The factory at Blois, located in central France, specialise in precision mechanical engineering, and will soon have been working for 30 years in the design, manufacture and marketing of hydraulic tools. It operates on a 10,000 m² site, 2,500 m² of which is under cover, and today employs over 80 staff.
The main products that are manufactured are destined for the electrical industry, rail transport, sanitation and aerospace markets. These standardised tools meet the requirements of international standard that are in force. Generally hydraulically, pneumatically or electrically powered, their uses on sites or in workshops include crimping, clamping, cutting, connecting, stamping, assembling, fixing etc. …
The D36 manual pliers and its consumables come from our range of products. This manual hydraulic crimping tool is light yet powerful. It is the tool of choice for many installers and can crimp electrical terminals onto cables of between 4 mm2 and 95 mm2.
With its desire ensure continuous improvement and in order to provide quality services to its customers, the factory at Blois has deployed a Lean Manufacturing approach. The purpose of this approach is to optimise processes, to ensure a long working life for the means of production and to create an optimised working organisation. The site, with its professional potential and its technical diversity is able to adapt, react, improve and standardise its operations everywhere throughout all its processes. Production teams work towards reducing changeover times between runs and towards the standardisation of its processes, whilst eliminating waste. The final assembly sector is organised into work cells for each family of tools. With a "One piece flow" philosophy it is now possible to be more reactive to customer demands and to supply them rapidly with one or more tools.
Ever since it was set up the Blois factory has given quality pride of place. In order to provide the best possible services to its clients, since 1997 the site has put a great deal of effort into a quality approach in accordance with the ISO 9001 standard. The site has recently been recognised for its overall Quality Safety Environmental approach, obtaining ISO 14001 certification for its investment in the protection of the environment and OHSAS 18001 as a reward for its efforts in Health and Safety. These three awards are confirmation of the site's continuous improvement approach and of its desire to observe regulations and meet customers' requirements.
With its continuous desire for innovation, the research and development team is highly customer-oriented. Its objectives today are to reduce the mass of tools, to improve their ergonomics and to increase the range of functions with the incorporation of electronic management systems. This new challenge is reflected in the lines being followed by the R&D team, towards the continuous evolution of tools, for ever greater satisfaction amongst customers and end users.