Production lines active more than 90% of the time, a constantly decreasing takt time, fewer overtime hours… and an increasingly peaceful atmosphere: at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the results of the efforts undertaken in terms of operational excellence are spectacular.

The explanation? A continuous improvement approach that has made it possible to anticipate problems and resolve them (much) more quickly, throughout the production chain.

The Chantiers de l’Atlantique, cradle of the giants of the seas

Normandy, France, Queen Mary 2, Harmony of the Seas… These famous giants of the sea were assembled in Saint-Nazaire, in the workshops of the Chantiers de l’Atlantique. Since 1862, the company has become a benchmark in the construction of ocean liners, but also of military vessels and, more recently, offshore wind turbines. These are all markets in which demand is very strong, and where production is therefore constantly under pressure.

The cabin production unit: 5 takt and cadenced lines

About ten kilometers from the main site, a smaller unit (26,000 square meters and 350 operators, all the same…) specializes in the prefabrication of cabins, which are then loaded and finished on board cruise ships.

In this workshop, 5 production lines, operated and running at pace, allow the assembly of various cabin models (crew, standard, family, for people with reduced mobility, etc.) and their sanitary blocks, at an average rate of 2,000 to 2,500 cabins per ship. Each liner occupies this production unit for a period of 4 to 6 months.

On the lines, lean objective!

“The first observation we can make,” explains Aurélien Caillaud, “is that our lines have no work in progress: we are permanently in a pull flow mode. As a result, the slightest problem at one of the 20 stations on each line will cause a stoppage, and block the 70 operators who work there.”

To resolve an incident as soon as it occurs, Chantiers de l’Atlantique has set up teams:

• "flyers" (on the production side), operators that team leaders or line managers will send to reinforce workstations under pressure,
• rapid replenishers on the logistics side, responsible for supplying spare parts to workstations that request them.

But this organization alone is not enough. For several years, Aurélien Caillaud, lean engineer at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, and his predecessor François Robic before him, have therefore called on Pingflow to implement tools that allow the effective adoption of methods from lean management (Andon and Yo-I-Don) to manage and optimize cabin assembly lines. The objectives?

• Obtain a precise, real-time overview of the status of each production line:
• Identify workstations under pressure as early as possible and provide the most efficient, timely solution;
• Synchronize workstations and schedule lines so that everyone starts and finishes their tasks at the same time;
• Finally, streamline intra-team communication, as well as communication between production and logistics.

A project carried out in two phases: first on the production lines, then on logistics supply.

2019-2020: heading towards the production andon

The initial observation: numerous and costly line shutdowns

In the context of pull production, there are always hazards: before starting its collaboration with Pingflow, the cabin workshop suffered an average of one hour of downtime per day.

Added to these incidents was the problem of line changes (a new type of cabin was entering production). Between two batches, the line shutdown and restart time was also one hour. Added together, these delays could have a significant impact on the production rate, and therefore the delivery of the liner at the end of the line.

Pingflow's response: digital andon alert from operator stations

Pingflow's response: digital andon alert from operator stations

With the help of Pingflow, each workstation has been equipped with a tablet which allows the operator to bring up information such as:

• the end of his work,
• a blocking incident,
• or a non-blocking incident.

These incidents are immediately transmitted by SMS and email to team leaders, and displayed on large monitors located at strategic locations throughout the workshop to disseminate real-time information on the status of activity. The interventions and reinforcements needed to resolve the incident and restart production arrive more quickly, and all line activity is monitored more closely.

In the back office, the entire system is connected to the ERP in order to provide the forecast production “film” for the day and to a web interface which allows:

• Upstream, configure work schedules, user profiles, and contact information;
• Downstream, visualize incidents in the form of logs and graphs and create a history for quality analysis.

Spectacular first results

Deployed in 2019, this first andon “brick” allowed the cabin workshop to record more than convincing results:

• Downtime reduced by a factor of three… and more: from one hour per day, the workshop went down to 20, then 10 minutes per day;
• Ever more efficient lines: from 80% of working time, the production unit went up to 90-95%;
• A significant reduction in overtime (often necessary to "complete" the week's production), of around 10%.

