Industrial site management

A new adventure for Vincent Angnam (*)

(*) The names of the interim manager and client have been changed for confidentiality

1. THE CHALLENGE

The story begins in Lyon, France in October 2016. A world-renowned light manufacturer made a strategic decision for its European operations – to relocate its French production to Spain and Hungary.

As a result, the company needed to develop a redundancy plan, and they called on a WAYDEN interim site manager to lead this operation for its 250 employees. Their key objective was to ensure optimal conditions for the employees but also to sell the property. The stakes were enormous and so were the client’s expectations.

2. THE SOLUTION

Within 48 hours, thanks to the strong, up-to-date network of WAYDEN Selection, Benoit Durand-Tisnes, Associate Director at WAYDEN, introduced the client to a man known for his leadership, listening skills and empathy – a man with a strong hand and the experience to carry out this type of delicate operation with humanity and positivity. This was Vincent Angnam. It quickly became clear that this well-trained WAYDEN duo would be well positioned to guide the client through this delicate operation with a people-focused approach.

The interim manager’s background

In addition to his engineering training at ENSAM and his perfect command of English, Vincent Angnam is a very dynamic manager who stood out early in his career. First at PSA, where he took over the Forge & Foundries Prototypes division for three years, then when he was appointed head of SIC SAFCO & FIADEC (aluminium and tantalum capacitor manufacturing) in 2004.

During these six years, Vincent developed and managed the factories’ budgets in accordance with the holding company; implemented an analytic-accounting process to improve profitability; and managed a team of 100 employees for a turnover of €14 million. Not to mention his successful stint at EMERSON as EMEA Operations Director, then at FAUREA CHEMICALS as Site Director in Belgium.

As Benoit Durand-Tisnes tells it, the depth and diversity of Vincent’s successful experience makes him agile, “easy to work with” and a real “solutions man who inspires immediate confidence, which is essential to lead this kind of project.”

3. THE ACTION

Throughout this year-long venture, Vincent Angnam, supported by the Associate Director at Wayden, led six strategic projects at once:

  • Negotiations to define conditions with all stakeholders
  • Total transfer of production, including processes, assembly lines and knowledge sharing with employees in Spain and Hungary
  • Creation and development of a high-performance industrial transfer process for finished products, components, tools, supply chains and investments
  • Face-to-face discussions with all project stakeholders to explain and implement the transition
  • Supervision of international teams in factories receiving transfers
  • Implementation of fast and efficient working procedures based on Lean Thinking

Faced with the organisation’s structural complexity, Benoit provided monthly progress updates to the company’s French headquarters and Chief Transformation Officer based in Northern Europe. This facilitated the project’s most essential changes and ensured their effective implementation.

4. THE RESULT

The transfer was a success. Vincent Angnam fully accomplished his mission and received praised from the CEO himself. He managed to reassign 243 of the 250 employees, satisfying the unions with whom he worked closely. The property was sold to an investor who plans on using it for another activity in the region.

Vincent was asked to take on another restructuring project for a Polish site within the same company. For an additional year, he worked to strengthe
n the site’s operational excellence and implement Lean Manufacturing processes across all departments. In October 2018, this site was recognised as the company’s most productive plant in Europe.