In Sochaux, Stellantis drastically shrinks its historic cradle

110 years old is the perfect age for renewal. The oldest French automotive site thus opened its doors on Monday, September 5 to the press to present its industrial revolution. A complete transformation that has enabled Sochaux (Doubs) to reinvent itself through 200 million euros of investment and by drastically reducing its surface area. The cradle site of Peugeot in Franche-Comté “extends today over 165 hectares, against 210 ten years ago, with 490,000 square meters covered against 725,000 at the time”, summarizes Christophe Montavon, its director. That’s compaction! Five years of work were needed to implement a new organization of the production flow, reduced from two to a single line in three shifts to manufacture the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 compact SUVs. This is the most important transformation since 1930, announces the factory. “Energy savings have been reduced by 20%, heating costs halved”, announces Arnaud Deboeuf, industrial director of Stellantis.

A new stamping workshop was launched in 2019, with a versatile and flexible line to manufacture different parts in a single press stroke for a specific investment of 33 million euros. Car assembly, previously installed in five different workshops, was repositioned this year at the heart of the site in a single building. The area of ​​the assembly alone has increased from 250,000 to 100,000 square meters. The parts distribution flow on the line has been automated with 250 wire-guided carts and buttlers operated by barcodes and able to rotate 360 ​​degrees. The parts sent by the suppliers are managed by a stacker crane 25 meters high, as in the pharmacy or the food industry, capable of managing them in real time, i.e. 130 pallets per hour. A step forward in terms of management which has resulted in the passage “a reduction in the logistics staff at the assembly of 20-25%”, according to an unofficial source.

Reintegration of activities

This compaction was accompanied paradoxically by a significant increase in added value in the factory, thanks to the “reintegration of activities carried out until now by external suppliers”, underlines Arnaud Deboeuf. Because, finished the transfer to subcontractors of what the factory no longer wanted to do. Today it is the opposite phenomenon. “Thanks to insourcing, we have regained the equivalent of 300 jobs,” insists Christian Montavon. Sochaux has thus started to make dashboards again this year. An activity unthinkable even five years ago. Sochaux also sets an example for all of Stellantis. “In France, the Rennes site has recovered a plastic workshop, with a 25% reduction in the cost of parts. In Italy, this is also the case for Pomigliano (near Naples)”, specifies Arnaud Deboeuf.

Despite these reintegrations, Stellantis’ flagship factory in France has nonetheless seen its total workforce drastically reduced. It has only 6,200 employees (and 850 temporary workers), compared to 10,400 people as well as 1,100 temporary workers in 2013, and 42,000 employees in 1975. “The drop in the workforce is there, with the drop in production volumes in Europe and the electrification which increases the cost of cars and forces them to reduce costs even more”, assures the industrial director of the Franco-Italian group.

Despite all the efforts, the production is indeed not there. The plant should produce just over 200,000 vehicles just this year, compared to 265,000 in 2021, 316,700 ten years ago and 400 to 500,000 in the 1970s! It is true that the automotive industry suffers from the shortage of semiconductors. Stellantis had to announce last August that it was halting production at its factory for several days. But, Sochaux, which has produced 24 million vehicles in total, suffers more structurally, like all French automobile sites, from the relocation of vehicles to Eastern Europe in the 2010s. Sochaux should not remain less this year a little above its break-even point (break-even point) set at 190,000 annual units.

Back to the 400,000 vehicles targeted

However, Sochaux is aiming for a return to 400,000 annual vehicles in the medium term with the launch of the new 3008 range in 2024, which will include a 100% electric version. In any case, Sochaux has significantly improved its productivity and therefore its ranking in the group’s factories. “Sochaux is 25^th out of the 97 factories of Stellantis in quality, 30^th in terms of costs”, specifies Arnaud Deboeuf. There is still progress to be made, but the work which has been undertaken “saves the site for the next ten years”, estimates Christophe Montavon. That was the essential.

The compacting of the sites was started in particular in France by the former PSA group and by Renault from the end of the 2000s. Renault also did the same work as Stellantis in Sochaux on its site in Douai (North). The northern factory of the diamond group has “reduced its area from 250 to … 110 hectares, destroyed buildings, reduced stocks”, explained Luciano Biondo, director of the Renault Electricity division, during a visit by journalists last June. But, Arnaud Deboeuf believes that the group has lessons from no one to receive. The “performance of Stellantis (half-year margin of 14.1%) is based in particular on its industrial know-how”, he insists.