Bet won? Except that Chantiers de l’Atlantique didn’t intend to stop there…

2021: a step further with logistics andon

Because after streamlining the resolution of production incidents, the teams realized that 80% of the remaining line shutdowns were linked to non-compliant parts: damaged sanitary block elements, degraded parts, etc.

Historically, an operator faced with a defective part had to fill out a non-conformity form by hand and send it to the rapid replenishment teams so that they could retrieve the spare part from stock, transport it to the workstation in question, and close this “ticket”. A cumbersome, time-consuming process… and therefore eminently optimizable!

Especially since it generated significant tensions between the production and logistics teams, “who passed the buck during this type of incident,” observes Aurélien Caillaud. One of the unquantifiable but very real benefits of implementing the production andon with Pingflow was precisely a clear gain in serenity in the workshop: operators now know that the incident they reported has been properly identified and is being resolved. We wanted our replenishment teams, who are by nature subject to urgency and stress, to also benefit from more peaceful working conditions.”

A new process co-designed with the teams concerned

To resolve this problem, Aurélien Caillaud first listened to the “field” and gathered the teams’ irritants…

• … production: forms too long to fill out, replenishers unreachable, replenishment too slow, causing line interruptions;
• … logistics: forms incorrectly completed or illegible, too much time spent on the phone, impossible to organize and concentrate on one's route;
• … quality: non-conformity reports untraceable and unusable.

Not easy, especially in the context of these workshops:

• Very large (26,000 m²), therefore with long delivery times
• with numerous references (3,000 per cabin), therefore complex replenishments
• increasingly frequent, with a takt time divided by 1.5 over the last 5 years (it has gone from 30 to 19-20 minutes on average)

From 100% paper to 100% digital: a 100% efficient logistics system

It is thanks to this field listening phase that Aurélien Caillaud was able to deploy with Pingflow an andon logistics system adapted to the needs of his internal “customers” in the three production, logistics and quality divisions, which he demonstrates to you himself.

Find Aurélien Caillaud’s full testimony on the collaboration between Pingflow and Chantiers de l’Atlantique in our webinar replay

Speed, productivity, serenity: green indicators!

By digitizing this entire alert process, and eliminating the paperwork and irritants in the replenishment process, Chantiers de l'Atlantique has once again observed enormous productivity gains:

• On the speed of operations, with a replenishment time reduced by more than half: from 33 minutes previously, we are now down to 12-13 minutes on average;
• On securing takt time: these express replenishment times leave a margin on the current cycle, which is already significantly reduced;
• On the efficiency of the lines overall: from 700 minutes of downtime per month, the workshop has reduced it to 200-250 minutes;
• On quality monitoring, teams now have a real dashboard allowing them to identify and measure deviations by supplier, by part, etc., and therefore take appropriate measures;
• On the peace of mind of logistics operators, now much more in control of their time and their routes.

In the pipeline: innovations that spread throughout the production chain

Committed to a process of continuous improvement, Chantiers de l'Atlantique will now capitalize on the steps taken during the first two phases of the project, to push the management of the activity even further, with:

• Andon picking, to optimize logistics beyond emergency replenishments, particularly for the train that supplies lines from inventory.
• Real-time information on production status for logistics, to restore visibility to the latter.

Key success factors of the Chantiers de l’Atlantique project

The remarkable results observed by the cabin assembly unit are neither miraculous nor the result of chance. But above all, they are the result of a well-managed project based on three key factors:

1. Progress prioritized by "batches": rather than a comprehensive "mega-project" (which might never have seen the light of day), Chantiers de l'Atlantique proceeded in stages. First, the most urgent problem (production line shutdowns), then, after this initial success, priority number 2 (replenishment), and finally, a more widespread implementation.
2. A learning curve was respected: the teams took the time to observe the initial results and list areas for improvement before iterating.
3. Field-level listening was a cardinal virtue: the user is king, and all tools and interfaces were designed to respond as simply as possible to the needs expressed.

