Sekurit is the Saint-Gobain Group subsidiary specializing in automotive glass: windshields and other glass components for automakers worldwide. In France, Sekurit operates three plants and a Skill Center, an in-house training school serving 600 employees. Faced with the demands of automakers and a wave of retirements, Sekurit implemented Mercateam to digitize the management of certifications, on-the-job training, and employee versatility. We spoke with Claire Billas, plant HR manager and head of the Skill Center France, to hear about her experience.
Key Figures
| Sector | Automotive Glass (Saint-Gobain Group) |
| Scope | 3 plants in France + Skill Center (600 employees) |
| Pilot Site | Noyon Plant, approximately 120 employees |
| 2 000 | Certifications recreated in Mercateam within two months |
| More than 200 | skills tracked, as required by manufacturers (by production line, by product, by position) |
| ÷ 2 | Training time for understudies, thanks to the Skill Center |
| From 20 minutes to 3 minutes | Time spent on the "competencies" section during manufacturer audits |
| 100 % | autonomous team leaders responsible for on-the-job training |
The Context: Manufacturer Requirements and a Wave of Departures
In the automotive industry, every manufacturer requires skills validation for each production line, each product, and each position. At Sekurit, this involves tracking more than 200 skills, along with associated checklists and evidence that must be provided at each audit.
Before Mercateam, everything was done on paper and in Excel files. Claire sums it up:
«We kept track of everything in a huge Excel spreadsheet and scanned all the sheets as we went along. It was a very cumbersome administrative process. Medical exams, individual interviews, regulatory approvals… We had lots of different files, and it was hard to keep track of everything. And above all, it was a huge waste of time.»
Added to this administrative burden was a demographic shock: at one of France’s largest sites, nearly 80 production workers left over an 18-month period—equivalent to one-third of the workforce over two years. It’s impossible to continue training backup staff for six months in line operator positions when the potential trainers are retiring themselves.
Claire explained this context in detail during the Mercateam 2025 Community Event Roundtable Discussion.
Sekurit's solution: a physical Skill Center + Mercateam for digital services
The Skill Center: A True In-House Training School
Established a little over two years ago, Sekurit’s Skill Center France is a hands-on training facility shared by the company’s three French plants: it features modular classrooms and small hands-on stations designed to help trainees understand glass cutting, screen printing, and the properties of glass.
Every new hire completes a two-week training program: one week of orientation (health, safety, and environment; quality; automotive standards, including IATF; and an introduction to the various departments), followed by one week of technical training focused on the target position. As a result, the training time for backup staff has been cut in half, and the plant has absorbed more than 80 departures without any production downtime.
Mercateam: The Digital Platform for Skills and Authorizations
At the same time, the Noyon plant launched a pilot project using Mercateam to digitize the competency matrix, authorizations, and on-the-job training. The team decided to start from scratch:
«We recertified everyone in the system, one by one. That amounted to more than 2,000 certifications that we redid over a two-month period. But it allowed us to start from a completely clean slate and have everything centralized in Mercateam. All training records are in one place.”.
The results
100 % team leaders who are self-directed in their training
«Since we implemented Mercateam, we no longer have anything to do with training. The team leaders are 100% independent. We have trainers in Noyon—in-house trainers—who manage all on-the-job training independently with their team leaders. The HR department is no longer involved at all. It’s a huge time saver.»
The HR department has freed itself from non-value-added filing tasks to focus on providing support.
Audits Transformed: The IATF Example
The IATF, the annual automotive certification audit, illustrates how far we’ve come:
«This year, the auditor decided not to audit us because he is convinced—based in particular on Mercateam and what he sees on the ground. He said: «I’ve seen that the system is in place and that all training sessions are properly documented. If I request authorization for someone, I have the proof in Mercateam.» He skipped the HR portion.»
The same is true for manufacturer audits: whereas the team used to spend 20 minutes justifying its Excel matrix and searching for documents, the issue is now resolved in 3 minutes and is no longer a point of concern.
Visible versatility across teams
When teams are reorganized, managers in Noyon can check with just a few clicks which products and production lines an operator from another team is authorized to work on—even if they haven’t trained that operator themselves. Visibility is shared: the same data, the same access, and the same big-picture view for everyone.
Claire's Tips for a Successful Deployment
- Get everyone on board. «What's really important is that everyone is on board with the tool. If there are people who are completely opposed to it, that will slow things down.»
- Show the benefits quickly and build on early gains, without trying to do too much right from the start.
- Identify the scope and key stakeholders, then implement it step by step, without skipping any steps.
Next: Connect the Skill Center to Mercateam
Sekurit’s goal for 2026 is twofold: to create a comprehensive maintenance training program (electrical, automation, pneumatics) and to migrate all Skill Center tracking—which is currently still partially paper-based—to Mercateam, in order to standardize tracking across the three French plants.
