EUROPE'S LEADING SCREWDRIVER FACTORY
The factory located at Arbois, France, produces over 17 million screwdrivers and 10 million Allen keys a year! With a workforce of 220 employees on a 6500 m2 site, the factory is certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.


The principal products that are manufactured are: Screwdrivers, the Protwist range, wooden handled screwdrivers, Allen keys, hex-head wrenches, Torx wrenches, driver bits and the 1000V insulated tool range.

Production is organised into manufacturing cells, allowing short runs of very different screwdrivers to be manufactured: bar turning, forging, cutting, grinding, heat treatment, surface treatment, plastic injection moulding (single and double injection) and thermoforming. The factory also operates a packaging and distribution centre.

Quality is an integral part of the process of manufacturing screwdrivers, through inspections carried out upstream during development, during production and in the final phase.  Before being placed on the market every model that is created, modified, or which incorporates new components is subjected to a series of tests in order to test and validate its performance.   

During production inspections are undertaken directly on the production line. These verify the quality of the steel that is used, the grade of the machined cavities, the heat treatments carried out, moulding and markings of the screwdrivers, and the strength of the products. The organisation of production in the factory complies with the improvement approach embodied in SO 9001 (environment), ISO 14001 and Oshas 18001(safety of individuals). All of the factory's suppliers are selected using strict criteria, including compliance with the requirements of standards such as REACH.

In order to achieve greater efficiency a research and development team made up of 2 project leaders and industrial designers work as closely as possible with production in designing and conceiving products that meet the needs of professional users and to overcome manufacturing constraints.  The new Protwist screwdriver was designed exclusively by the factory's design team and the entire manufacturing process managed internally over a period of two years.

One of the factory's strengths is the ability to turn to its five-strong Methods and Industrialisation department. This team's objective is to undertake the industrialisation of new product designs by designing and/or manufacturing production equipment, and by defining how its production is organised.