Our Axandus team is composed of experts who all have significant experience within the Sercel or EFI group. Today let’s meet Denis, start-up project manager. After 32 years with EFI Automotive, he joined Axandus’ Lyon office. Discover with us a rich and complex job.
Can you introduce yourself and present your career path within the EFI group?
My name is Denis Faure, I am 61 years old and I have been working for EFI Automotive since 1989. As an expert in industrial design, I originally specialized in the design of mechatronic objects for the automotive market. During these 32 years within the EFI Group, I had the opportunity to hold different positions such as :
- Project Manager for the development of new generation sensors in our design office.
- I was also the head of a production workshop where I had the opportunity to manage a small team of operators and technicians.
- Project Manager ” Creation of the full production procedure ” now generalized to the whole EFI Automotive Group.
- Then I joined the tooling team (mold makers, die cutting, industrialization).
- Then I joined the RFQ team for the realization of costing and the development of new technological bricks.
After this succession of activities I joined Axandus in 2016. My first major project within this manufactoring accelerator was the development and implementation of a production line for the company Primo1D.
Since then, I am a start-up project manager and I manage the industrialization of many projects.
As a start-up project manager, can you explain your role within the Axandus team?
My role at Axandus is to accompany start-ups in their development phase, in order to obtain a reliable and industrializable product. Indeed, I have a coordinator role between the various participants on a project: designer, buyers, suppliers, customers…
My experience in product design and industrialization allows me to integrate the constraints in these two fields.
Can you tell us what motivated you to join the Axandus service?
The diversity of the activities and the subjects approached, with many different projects heach more interesting than the last.
What is the most difficult thing about being a start-up project manager?
The most difficult thing to manage is to adapt to the specificities of each project and the technologies involved, because the development time is very short. We have to aim right from the start to respect the schedules.
In your point of view, what are the strengths of the Axandus service?
For me, the strength of our service is our flexibility, with complementary experiences and skills.
How does the support with the start-ups work?
To carry out the industrialization of the start-ups that entrust us with their projects, we rely on the 85 years of industrial know-how of the EFI Automotive Group. Our knowledge of manufacturing processes allows us to quickly set up their industrial production targets and thus accelerate their Time to Market.
We work with agile methods, in project mode!
We organise launch kick-offs, weekly meetings: we closely follow the schedules we have set. So we move forward step by step with GO/NO GO milestones.
The first step of the industrialisation process usually starts with a functional analysis of the solution. From this, we deduce a validation and improvement plan and then carry out the industrial design of this version 2.0. At the same time, we carry out a quotation and costing exercise with our book of suppliers in order to optimise the cost of the deployed solution. Once this stage has been validated, we move on to prototyping and validation.
Once the product has been tested and validated, it is launched into production. Depending on the wishes of the start-up and the Axandus management, the industrialization and complete manufacturing plan can be set up in our Diversification factory based in the Haute Marne region of France, or at a third party.
In your opinion, what are the keys to a successful industrialization project?
First and foremost, the end customer’s needs must be clearly perceived. Feel and measure the market potential and put in place means adapted to the identified issues.