Since its founding in 1991, Tiag Industries has established itself as one of the European leaders in the production of medium-volume technical plastic parts. For clients located all over the world (40% of its turnover is generated from exports), and in all sectors: office and hospital furniture, packaging, construction, agricultural and construction machinery, and armaments, all of these clients have one thing in common: high standards in terms of quality and responsiveness.

To address this, this family-run SME (120 employees), whose three production units are in Corrèze, has embarked on the gradual deployment of a 4.0 factory, using Pingflow's visual management solutions. The objectives of this project?

Competitiveness, flexibility, autonomy: the challenges of 4.0 at TIAG

• Simplify and make production monitoring more efficient;
• Minimize (or even eliminate) the risk of human error and thus increase production quality;
• All this while giving back autonomy to teams (operators, supervisors, shipping, administration, etc.) to allow them to focus on the truly important tasks.

Production monitoring: the need for real-time information

Within the production units, monitoring was previously done "the old-fashioned way, on sheets of carbon paper," says Christophe Laurent, the plant manager. Simple… but not very effective!

"This system prevented us from having a precise view of the production rate at any given moment: to know where we were, we had to go to the machines," laments Christophe Laurent. The configuration, tiring for the team leaders who had to travel miles throughout the plant to monitor production progress, was also stressful for everyone: "Searching for information creates uncertainty, it puts production at risk and fatigues employees, thus increasing the risk of error," notes Alexandre Moraine, the company's CEO.

Operational excellence: move faster, minimize non-conformities

Increasing the quality of operations was indeed the second expected benefit of digitalizing the factory. Among the indicators to improve:

• The scrap rate (non-compliant parts),
• The downtime of machines that must be reconfigured between two production runs,
• The time taken to resolve incidents
• The time taken for forklift operators to "pick up" parts produced

Taken together, all these optimizations should improve TIAG's productivity: "It's about gaining competitiveness compared to competitors in Eastern Europe in particular," explains Alexandre Moraine. "It's absolutely essential when you've chosen, as we have, to go 100% made in France."

Digitalization of production at TIAG Industries: progress step by step

In its 3 production units, TIAG implements several distinct industrial processes:

• Injection,
• Extrusion Blow Molding
• Rotomolding
• Assembly and Finishing

Different machines, different teams, and different processes: it was neither possible nor desirable to digitize all units at once. From 2020 to 2023, thanks to the ongoing support of Pingflow's teams, a gradual rollout took place.

2020-2021: a POC to experiment… and reassure

If Pingflow places the POC (proof of concept, i.e. a test in real conditions, but on a small scale) at the heart of its support approach, it's for a good reason. And even several:

• Technically, and in terms of business, each industrial context is different: to be efficient, a digital visual management solution must be perfectly adapted to the machine and its control requirements.
• In terms of information systems, a solution like Pingflow connects to an existing system (often an ERP), with which a "dialogue" must be established.
• The resulting change is not just technical… far from it! A digital transformation is, above all, a human transformation: obtaining buy-in (and valuable feedback) on the implementation of this new tool is a key benefit for this POC phase.

For this first stage, efforts focused on the operator console, a sort of tablet allowing men to declare and “monitor” their activity at their workstation.

Console connected to production to provide operators with operating information and send alerts (quality, logistics)

HMI on console for monitoring machine and andon activity at the operator station

The challenge, emphasizes Christophe Laurent, was to demonstrate to team leaders and operators how Pingflow would make their work easier, reassure them about the reliability of the tool… But also to listen to and take into account their suggestions for improvement." At the end of the POC, version 1 was therefore significantly improved:

• In terms of user interface (position, size, color of alert buttons, access to various actions, etc.),
• In terms of information provided: work order numbers and end times, for example, an indicator that "speaks" to operators and team leaders.

The result? An ergonomic 4.0 console, adapted to its uses, providing essential information in a timely manner (number of parts produced, rejects, etc.), and above all, the first solid building block for a more widespread deployment.

