FindX

Problem Statement

Over 300,000 travelers pass through Singapore’s land checkpoints daily, where misplaced belongings are a common occurrence. However, the current process for reporting, tracking, and recovering lost items remains manual and inefficient for ICA (Immigration and Checkpoints Authority) officers. The reliance on physical logbooks leads to administrative bottlenecks, high communication overhead, and delays in reuniting lost items with their owners.

"When asked to locate a lost item in a specific zone, I have to manually search through multiple logbooks. This process is time-consuming, inefficient and prone to errors, with no quick way to search or report findings. The lack of a centralised repository creates unnecessary delays and hampers productivity for both operations and administrative teams." - Ex-ops officer, Benjamin Pang

Objectives and Product Goals

Vision:

FindX is a digital platform that replaces physical logbooks, streamlining the reporting, tracking and recovery of lost items at ICA’s checkpoints. 

Key Goals:

• Reduce time to report and search for lost items. Currently, officers spend significant time on administrative tasks for each lost item, and up to several hours to determine if a lost item has been reported.

• Enable real-time tracking. Officers gain real-time visibility of lost items — whether returned to citizens, forwarded to agencies like SPF and LTA, or still in the system. FindX provides a shared dashboard as a single sourced of truth, readily accessible to ICA and its stakeholders, allowing them to trace items in their custody and reunite them with rightful owners.

• Reduce communication overheads. FindX eliminates the need for emails and calls between ICA and other agencies like SPF and LTA, by providing them a centralised view of lost items under their purview, reducing redundancy and ensuring faster responses to public queries.

Core Features:

• Digital reporting of lost items. Officers can lodge a report from their devices at any time, removing the reliance on physical logbooks and enabling immediate documentation of lost items. 

• Digital tracking of lost items. Forget searching through manual records, officers can now instantly track the status of lost items, improving efficiency and accuracy. 

Research and Approach

Methods

• User interviews at Woodlands Checkpoint: During our observations and user interviews, we learned that officers manage 18 logbooks across six zones. One officer described how tracing a lost item can take hours due to the need to search through multiple logbooks. If the traveler cannot recall where the item was lost, officers must review CCTV footage, identify the zone, and then cross-check the logbooks for that area — an extremely time-consuming process.

Key Decisions

• Mirror the Current Workflow: We recognized that officers were highly familiar with the existing categorization system. Instead of introducing a completely new approach, we mirrored the current process to maintain consistency and ease of use.

• Mobile-First Interface: Officers needed the flexibility to report lost items on the go. We designed a mobile-friendly interface that allows them to report items quickly and efficiently from their devices.

• Semantic Search: Many lost items lack unique identifiers, so officers rely on detailed descriptions when reporting them. To streamline searching, we implemented semantic search, enabling faster and more accurate searches for these items on the dashboard.
  

Outcomes and Impact

Launched pilot at Woodlands Checkpoint (Departure Car Zone) on 4 Feb 2025, with full rollout across all zones on 7 Feb 2025.

Pilot results:

• Reduced time to report a lost item on FindX: From approximately 8 minutes to 3 minutes.
  

• Reduced time to search for an item on FindX: From approximately 10 minutes to less than 5 minutes.
  

• User Feedback:

  • "The intuitive dashboard lets us search for items by type effortlessly. Previously, I had to rely on ground teams to manually trace the physical logbook before I could respond to controlling agencies."
    — Crystal, Admin Officer

  • "We used to record every logbook entry by hand—it was tedious and time-consuming. On top of that, we had to reply to the follow-up emails from the admin team. With FindX, admin officers and controlling agencies in the future can just view the dashboard."
    — Daniel, Ops Officer

  • "Since implementing FindX, our lost and found process has become streamlined, efficient, and hassle-free. The platform's intuitive interface and robust features have significantly reduced our administrative workload."
    — Ong Say Pheng, Ops Officer

  • "I find the lodging process to be fuss free, the fields that need to be filled are clear."
    — Cheryl, Duty Officer

Next Steps and Future Vision

Meet the Team

We built the app to mirror the current workflow, ensuring it seamlessly integrates with existing processes while delivering an intuitive, streamlined user experience.