SEW Usocome digitalizes skills mapping, planning and training

Presentation of the company 

Present in France since 1959, SEW USOCOME is the French subsidiary of the German family-owned group SEW-EURODRIVE, world leader in drive systems (geared motors, gearboxes, engineering-intensive drive solutions, etc.) and automation solutions.

The company (headquartered in Haguenau) has three production sites (Haguenau, Brumath and Forbach) and five assembly and service centers, known as Drive Technology Centers. The manufacturing units serve the French market, as well as the Group's assembly centers around the world. The company employs 2,000 people and generated sales of €550 million in the last financial year. In 2015, SEW USOCOME inaugurated its Brumath site, a modern facility dedicated to the assembly of geared motors, organized into mini-factories and employing around 600 people.

Context 

The Brumath site is a striking example of the innovation and efficiency that characterize SEW USOCOME. It is equipped with cutting-edge technologies, is highly digitalized and follows Lean production methods, making it a model of Industry 4.0. (labeled Vitrine Industrie du Futur in 2016).

The special feature of this process is that assembly is carried out to order (around 7,000 manufacturing orders processed per day), with customers able to customize their requirements from a wide range of products and options (several million possible combinations).

This context involves a wide range of professions and skills, and calls for highly adaptive personnel planning and management.

In order to further improve customer satisfaction (quality and deadlines) in this highly variable environment, SEW USOCOME wanted to optimize the management of skills, versatility and planning, which until now had been based on the use of around 50 separate Excel/Word files and a training system called "DOJO".

Prior to site-wide deployment, the test phase began on a perimeter comprising 2 mini-factories, representing 94 employees with 1,045 skills identified in a Training Book. (Paper format)

Project objectives

The main ambition of the project was to digitize several key processes, ideally in a single tool:

1. Digitalization of skills mapping and tracking
2. Digitization of authorization tracking to secure scheduling assignments
3. Digitization of trainingplanning and versatility management
4. Digitizing planning to simplify organization and mutual support

PoC (Proof of Concept) results

At the time of the balance sheet, we identified our main added value.

• Making integration and training processes more reliable through digitalization (elimination of 450 paper training books and 20 computer files).
• Greater peace of mind, particularly when it comes to tracking training and authorizations ( expiring, overdue and expired, with information directly on the schedule).
• Safety gains for all certification and skills upgrades
• Facilitate mutual assistance between mini-mills by displaying the versatility available on the site.