Following this conclusive POC, the operator consoles were generalized to all 8 TIAG blowers in 2021, then to the fleet of 7 injection machines at the start of 2022.

2021-2022: a deployment that is gaining momentum

But this deployment doesn't "only" concern workstations. Facilitating the work of operators is just one of the levers of digitalizing a factory through visual management, which Pingflow has enhanced with:

• Streamlining the andon alert process: issued by the operator from their console, it results in the incident being displayed on the workshop display panels, followed by a second "escalation" alert to a second manager if there is no response.
• Extending the console's functionality to call forklift operators to come and retrieve pallets of produced parts.
• Installing large summary screens to track production KPIs and display incidents at various locations throughout the factory.

The forklift operator's desks, installed on the forklifts, are permanently accessible.

From the offices and in the factory, these screens provide a global, real-time view of the status of production.

Throughout the project: enrichments and agility

One of the keys to this successful deployment? The adaptability of the Pingflow teams… and of the tool itself, "in which it's very easy to add or remove elements and applications, which made it much easier for us to optimize the interfaces: we wanted it to be as easy to use as a smartphone," says Christophe Laurent.

And for everything that needed to be configured upstream, the Pingflow project teams were the driving force. This included the connection between Pingflow and TIAG's ERP, an essential ingredient for success for:

• Monitor inventory status,
• keep up-to-date information on maintenance, quality, and new production launches, etc.
• all in real time, to facilitate feedback internally, as well as to management and even customers.

The results: more (and better) productive workshops

Increased responsiveness at all levels

Thanks to the system implemented with the help of Pingflow, all information relating to TIAG's production is digitized and therefore available in real time. This results in significant time savings at all levels of the company.

On the production side, first:

• Workshop managers and operator supervisors, since they only need to travel when an incident requiring their intervention is confirmed, have "saved" between 5 and 8% of their working time.
• The operators themselves, relieved of the tasks of clocking in, counting, and calling forklift operators, have saved considerable time on their daily tasks.
• Finally, plant management benefits fully from a super-smooth information transfer. "It's simple," says Christophe Laurent, "today I know exactly, and in a few seconds, where we are in the workshop!"

This streamlining of production monitoring also has beneficial impacts well beyond production stations:

• In logistics, with better optimization of forklift operator routes thanks to the call function integrated into operator consoles,
• upstream and downstream, with more than two working days saved in administration: all data entry is now automated, allowing these teams to focus on other tasks.

Increased quality and compliance

The other major advantage of digitalization is that it minimizes (or even eliminates) the risk of human error. At TIAG, this translates into:

• On the administrative side, through a significant reduction in order entry errors and the monitoring of daily production results, thanks to automation and task streamlining.
• On the production side, through a drop in the reject rate (non-compliant parts) to 0.8%.

Incidents under control

The third major benefit is a classic of Pingflow's factory digitalization projects: from reporting to resolution, incident management is fully optimized thanks to a digital andon alert system integrated into all operator panels. Previously, locating a problem on the machine park could take up to 30 minutes… Time reduced to a minimum today.

Consequences ?

• Operators gain peace of mind and comfort, since they know their alerts will be seen and responded to quickly.
• Their supervisors can better prioritize their time and allocate time between machine setup, operator training, urgent tasks, and important ones.

In short, it's unanimous: "Today, all users tell me: there's no question of going back, the new system makes their job much easier!" concludes Christophe Laurent.

Projects full of boxes

The results? It's more than satisfactory. "A few years ago, I was learning by visiting our clients' factories. Today, they're surprised by the level of digitalization and efficiency we've achieved!" says Alexandre Moraine.

But this is a provisional assessment, because these initial successes have given ideas to the TIAG Industries teams! The next areas for improvement identified?

