ACTIA is pursuing the deployment of its factory 4.0 in Colomiers - France
February 2019 News
While French industrial production saw a decline in 2018, ACTIA is making a move against the tide and continuing to invest in the Colomiers factory. The factory, which produces and incorporates circuit boards for the Automotive and Aeronautical sectors, is launching a high-capacity SMD line incorporating cutting-edge production equipment. In 2019, the site is still on track and is developing its industrial resources. ACTIA’s EMS is implementing the complex mass production SMD line with the aim of offering greater flexibility and making the processes secure. A look back on the ACTIA version of factory 4.0.
Investing in a Factory 4.0 in France: a bold but necessary move!
Initiated in 2015, ACTIA remains true to its desire to raise the Colomiers factory to the highest industrial production level in terms of output, technology and the labour force. It was no small challenge to maintain and expand industrial production in France: a decision involving €8 million of investment in equipment, €3 million in infrastructure, expansions and complete upgrading, and the creation of 80 jobs. This challenge relates to the economic and social commitments undertaken by the group's governance, driven by its unwavering entrepreneurial spirit - it has stayed true to its beliefs and this has paid off.
Flexibility and technical expertise; the keywords for factory 4.0
For the ACTIA group, the Colomiers industrial site is a veritable industrial showcase, a reference production tool of excellence thanks to its flexibility and technical expertise. In 2018, ACTIA applied its recognised know-how to the configuration of this new mass production line, on the Lean U Shape model, for highly optimised processes and maximum efficiency. This new collaborative production unit, which is innovative in two ways, combines human and technical processes, with operators working alongside co-bots and enclosed robots.
Robots and people supporting factory 4.0
It has already been two years since robots first appeared on the group’s integration lines. A team dedicated to robotic resources oversees their implementation and process optimisation. The Factory 4.0 approach falls within ACTIA’s commitments to make People and the Environment its primary concerns in order to ensure the Group’s lasting success.
“Robotics is a real technological breakthrough, and a driver for competitiveness. Robots improve production from an ergonomic point of view for operations that require repetitive or dangerous movements. Collaborative robotics values operators and their skills since they can focus on tasks with high added value. The implementation of this new collaborative line is accompanied by a major recruitment plan.” Explains Florent Desvignes, Director of the Colomiers ACTIA factory.
Factory 4.0: or how to combine competitiveness and quality?
All process steps are timed to the nearest second. In a context of tight constraints on product design and the supply of “critical” components, ACTIA provides high-level expertise in supporting electronic design, mechanics, industrialisation and production testing. With its growing skills, human resources and technical resources, ACTIA designs and produces its own production testing equipment, in order to ensure the profitability and the best possible compliance of SMD lines (FPY).
Factory of the future for vehicles of the future: 1600m2 dedicated to the production of telematics units
“The factory of the future is already here, we now need to design this 4.0 production tool, with all that this involves in technical, financial and human terms. Our customers design vehicles that are shaping the mobility of the future; smart, autonomous vehicles that incorporate multiple on-board and remote services. ACTIA has to monitor the progress of this smart mobility, obviously in the way it designs its products but also in the way it produces them, and especially when producing telematics units that are at the heart of vehicle connectivity.” Explains Eric le Bozec, ACTIA Group Industrial Director.
Logistical resources to match the high standards of Factory 4.0
Logistics on the Colomiers industrial site are no exception to this wave of modernisation. Projects are under way with the aim of automating handling operations. The AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicles) truck autonomously makes a complete loop of the workshop. It carries raw materials to the integration line using a laser-guided system..
By outsourcing a logistics warehouse, implemented with its own resources, we have freed up the production area in Colomiers. This logistics site is served by 10 daily circuits by a Gruau Electron II electric shuttle, powered by an ACTIA power train electric drive system, produced in Colomiers!
The ACTIA Colomiers Factory 4.0: a model example
ACTIA Colomiers, the Group’s industrial laboratory, builds on intra-group dynamics to pool expertise and develop business-wide skills, in order to deploy the same innovative factory principles at its industrial site in Tunis (CIPI ACTIA). Local requirements must, however, be taken into account.
This determination, affecting the 3 sites in Colomiers, Tunis and Detroit, to raise its production tool to an equal level of performance in terms of quality and competitiveness, falls within the group’s strategy. With an efficient industrial tool, increased potential for international growth and a recognised capacity for innovation in areas of strategic excellence, ACTIA is confident in its ability to pursue its growth strategy.
Read also :
ACTIA OPENS A PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES IN RECORD TIME -https://bit.ly/2T0BoXP
FACTORY OF THE FUTURE: ACTIA ON THE ROAD TO A NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION https://bit.ly/2CUyCNr
