Operations of the Group

Operations

Overview

Don’t just make something. Make something extraordinary

Manufacturing is the soul of our company. We were born to produce. We deliver world-leading products to our customers by putting them at the centre of our daily work. And by endeavouring to truly understand their needs in order provide an exceptional service – from the outset, through to project completion, and beyond.

A key part of our success therefore, lies in our processes, the quality of our output and the capabilities of our Operations and Manufacturing employees.

 

We have some 80 plants, producing multiple products and solutions for diverse customers across various markets. As a result, it’s important to improve and harmonise our production practices – trying to avoid waste of resources, and leveraging the company know-how and centres of expertise.

Such cohesion will help our company to grow, but most importantly, will benefit our customers, employees and shareholders.

 

Fast Forward is at the heart of our operations strategy. It draws together new and existing initiatives with a focus on increased value for the customer. How will it achieve this? By promoting speed and adaptation across three main areas:

  1. People – training and the creation of a Good Practice Network
  2. Production resources – cost efficiency, lean and simple production, product quality
  3. Production technology – Factory 4.0

Increasingly, this is a critical factor in our product and service delivery, and will help put us ahead of our competition. At each stage, we want to offer our customers the best-in-class, fast. Starting with the swift identification of their exact needs and supported by on-time delivery of tailored high-quality products and solutions, backed up by the guarantee of prompt management of any critical situations. We won’t stop there. We are also streamlining decision-making processes across the board, enabling us to manoeuvre more effectively in response to market demand.

As well as providing a rapid service, our Fast Forward strategy will also enhance our capability to adapt our service and supply chain according to market fluctuation and customer needs. Agility is key in managing customer requirements and to that end we are investing in large, modern centres of excellence to capacitate that demand, both regionally and internationally.

 

“The bulk of the work concerned costs and work efficiency that would minimise costs and maximise asset utilisation in order to serve our customers and meet our growth objectives.”

Daniel Blais,
Operations Director North America

 

Furthermore, a series of professional training courses are teaching people how to improve the manufacturing chain using the Lean Six Sigma principles. A special 6-person LSS team travels around the globe every year to teach people the techniques to improve specific aspects within plants, like material efficiency, service level, capacity increase.

In order to develop our ability to deliver fast, flexible service, we are investing in our human capital. Professional training courses that strengthen the leadership skill and technical abilities of our people are a key focus for us. We want to empower our workforce to continue creating customer-centric products and services. To this end we have launched the Good Practice Network, as well as two important training initiatives:

  1. The Manufacturing Academy
  2. The Make It Programme