• Optimizing production processes: "By using all our individual data points (incidents, lead times, small workload disruptions, etc.), we aim to identify where recurring bottlenecks occur and better prevent them," points out Christophe Laurent.
• Traceability and communication with customers, by allowing operators and team leaders to "feed" the system implemented with Pingflow: identifying batches in production, sending annotated photos of parts, etc.
• Management and company strategy. "The idea is to more systematically use the data collected through Pingflow and our ERP for AIC, but also for meetings focused on productivity opportunities," imagines Alexandre Moraine.

“Thanks to Pingflow, we are fortunate to have a tool that provides us with objective, indisputable information: it’s up to us to make use of it,” concludes the manager.

Founded in Tourcoing in 1966, the Ciuch group (around 160 employees) is a leader in the field of intralogistics solutions. It designs and manufactures complete logistics systems that can be configured (almost) as easily as Lego: custom-made conveyors (10 km produced per year!), controlled by the Ciuch WCS (Warehouse Control System) software.

Its clients? Major players, retail startups, 3PLs (service providers that manage the entire supply chain for their customers), and other logistics integrators. These are all players for whom logistics has become a key issue and who rely on Ciuch's turnkey solutions to ensure perfectly optimized warehouse flows.

Driven by this context and the e-commerce boom, Ciuch experienced explosive growth: doubling between 2016 and 2021. This impressive performance, but also required industrialization and the development of production methods, notes Bruno Galiot, the industrial director who joined the company in mid-2021. “We managed production with a little Excel, a lot of email exchanges, and even more memory!”

The challenge? Structure the business, optimize industrial processes, and restore visibility to all stakeholders in the production chain.

The observation: “weekly” production management, neither in real time nor visible to the teams

Coming from the machine tool industry, working for major clients in the automotive and aeronautics sectors, Bruno Galiot quickly set out to introduce management based on indicators and production monitoring into his organization. The goal? Simple: "that what we designed in the design offices be manufactured on time." Here's how they went about it.

A first step: modeling the flows

Well-oiled physical flows…

The first step to digitizing production monitoring? Examine and model the organization to gain a clear view of flows. At Ciuch, creating a logistics system involves several steps:

1. The design office, which designs the system and places the order internally.
2. The actual manufacturing of the various system components.
3. Surface treatment (painting, zinc plating, etc.) is subcontracted externally before being returned to Ciuch.
4. Mechanical assembly, and, in parallel, the wiring workshop for the electrical component.
5. Shipment in a single batch to the customer's final site for installation and commissioning (always handled by Ciuch).

…but information flows to be optimized…

Visualizing the “path” of a customer order’s elements through the various workshops is essential, but it’s not enough. You also need to model:

• What information is needed: progress status of a part, completion or non-completion of a step, etc.
• Who provides this information: the plant manager, the workshop manager, the operator, etc.

At Ciuch, monitoring was mainly done through Excel files (one per workshop), which worked satisfactorily… as long as we stayed within the scope of each workshop. Because these monitoring files did not communicate with each other, and therefore remained primarily the tool of each workshop manager. Hence two concerns for effective management:

• In the field, where we relied on weekly printouts of the file, without real-time visibility of activity,
• between the different workshops, which had little visibility into the progress of the production of their "neighbors," and therefore little ability to anticipate.

…and a need for agility in planning

The final area for improvement identified by the Ciuch teams: production scheduling. Every weekend, Bruno Galiot spent two hours drawing up the production schedule for the coming week.

The problem? "The scheduling was regularly disrupted as early as Monday evening," notes Bruno Galiot. "In itself, this isn't a problem; it's normal workshop life. But where it posed a problem was that some people were sticking to the initial schedule because they weren't effectively notified of changes." Too cumbersome before, not agile enough during the process: the scheduling system wasn't adequately fulfilling its role as a production scout.

Clearly identified management needs

In short, it was time to revise the copy. At the end of 2022, Ciuch therefore set out to find a solution to manage its production more efficiently, with clear specifications:

1. Make progress information for all activities visible everywhere. This involves two key challenges: enabling downstream processes to anticipate and then activate as quickly as possible when the units arrive within their scope.
2. Provide status updates as close to completion as possible, so that this information is always accurate, particularly for teams in contact with clients (project managers in the design office and installers).

