Chimney manufacturer Beirens, located in the Buzançais industrial zone, has embarked on its industry 4.0 revolution through its development plan called PERF 2025. The plan, which focuses on robotisation, digitalisation and increased production capacity to target new markets, is one of the winners of the “Fund for accelerating industrial investment in the regions” call for projects in Centre-Val de Loire, part of the France Relance recovery plan.
Investment is continuing at all of the group's plants, and currently at the Buzançais site in particular, which employs 238 people and generated a turnover of €24 million in the 2021-2022 financial year. A major plan to modernise, digitalise, robotise and expand the machine fleet – without extending the existing 42,000 m² of buildings – is under way, to consolidate existing activities on the one hand and develop new products for future markets on the other, with the aim of eventually reaching €30 million.
“PERF 2025 is mainly about investing to increase the site's production capacity in our historical markets. The new tools we will bring in over the next twenty-four months (notably a new 2D station, a new chimney sheet cutting unit and a new storage system, editor's note) will also allow us to diversify by developing new products for future markets (decarbonisation, renewable energies). We want to make the most of all our know-how and production tools to extend our business to industrial boiler making on simple or complex parts and assemblies in general,” explains Stéphane Mahuteau, site manager since August 2021.
Increased production capacity, safely
A few months ago, Beirens applied with PERF 2025 to the France Relance “Fund for accelerating industrial investment in the regions” call for projects in Centre-Val de Loire. Selected at the end of June, the project will receive support covering 15% of the total investment cost (around €600k out of a total of €3.5 million, editor's note).
“This financial boost from the State and the Centre-Val de Loire Region is a real accelerator for our project. We will clearly gain in flexibility, efficiency and productivity, while taking care of the health and safety of our employees. Our future production tool, which will offer far more functionality than what we have today, will see a huge increase in capacity thanks to faster and safer execution,” adds the manager, who is betting on greater appeal among younger generations who hesitate to go into so-called technical professions.
“A boiler-making workshop has not looked like Germinal for a long time. Coal-blackened workers were a reality in Zola's day; that is no longer at all the case today, when we are doing a great deal of work on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and it will be even less so tomorrow once our development, modernisation and digitalisation plan has been completed. This upcoming technology will further reduce MSDs and make work easier for our operators and skilled staff. All these improvements are also intended to attract new employees, young or not so young, to positions where they can thrive and progress over the years as the equipment evolves. People and resources are at the centre of our concerns.”
Indeed, by 2024 the chimney manufacturer plans to recruit around twenty new employees across all the trades present at the Buzançais site.
Written and published (in French) by the Indre Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 28 July 2022: indre.cci.fr
