How to Manufacture in Europ by Peter Brett
In the last few years we have all got used to reading about closing factories and poor industrial performance, particularly in Britain. So, it is very refreshing to learn about a success story. I refer of course to the French company GYS, based in Laval in the Pays de Loire region of France. GYS is now a major supplier of welding and related tools to the tool distribution industry both in the UK and in Europe, but is a bit of a well-kept secret. ToolBusiness and Hire paid a visit to this vibrant and expanding company that gave us an insight into some of the ways in which a model of modern European manufacturing could work very successfully. In my opinion, if there were a few more factories operating on the GYS model,
we would be a lot more optimistic about our economic performance. Not to mention that we wouldn’t be exporting jobs to the Far East and looking quite as glum as the tabloids like to portray. Briefly, GYS is the brainchild of Bruno Bouygues and his father Nicolas, who
bought the company in 1997. GYS had an established track record of producing transformers, welders and battery chargers since 1964. Bruno and Nicolas’ big idea was that the company had to be radically modernized in all aspects – from the products to the premises, employees to R and D. A look at these figures will provide some idea of the level of transformation:- In 1997 GYS employed 40 people in a small factory, it now employs 400 in four
different countries in purpose-built and expanding facilities. In 2008 over a quarter of a million machines were produced by GYS, and Bruno reminded us often that the target was to produce over a thousand machines a day in Laval by the end of 2012. Clearly we need to look more closely at some of the reasons why GYS is
successful. I have always been fascinated by the concept and principles of leadership and
the notion of charisma. To meet Bruno Bouygues, now in his thirties, and Nicolas, his father, is to be charmed and inspired in equal measures. They are almost bouncing with enthusiasm and goodwill and a desire to show off their creation, GYS. But this is not merely a shallow charm offensive – their confidence and enthusiasm are solidly based on real achievements already posted, and with ambitious plans for the future. This confidence and openness is catching and is inspirational not only to visitors but also to the shopfloor and every employee. It obviously helps that people in GYS’ orbit enjoy the feel-good factor that a confident and open management style helps create. Bruno is well qualified to run an enterprise like GYS. He is an engineer, has
management training and further education from institutions like MIT in the USA, and has also done a six-month stint helping to establish the People’s Bank in post- apartheid South Africa. His conversation and knowledge is wide-ranging, and like
many Europeans, he shames we Brits by the number of languages in which he is able to think and converse. So why is this important? To me it indicates a company leadership that not only acts locally, but thinks globally about its products and its markets and all the other modern things like the “Green Agenda” that are part of modern business. An example of Bruno’s thinking is his observation that manufacturing at GYS is like the development of mobile phone technology. Technical breakthroughs lead to bigger volumes and lower prices. It seems evident to me that when Bruno says that GYS can supply a European-quality welding machine with many advanced features at a price that a Chinese factory would wince at, he is stating an obvious truth. But to do this you have to be very smart indeed. Since it is key to the organization of most modern businesses I asked Bruno
about the company IT system. It transpires that this system is designed in-house and offers almost minute-by-minute interrogation of the tiniest detail of manufacturing, machines and financial matters. In an act of open management style that would frighten many company
executives, Bruno gave ToolBusiness and Hire a tour of the GYS IT system, simply looking at some of the most common applications that have been built in. For example, there is a highly detailed and individualized spreadsheet of what
orders have been placed and by whom and their cash value. This information can be accessed by the people who need to know,- maybe a manager wanting to assess how a salesperson is performing and what the sales of a particular machine are, in case they have an implication for shopfloor manufacturing. A detailed record of all machines that have been made with their serial
numbers and their end-of-manufacture test results is kept on the system so that if any are returned, individual faults can be identified. In this way R and D engineers can slowly “engineer out” weak components and design features with the eventual aim of producing machines that are as close to 100% reliable as they can be. Clearly, the management at GYS is not only open and enthusiastic, but
extremely well informed and organized. With the level and detail of knowledge available via the IT system, intelligent decisions can be made by managers and executives. It is also one of my observations about inspirational management is that they know what they are talking about. Bruno and Nicolas have excellent knowledge literally at their fingertips. Commitment to excellence is vital in management, but excellent R and D is
also a requirement for a modern manufacturing company. Many much larger companies would envy the 35+ R and D engineers employed at GYS. In their purpose built and soon-to-be-extended, laboratories and workshops I watched as these engineers went unhurriedly about their jobs. It was evident that the
8 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
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