It is with these needs in mind that Bruno Galiot asked Pingflow to support him in this project.

Digitalization of production monitoring: a high-speed project

Pingflow's Choice

Why Pingflow? Three reasons led Ciuch to collaborate with us:

1. Pingflow's ability to respond in parallel to another need identified by Ciuch: improving internal communication and QHSE within the entire company.
2. Beyond this immediate use case, the “functional breadth” of our solution. Pingflow allows you to digitize your production monitoring, set up advanced alert systems (e-Andon), lead team rituals (AIC)… And therefore assemble, step by step, and piece by piece, “the” digitization solution adapted to the challenges of the company.
3. The right mix of a proven solution and easy, affordable customization. For companies like Ciuch, Pingflow is an excellent "light MES": powerful, tailored to the needs of manufacturers, yet quick and easy to implement.

Auditing and framing the project: an essential phase

The starting point for this type of project will be familiar to all lean manufacturing enthusiasts: going into the field. Pingflow's teams visited Ciuch to:

• Observe and audit the organization,
• Collect all requirements, based on the roles of all stakeholders (from the industrial director to the operators), as well as the diverse contexts of the different workshops: the challenges of manufacturing and assembly, in particular, are not the same,
• and thus propose an approach that best "fits" Ciuch's needs.

This approach offers another advantage, fundamental in this type of project that affects habits and working methods: presenting the project, from its inception, to end users. And therefore automatically involving them in the process.

The visit confirmed the diagnosis made by Bruno Galiot and his teams: “Ciuch already had a good foundation in its organization and a good grasp of its processes,” recalls Dimitri Brachet, Director of Operations at Pingflow. “The challenge was, on the one hand, to streamline it, and on the other, to disseminate information more effectively to make it available to everyone.”

Progress tracking on Excel (before Pingflow)

The prototype: delivery in 3 months

Last advantage of this audit visit (and not the least interesting): the design of the flowboard (the visual management screen dedicated to piloting production) is much faster and more efficient.

“It was operational by July 2023, although we preferred the end of summer to fully utilize it,” explains Bruno Galiot. “The responsiveness of the Pingflow teams during this phase was impressive: we hadn’t finished entering a ticket to report a problem before it was already resolved!”

Deployment: Data and design, the magic ingredients for accelerated adoption

By November 2023, 100% of workshop production monitoring had switched to flowboards designed by Pingflow.

The key to this rapid adoption? For Dimitri Brachet, the answer lies in two words: data and design.

“For a flowboard (and for any digital visual management screen), users must have confidence in the quality of the information they are viewing, and visualize it in an ergonomic interface. If one of these two ingredients is missing, it’s a failure.” “And Pingflow has real expertise in design and UX (user experience),” adds Bruno Galiot.

The flowboard: a tool for smoother production

Visible activity close to the ground

The result? With Pingflow, Ciuch implemented a digital flowboard on touchscreens in the various production areas:

• manufacturing, assembly and shipping now have a real-time view of the progress of orders in the workshop,
• the information, centralized and updated automatically, provides visibility on what is being done in other workshops
• teams can therefore quickly adjust priorities based on actual production progress.

"The Flowboard has allowed us to structure our production without imposing too many drastic changes on our teams. Today, we are more responsive and better organized," says Bruno Galiot.

The results: more visibility = more efficiency

The benefits of these flowboards, with a little over 18 months of hindsight?

• A significant time saving, with "clean," accurate information right where operators and workshop managers need it, whereas previously, even the slightest check in the ERP (to which the flowboard is connected) was slow and tedious.
• An energy saving for the plant manager and workshop managers, who no longer need to go on-site to check that operations are running smoothly, check shuttle records, etc.
• Better coordination between departments: from the design office to the "back of the shop floor," information is sent (and sent) in a few minutes, instead of several hours (or even days) before the flowboard is set up.
• Better responsiveness to unforeseen events.
• "Rolling" planning and scheduling, which Bruno Galiot now performs in a few minutes every day, rather than several hours at the weekend.
• Overall, more agile management, without having to disrupt the existing organization.

