In barely 3 months, the teams at the Atlantic group site in Billy-Berclau have succeeded in digitizing their SIM (Short Interval Management) visual management materials (TOP 5, TOP 30, etc.). Supports fully interconnected with their other plant management solutions, with total autonomy in the deployment and continuous improvement of their supports. How ? Explanations.
In the factory of the Atlantic group in Billy-Berclau (62), there is no time to lose! Started up in 2016 with 50 people, the plant dedicated mainly to the production of heat pumps now employs 500, “produces” more than 200,000 products per year and plans to further accelerate to 350,000 within 2 coming years.
A full throttle start that also characterizes the way its teams digitized their AIC (Short Interval Animations, about fifteen different rituals in this factory) in barely 3 months! All without ever confusing speed and haste…
Their method ?
- clear objectives from the start (which facilitates the search for the right partner and the framing of the project)
- the business and the IT department working hand in hand
- a constant head start on the rest of the project: how the teams will get to grips with the tool, and how it will be able to be rolled out on a large scale after the first tests…
Make SIM management more efficient
Already well-structured rituals…
“SIMs are something that has been deeply rooted in the factory, and in the entire Atlantic group for years, explains François Huyge, production manager at the Billy-Berclau factory. TOP 5, for the starting points of each shift for each of our 14 production lines, TOP 30 (the production coordination meeting) and a ritual called InterGAP (for Groupes Autonomes de Production) which allows facilitators to line to take stock of their priorities and needs… We are fond of these rituals”.
46 SIM per day at the Group Atlantic factory:
… to avoid waste of time in preparation
Before turning to Pingflow, the Atlantic teams in Billy-Berclau organized their AICs in the traditional way: whiteboards, paper prints, cards for actions to be taken, Powerpoint presentations, etc.
The problem ? This system, efficient and well established, but “operators spent their time copying information from whiteboards to computer files, and vice versa, with all the risks of loss of information and errors that this entails. ”, laments François Huyge. And with more than 40 daily rituals to organize, the time counter climbs very quickly…
Why did they choose Pingflow?
Based on this observation, François Huyge therefore set out to find a solution allowing him to digitize the AICs of his factory. With very clear expectations:
- a system that simplifies and streamlines the retrieval of production information, and its visual “translation” into clear indicators,
- a solution that centralizes and monitors the various action plans for the plant
- and for each line a solution that can be easily integrated into the site’s information system.
“At Atlantic, we like to have our hands on our tools: so I was looking for an intuitive solution, which would allow us to be quickly autonomous, and above all flexible because we do things our way, lists the production manager. I studied several solutions on the market: only Pingflow ticked all the boxes. The other solutions were either unsuited to our needs, or much too formatted”.
After initial discussions in the spring of 2022, Atlantic Billy-Berclau is therefore embarking on its digital visual management project with Pingflow.
Connectivity to data with the IT teams
In such a structuring project on the smooth running of production, the involvement of IT teams is obviously the sine qua non of a good deployment. But their role goes far beyond that, and especially begins well before the production phase: it is from the framing of the project that they have a role to play.
A stroke of luck: at Billy-Berclau, the industrial IT team is used to working as close as possible to the field, and we were able to provide assistance on two essential dimensions
- how to structure it and if necessary create it to make the best use of it in the context of SIMs connectivity:
- how to interconnect Pingflow with the “stack” of existing tools in the factory, and make the most of it.
The role of tools: which one does what (and how does it integrate with Pingflow)
At Atlantic, two internal software programs are mainly used to manage production:
- Suprat, focused on quality monitoring
- Ocean, which collects machine or line data to analyze performance
Keen not to « pile up » software bricks, Atlantic’s IT teams therefore began with a reflection exercise: « internally, we redefined the role of our different tools, » explains Nicolas Denis, industrial IT project manager. « The idea is that these tools complement each other, and that we don’t assign them functions for which they are not designed. »
Conclusion of this reflection?
“We reserve Pingflow for animation purposes: even if it would be technically possible, we do not process data there.
adds Nicolas Denis.
Data Mastery: A Healthy Foundation to Start From
Another issue where IT’s involvement was crucial: data. « It’s a subject we have a very good grasp of: how our data is formed and structured, » observes Nicolas Denis. « So it was easier to ask the right questions upfront so that it could be easily used in Pingflow, and above all, always structured in the same way. »
The result: when it came to designing the wallboards (the displays used during the various AICs), the base was « clean, » consistent, and easily deployable across all lines to cover the entire site in just a few days.
Easy handling
Because the various wallboards have been “templated” (same overall structure, same indicator format) as much as possible: from one line to the next, the TOP 5 wallboards are structured in the same way, and only the information changes. “When we need to deploy one more, it’s a matter of 5 minutes,” smiles Nicolas Denis. Optimization, always…
Same design, same information hierarchy, but personalized data in 2 different wallboards: with a single template, Atlantic teams were able to deploy their AIC wallboards very quickly in the different areas of the factory.
From design to animation: an intuitive solution
The final factor that allowed Atlantic to move so quickly in the deployment of its digital AIC project: Pingflow’s ease of use. « In terms of designing the wallboards, the solution is very intuitive: no need to be an IT expert to achieve this, » says François Huyge.
The same observation was made by end users (line managers and operators), who quickly took ownership of Pingflow, and in particular Table, the “No Code” database management solution integrated into Pingflow, which allows the creation of interactive data entry forms (for reporting incidents, absences, etc.), as well as all action plans, documented, sorted, prioritized… and up to date.
The results: less time-consuming, more interactive, and more impactful AICs
A few months after this rapid deployment, Atlantic teams are already identifying a triple gain:
- Time savings in preparing AICs
- Efficiency of these rituals, with more focused teams
- Impact, with better-monitored action plans and better visibility of activity
For the first, which was François Huyge’s main objective from the outset, the findings are clear: 80% of what the facilitators had to re-enter before the meeting is now automatically available on the wallboard. « Clearly, the half-hour spent by AICs searching for and copying information has practically disappeared, » the production manager says.
For the second, François Huyge observes that having a single medium (the screen displaying the wallboard) and an interactive medium makes the rituals more participatory and the teams « more attentive and more engaged in the discussion. »
For the third, the digitization of action plans is a major plus. Beyond that, his goal of having a more concise and precise overview of the « factory pulse » (essential, particularly during the TOP 30) has been largely achieved.
