From left to right: David Ebling – President, Altra ECB Group; Eric Groud – President of the CCI; Pierre Lonjon – Business Unit Manager, Warner Electric; Pascal Connan, Managing Director of Altra ECB Europe; Jean Pierre Bernheim – President of Angers Loire Development and deputy of Angers Loire Metropole; Carl Christenson, CEO of Warner’s parent company, Altra Industrial Motion.
On Wednesday, 5th October 2016, Warner Electric celebrated the official opening of its extended factory in Angers, France. The new production facility consolidates Warner’s manufacturing activities to a single area, which has led to immediate improvements to lead times and the opportunity to further grow its product range.
Founded in 1927, Warner Electric is now a global leader in the development of electromagnetic clutch and brake solutions as well as electrically operated linear actuators. Until now its manufacturing facilities have been split over two locations, 80km apart, with a Le Mans based site operating as a supplier to its headquarters in Angers. In 2014 the decision was made to merge the operations into a single site in order to simplify operations and reduce lead times.
Pascal Connan, Managing Director of Altra ECB Europe, explains: “We approached the project with clear goals in mind. We wanted to reduce our lead times by two thirds, further increase our on-time deliveries and create opportunities to further expand our product range and engineering capabilities.
“With all of our manufacturing under a single roof we eliminate the need to transport stock from one location to another and open up the possibility to one-piece-flow manufacturing. We now have dedicated moving production lines for each of our key product categories – each named after a local river. We’ve also improved the warehouse layout to make it more visual and help us to manage stock levels. Finally we installed a loading dock to speed up the loading of our delivery vehicles.
“We entered the new building at the start of 2016 and had reached our standard production levels by March. We’re now achieving improved production levels compared to 2015, and each month we are continuing to work towards our ultimate targets.”
As part of the celebrations, local dignitaries attended to formally open the site and take a tour of the facilities. These included Jean Pierre BERNHEIM – President of Angers Loire Development and deputy of Angers Loire Metropole; Dominique BREJEON – St Barthélemy d’Anjou Town’s Mayor and deputy of Angers Loire Metropole; Ivain BIGNONET – First Deputy in charge of St Barthélemy d’Anjou economic development; Bertrand SCHAUPP – President of the MEDEF; Gilles FRADIN – President of the UIMM; and Eric GROUD – President of the CCI.
Also attending was Carl Christenson, the CEO of Warner’s parent company, Altra Industrial Motion: “As a company we believe in natural growth through internal investment – making improvements to ensure our products and services are the best available to our customers.
“Warner Electric is an important part of the local economy here in Angers, and also a major manufacturer on the world stage. We’re committed to supporting the brand as it continues to move forward and we’re happy to celebrate its success today.”