Thursday 18 March, a large delegation from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (located in the South West of France) with President Alain Rousset, visited the Latecoere site of Liposthey.

A PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE FRENCH STATE

On this occasion, Thierry Mootz, Deputy CEO of Latecoere, surrounded by very motivated teams, introduced the “Smart Factory”: a transversal, global and offensive project which, in response to the unprecedented crisis of the aerospace sector, aims to improve competitiveness and prepare the future of the group’s “Interconnection systems” branch. Officially launched at the start of the year, the project is funded by the French State with a financial support of 4.4 million euros as part of the French recovery plan for the industry. In total, the Latecoere group will invest 20 million euros over three years to build this center of industrial excellence, to maintain key skills in France and to diversify its business.

MORE AGILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS TO BETTER MEET CUSTOMER NEEDS

The “Smart Factory” will generate significant productivity gains (up to 40% for some operations) and make new markets accessible through technological investments and breakthrough innovations. This will result in more agility and responsiveness, in order to better meet customer needs. There will be a lot of digitization and automation in the initiatives deployed, in order to assist the work of the teams and to be more efficient, with for exemple the use of robotic arms (or “cobots”) for assistance in harness routing, digitization in logistics operations, or even digital production management.

A LABORATORY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERNIZATION INITIATIVES

The Liposthey site, with more than 30 years of experience in cabling and strengths in terms of proximity to customers, will become the strategic center of the “Smart Factory”. It will continue its production activity but it will evolve in order to become a true technological laboratory for the development of modernization initiatives. It will also rely on other sites of the group which, due to their specialization, are also intended to incubate initiatives. Finally, the mature processes will be duplicated on the branch’s sites, in France and around the world: the entire branch will benefit from the progress of the “Smart Factory”. This project will strengthen Latecoere’s position as a leader and a pioneer in the EWIS sector.

THE “ECONOMY PACK” GATHERED AROUND LATECOERE

Institutional officials and industrial representatives from Nouvelle-Aquitaine were all there to show their support to the “Smart Factory” approach, for the preservation of know-how and the anchoring of the aeronautical industry in the local territory.