These foreign sites are a kind of ideal target

The historic Peugeot in Sochaux plant, which will celebrate its centennial in 2012, must adapt if it wants to stay in the race. Composed of several disjoint buildings scattered on a site of 265 hectares, it started in 2007 to be "compact", according to the House vocabulary, for efficiency. Here, work going on more surfaces than workforce reduction, because order books are well filled. "It is a long-term approach essential to keep our productivity to more recent factories, explains Jean-Philippe Jombart, the Director of the site." For three years, we have reduced surfaces "process", to optimize investments. But we are still far from the fixed goal: reduce by about one third total surfaces for eight years.

Assembly lines, logistical areas have already started their "compact". The length of one of the two assembly lines, dedicated to models 3008 and 5008, was shortened by 25, to adapt to the precepts of "lean manufacturing". Will follow this year painting unit and the area of quality control of cars, at the end of string. The difficulty lies in the fact that the production of vehicles, it was never stops. "The goal is not to say"it shaves everything"and to rebuild a plant, continued the charge of the institution." Editing, is a progressive work surface reductions each year. It works by small surfaces that improve, according to a fairly complex set of picture puzzle. "By removing some buildings become unnecessary, shortening logistics flows and miles of conveyor belts, the constructor can make concrete savings, maintenance of treadmills or heating. Work facilitated by comparisons with the other Group sites much more modern, built recently from scratch in Czech Republic, Slovakia or Russia. These foreign sites are a kind of "ideal target".

12,000 employees

Here, the productivity gains are not at the expense of employment, unlike the rest of the group, where the departure plans were massive in recent years. "We are in a period favourable, less painful to some colleagues, adds Jean-Philippe Jombart." In a short time, we have received three new models, of which two (the 3008 and the 5008) represent additional activity. "At the time, the current workforce of Sochaux-Montbéliard always reach 12,000 people, little different from those in 2007 (about 12,700). And the number of temporary jobs, which had fallen to zero at the height of the crisis, in early 2009, rose to about 1,700. To meet the rising demand, a team of night was established on one of the two assembly lines. Productivity gain was therefore the great another variable of the equation: the volume of production. PSA plans to manufacture in Sochaux more than 350,000 vehicles this year, despite the dark clouds on the European car market, is much more than in 2008 (285.000) and 2009 (270,000).

But, to be passed by a particularly severe crisis last year, the manufacturer knows that the activity is highly cyclical and that records breed all year. If he wants to continue to produce France vehicles in its historical sites, the required way is that to a significant reduction in the costs of structure. In the whole of the PSA group, "optimization of the use of surfaces" is one of ways displayed to reduce by 20 the number of hours needed to produce a car.