The quest for industrial resilience

With 32 years of industrial life experience, Philippe le Berre has been at the helm of TKT Consulting for the past 2 years. Since its creation, TKT Consulting’s mission has been to promote circular business models to respond to risks and improve the resilience of industrial companies. Philippe is also a Circulab community member and Chairman of NEOPOLIA, a cluster of 200 industrial companies in the Pays de la Loire region of France.

The notion of resilience, once confined to the fields of physics, ecology and psychology, is now gaining ground in our society and in the economy as a whole.

Repeated disruptions – whether of a health, social, geopolitical or environmental nature – are shaking up value chains and leading more and more companies to question how they can ensure the continuity and sustainability of their business.

Because of their direct dependence on raw materials, logistics and skilled labour, manufacturers are in the front line of these disruptions.

Taking a strategic approach to resilience is therefore an essential priority for any manufacturer wishing to meet current and future challenges.

 

What are the challenges faced by our industries?

  • Supply chain disruptions: supply chains have become increasingly complex and interconnected, leaving companies vulnerable to the slightest breakdown in the system. Events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and geopolitical tensions can at any time, as we have seen in recent years, interrupt or even bring to a complete halt the production and distribution of goods.
  • Climate change: a major threat to the industry. Extreme weather events are forcing companies to rethink their business models to become more sustainable and resilient.
  • Increasingly stringent regulation: to name but one, the European Union’s recently adopted CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) marks a watershed in the way companies must address sustainability and transparency in their reporting – and on the ground.
  • Stakeholder expectations: Whether they come from consumers, investors, suppliers or customers, these stakeholders all have the same sustainability issues at stake, and are pushing companies to integrate responsible and resilient practices.

How to bring up the topic of resilience?

At NEOPOLIA, resilience has always been a central collective theme within our cluster. In fact, the network offers a response to many of the problems encountered by our members, particularly through the sharing of experience.

For example, when it comes to human resources issues, some members share their employees, or outsource services to other members during periods of low activity. One example of solidarity was extremely important during the COVID-19 crisis, when members collectively produced anti-virus protection.

In addition, for contracts that we take out collectively, we guarantee our customers a back-up solution in the event of the failure of a member company, enabling another to take over.

In addition to these resilience practices based on solidarity, new issues, such as those mentioned above, are arising today.

In response, we are offering discovery sessions at all levels (Board of Directors, permanent teams, and soon in each business cluster: marine, MRE, aeronautics, mobility and energy). The aim is to generate collective ideas to strengthen the resilience of our network, based on a range of tried and tested tools and methods, including the Circulab method.

It is also worth mentioning that a CSR group has been set up within the Board of Directors, led by two directors. This group is required to report on progress every quarter. This group came up with the idea of awarding an “environmental passport” to each member who has taken part in a certain number of workshops. This passport enables its holder to meet the CSRD requirements imposed by the principals.

Would you like to better understand the principle of resilience?

The course ‘Develop a Sustainable, Circular and Resilient Business‘ provides you with the tools, knowledge and strategies to make your business more resilient

Intensifying the use of machine tools: an example of the economy of use

Discussions with a number of company directors revealed that the existing machinery could be put to better use by intensifying its use. It was on this basis that we devised the project to intensify the use of existing industrial tools in the Pays de la Loire region.

This project, which is based on the economy of use, one of the pillars of the circular economy, aims to strengthen the resilience of the regional ecosystem by developing:

  • Savings in resources, by limiting investment in new equipment, generating savings on the management of spare parts, or favouring local solutions.
  • New business, through additional services such as the pooling of tools, equipment hire, the loan of human resources, etc.
  • Organisational innovations, by diversifying the initial use of tools for other purposes and coordinating load capacity on a regional scale.
  • Technical innovations, including the use of 3D scanning and the development of 3D printing for the additive manufacture of spare parts for equipment maintenance.
  • Innovations in maintenance, including the exploration of Maintenance in Operational Conditions (MCO) with the creation of a dedicated task force.
  • Legal and insurance innovations through the supervision of staff loans, whether for profit or not, the redefinition of the rules governing economic exchanges, and group insurance linked to the shared use of machines.
  • Strengthening relations between academia and industry by training technicians specialising in industrial maintenance and sharing the use of tools between companies and training establishments. This project could also promote training in strategic trades for industry.

This project is due to start in the 4th quarter of 2024, for deployment in 2025 and 2026. We are already planning to set up a spare parts company, with reverse engineering capabilities, to support and strengthen the project.

Are you an industrial company and want to know more about the subject? Let’s talk.

Now, it's up to you.

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