What was it about Singapore then that made Dyson choose this location to be the global headquarters? It comes to a building up of trust of both Dyson and Singapore getting to know each other, but also the long term view. Singapore places on investments in new technology and advanced manufacturing.

Henke Wirawan leads the design and development of the Dyson hypodemia motor, which is used in many of its products, such as vacuum cleaners and fans. Singapore is one of the few nations with the right talents and skills in the area that is crucial. And as well it being a global supply chain hub, which is essential requirements for us to be able to make such a complicated or complex technology piece.

Over the years, we talk about being a british brand, but actually we have been very inspired by a lot of places in the world. We'd like to see ourselves as a global technology brand. We really are looking to personalize that experience for everyone around the world, but also really understand some of those cultures and diversities that will really inspire us to create new ideas to solve problems that are very relevant to people in different countries.

Dyson is mainly splitting its $3.4 billion global investment into three countries, the UK, the Philippines, and Singapore. Its asian investment includes a $206 million technology campus in the Philippines and a giant battery plant in Singapore, which is due to open in 2025. Thats the size of 53 basketball courts. So huge. It's a significant investment for us.

We want to make a battery cell to complement our power system, our motor, and our advanced algorithms. But to enable those products to be lighter weight, to be more efficient and have a longer life, our new battery factory allows Dyson to have a much longer term view because they're supported by a very clear strategy from the government to allow us to make big investments with the confidence that they're going to be supported.

My name is Stephen. Today I'm actually going to bring you a tour of our RDD space research, design and development space. Sounds good. Lead the way. So this is the acoustic chamber. Hi. It's a semi anechoic chamber. So what anechoic means is free from echo. It's semi anechoic, meaning that the floor is still reflective. This helps to provide kind of a controlled environment for us to measure sound.

This is where we actually put the Dyson air purifier, big plus, quiet. To actually demonstrate to you the acoustic engineering that we put in. If you keep quiet, you won't actually hear any other noises other than that wind sound. Let's hear it. It's already powered on at once. It's already powered.

Justin helped develop the Dyson zone, a wearable purifier cum headphones which had more than 500 prototypes created over five years. In fact, the company has a secretive 3d printing lab just to churn out prototypes which we are not allowed to film. These printed models allow its engineers to test the different prototypes quickly, including its hair care products.

We actually work on real hair, and we actually obtain them from organizations that get this hair through ethical means and proper compensation to all the donors. Maybe you can pick up one of the hairdressers. I take this and demonstrate how we do actually the airwrap curling performance. This is an imaging rig. Yes.

And what it does, it will take photos from different angles, and then we actually have software to analyze how well the curl is, how the styling performance can be enhanced further with which iteration of the prototype engineers. We like numbers. This is where we connect style that seems to be very abstract to numbers where we can actually compare and work with.

How do you see AI transforming or value adding your industry? AI's really been at the core of what we've been doing. So we started off with our motors, the algorithms inside the motors, allowing the motor to spin with huge amount of accuracy, very, very fast. We're looking into a lot of connectivity.

We think that our software team is going to really increase in size from over 600 up to 1000 in the next few years. To really pivot Dyson into more of a software world. And to ensure that every product is tested rigorously, participants are invited to test them before the launch.

When a participant comes in, you do video recordings. And we also had an audio mic over here that picks up audio in this room. There's a mirror over here. Yeah, this is a one way mirror, because when the users are trying out the products, they don't want to be bogged down by so many eyes.

The company has about 14,000 employees worldwide in over 80 countries, with 1400 of them in Singapore alone, out of which 600 are in engineering. Kashyap is the director of Upstream robotics, and he leads a team of designers and engineers across Singapore and the UK.

So we just launched their Dyson Visnav. He tells me that this tech took seven years to develop, involving 750 engineers across the world. The center of gravity of robotics research today sits more in the UK. And the center of gravity of delivery of robotics sits more in NSEA. But we see that shifting.

We are building future robots that require new capabilities. You need engineers with very niche skill sets, teams that don't exist today in this part of the world that we need to build. We're doing the concepts. James and Jake are quite heavily involved. They love to be able to influence the product, shape it.

Jake Dyson is James Dyson's son. He's the inventor of energy efficient lights that are touted to last 60 years. We're looking for over 2000 engineers last year. Robotics and software is the largest pool of people we're trying to hire globally. A lot of the products you've seen in the labs that are in the making, we need hundreds of people to be able to deliver that.

So I think this part of the world is well set up to be able to help us ramp up to do that delivery in the coming years. But the company's growth in the region has come under scrutiny. In 2021, migrant workers employed by ATA, its biggest pot supplier, made allegations of forced labor and dangerous working conditions in ATA's malaysian factories.

Dyson would later cut ties with ATA, which had been making parts for its vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. But while Dyson requires a huge labor force, to support its global manufacturing supply chain. Production, particularly of its motors, is increasingly reliant on machines.

The motors itself is at the heart of a lot of our products. We have more robots than humans. In fact, we have 300 autonomous robots in the line to allow us to manufacture this gen five motors. How many people are on the floor? Well, on average there will be around two people when the lines are running to manage the line, then the motors, once we produce, will be shipped to a contract manufacturer, run around the globe to be fit into the product, whether it is colorless vacuum, or it's the supersonic hair dryer.

Since 2012, we produced 100 million motors combined between two manufacturing sites in Singapore. We have another manufacturing site in Philippine. We were able to achieve such a very high speed motors. It's over five times faster than the Formula one car engine.

Speaking of cars, Dyson had plans to build an electric car in 2017. But the project was shelved after two years and more than half a billion dollars later. But a prototype of the car exists, and I had a chance to see it.

We're now at Dyson's global headquarters at St. James power station, ready to take a look inside. There's a Dyson electric car here. So this is completely manufactured in house. All the parts are done in house. It was quite challenging to make the decision to discontinue it.

The Dyson electrical wasn't really commercially viable compared to the competition. When you want to pioneer and come up with new technologies and new products, you often are faced with hard decisions. You know, maybe you have to stop products. We're accepting that sometimes we're going to fail.

But theres a silver lining. Dyson has identified other technologies which can be spun out of the failed project, such as sensors, robotics, machine learning and importantly, batteries.

St. James, a former coal fired power station, opened in 1927 and was gazetted as a national monument in 2009. After two years of refurbishing, it was opened as Dysons Global headquarters in 2022. Over here, lunches are free for the employees. All employees. Basically. Our chefs are constantly curating and cooking a wide variety of dishes for all of us.

There have been challenges that Dyson has faced in the last couple of years because we're in the game of innovation and new technology. We're used to things being a bit of a roller coaster. If we didn't have issues, we wouldn't be innovating enough.

And I've been there for 22 years and every year it gets more challenging in terms of the technology. So expect to see lots of new categories from Dyson with exciting technology and looking us to really redefine some of traditional categories and new ways of doing things.

Technology, Global, Innovation, Dyson, Manufacturing, Singapore, Cnbc International