And then ?

Building on this success, Ciuch is already working on the next steps. The first direction? Expanding the use of flowboards to increase productivity. And moving from a system that remains largely handled by workshop managers to a tool that teams can fully embrace: by recording their actions, the progress of various production orders, etc. "We still need to develop our reflexes at this level," acknowledges Bruno Galiot.

The second approach? Streamlining the arrival of orders in the production workshop by leveraging Table (Pingflow's "No-Code" collaborative database) to streamline the creation of shuttle sheets directly when the plan is edited by the design office. "Eliminating this double entry, ensuring the quality of the shuttle sheet information, and being able to trigger its printing automatically would be a significant time saver," anticipates Bruno Galiot.

And finally, in the longer term, Ciuch's teams are exploring the implementation of connected AICs. The ambition? To further improve monitoring and communication between teams, and capitalize on data from production management for more effective team rituals.

Summary

By switching from a paper flowboard to a digital flowboard, the Sabca Brussels plant has significantly streamlined the production monitoring of parts for the Airbus A350 program. All this in record deployment time. Wallboards for team rituals have also helped streamline communication.

Sabca: an aeronautics subcontractor… “condemned” to excellence

For a century, Sabca (Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) has established itself as one of the world's largest suppliers of aeronautical equipment, with four main markets: defense, space, industry, and commercial aviation. From drones to Arianespace launchers, the group employs around a thousand people across four factories (three in Belgium, one in Morocco), the largest of which—and the one we're interested in here—is located in Brussels.

Sabca Brussels: a major subcontractor of the A350 program

At this Brussels site (which is also its headquarters), nearly 700 employees work in the 105,000 m² factory to produce cantilevers, ribs, and levers—the parts that operate the flaps of the A350, Airbus's large aircraft. This high-precision work is part of the incredibly complex industrial ballet that is the assembly of an Airbus: safety, quality, costs, and deadlines are non-negotiable!

At any given time, the production backlog on the two lines of the Sabca-Brussels factory is approximately 80 parts, enough to equip five A350s. The factory operates Monday to Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., in two shifts that must also be coordinated for smooth operations. In short: precise production monitoring is essential.

Paper production monitoring: precise, but so time-consuming…

The factory is, of course, equipped with an ERP system, which provides reliable information on the status of parts and structures in production. “But an ERP system doesn’t give you a global view of the health of your line,” emphasizes David Vermoesen, “that’s not its job.” It’s also not designed to provide this visibility to all stakeholders in the chain, and access to it is restricted.

To answer the question “where are we in terms of the progress of the parts to be produced”, David Vermoesen, the program operations manager, therefore created a flowboard, with several levels of information:

• Operator level
• Team leader level (workshop manager)
• Factory level

First, with a very simple process… on paper. A large synoptic spreadsheet diagramming the production lines and showing the progress of each part in production, which each team leader would then "point out" during the shift.

Simple? But not very efficient! “Do the math: import the ERP data into Excel, print the tables, have the team leaders fill them out for each of the 80 parts in production (and this over 2 shifts) and then manually enter the information into the spreadsheet… It took us a good 1 to 2 hours a day,” explains David Vermoesen. And if there’s one rare commodity in industry, it’s time!

Less time, fewer errors: the challenges of automating production monitoring

David Vermoesen quickly began looking for a solution that would allow him to automate the collection of field information.

What does he expect from it?

• Real-time monitoring of production progress (instead of having a snapshot of it per shift);
• The ability to better manage, or even anticipate, bottlenecks;
• Fewer errors (partly related to human input);
• And a significant time saving (for both the manager and the team leaders).

Lucky break: Sabca has been working on a project to digitize AIC (short interval animation) meetings with Pingflow for some time now. A potential partner to implement David Vermoesen's idea has been found. All that's left is to find the right partner!

The automated flowboard: gains for all links in the chain

The digital flowboard project will be deployed at… almost supersonic speed. Approached at the beginning of summer 2021, the Pingflow teams delivered an operational flowboard in September. “The Pingflow teams were ultra-responsive,” appreciates David Vermoesen. “But we were able to move forward all the faster because David's expression of needs was extremely well-crafted and advanced,” retorts Christophe Zanetto, project manager and UX/UI Designer at Pingflow.

Pingflow’s contribution: challenging the user experience (UX)

Indeed, the expression of need was clear: based on his “manual” flowboard, David Vermoesen had already sketched out a first rendering of what he wanted. On this basis, the Pingflow teams proposed a more readable and dynamic version with:

• Immediate identification of "MSNs" (batches of parts in production corresponding to an aircraft)
• A clearer view of the progress of each batch based on the forecast schedule
• Visualization of the advance or delay in part production (thanks to color codes applied to the gauges)

“This wasn’t a clearly identified expectation on my part, and yet, this is where we realize the contribution of design and UX to an interface like this: Pingflow has really succeeded in making this flowboard much simpler and more efficient in transmitting information,” emphasizes David Vermoesen.

Sabca's first digital flowboard project

The final version of the flowboard proposed by Pingflow

The result: an agile, near-real-time flowboard

With this rendering, which more clearly conveys the production progress of the various parts, the new flowboard easily won the support of operators and team leaders.

On the rib line (where the new digital flowboard is initially deployed), a large screen allows all teams to monitor production in near real-time (information updated every 30 minutes), while saving David Vermoesen and the team leaders the tedious step of timekeeping.

Because the main need was there, and the contract has been fulfilled: the team leaders now use the flowboard "live" as a production management tool, saving 1 to 2 hours per day on update time.

This real-time visibility offers a second benefit: it allows them to anticipate timekeeping or other problems on parts, and also improves response time when they occur. More responsive, less time-consuming, more readable: the project is a success! And we're only just getting started…

Flowboards, a new asset for Sabca

Building on this successful POC, David Vermoesen plans to continue in two directions:

• Implement similar flowboards across all production lines at the Brussels plant (2021-2022), then across Sabca's other divisions (2023).
• Use reprocessed data for flowboards to more precisely manage production lines.

Generalize flowboards across the company

Monitoring and responding to production incidents on a production line in real time is just one step. The whole challenge of the project is to streamline all factory operations on the A350 program: in 2022, all lines dedicated to ribs and levers will benefit from the same dashboard as the test line.

Then, probably from 2023, it will be the turn of other production units in the group to draw on the lessons learned from the project carried out with Pingflow to set up their own flowboards.

Using the flowboard to inspire operational excellence

Another follow-up to this project: exploiting the data generated to feed the flowboard no longer from a dynamic and real-time perspective, but with a historical view.

Every advance or delay in the production of a part, every delay in an operation… will serve to fuel reflection on the actual pace of production. And therefore allow for upstream adaptation of capacities, implementation of more efficient resource reallocation processes… Production monitoring represents a wealth of information for achieving the ultimate objective: operational excellence.

The wallboard for AIC (team rituals)

“The time we no longer spend building KPIs is spent on taking action.”

Looking back, David tells us that "the tool can be used by the operator, the team leader, the line manager" and that it allows us to "ensure that operators are always working with the latest qualified and validated products." Wallboards are now the "main management tool," and it is even "the operator who will come and challenge the improvement of the tool."

His advice for this type of project:

• Involve users (don't impose)
• and… take it step by step!

Simple checklists and escalation of actions from level 1 to level 2

Checklists are a valuable tool for operators because they help them follow the steps of a process in a clear and organized manner. They help limit errors, especially in environments where tasks are complex or highly regulated by standards. By guiding operators step by step, they ensure that nothing important is overlooked, which improves safety, product quality, and compliance. They are also very useful for supporting newcomers.

Different questions were designed for each section, and operators meet daily to complete the checklist and escalate actions to level 2. David tells us that "we can now escalate from the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom" thanks to the tool. Digitizing this practice has made it possible to "reduce human error" and focus on taking actions during the level 2 ritual.