(*) As a measure of confidentiality, the identity of the interim manager and the client are changed
1. BACKGROUND
We are in October 2016 near Lyon.
A world-renowned manufacturer in the lighting sector has taken the strategic decision at the European level to relocate its French production to Spain and Hungary. As a result, he must announce an Employment Safeguard Plan. The company called on a WAYDEN Transition Site Director to carry out this operation with the 250 employees.
The client’s priority objective is to ensure that all employees are redeployed as well as possible, and that the site’s land is resold. The stakes are colossal and the expectations are high.
2. DISPOSITION
In the space of 48 hours, thanks to a strong and up-to-date network in WAYDEN Sélection, Benoit DURAND-TISNES, Associate Director at WAYDEN, introduces the client to a man recognized for his leadership, his quality of listening and his empathy.
A man with a strong hand, he knows how to carry out this type of delicate operation with humanity and positivity. It is Vincent ANGNAM. It is certain that the WAYDEN duo thus formed will be hired to give priority to the human being according to the customer’s wishes in this delicate operation.
Focus on the Manager journey
In addition to his engineering training at ENSAM and his perfect command of English, this experienced manager is young (45 years old) and he distinguished himself very early in his career. First at PSA, when he took over the reins of the Forge & Prototype Foundry division for 3 years, then when he was appointed head of SIC SAFCO & FIADEC (manufacture of Aluminium & Tantalum capacitors) in 2004.
During these 6 years, he developed and managed the factories’ budget in agreement with the holding company, set up cost accounting for the study of margins and the improvement of profitability and led a team of 100 employees for a turnover of €14M. Not to mention his successful stint at EMERSON for the EMEA zone as Director of Operations, then at FAUREA CHEMICALS as Site Manager in Belgium.
The multiplicity of these successful experiences makes him an agile man and “easy to work with”, to use the words of Benoit DURAND TISNES, who does not hesitate to describe him as “a man of solutions: he inspires an immediate confidence that seemed essential to me to manage such a mission.”
3. MISSION
During this year of mission, Vincent ANGNAM, supported by the Associate Director WAYDEN, is carrying out six strategic projects at the same time:
- Resumption of negotiations to define the conditions of the plan with all stakeholders,
- Complete set-up of the production transfer project: process, assembly lines and know-how in Spain and Hungary with the employees concerned,
- Creation and development of an efficient process for industrial transfers of finished products, components, tools, Supply Chain and investments,
- Operational approach and meeting of all project stakeholders to explain and deploy,
- Supervision of international teams in the factories receiving transfers,
- Implementation of efficient and fast work procedures based on Lean Thinking.
Faced with the matrix complexity of the client’s organization, Benoit DURAND TISNES allocates monthly progress points to the company’s French headquarters, and also reports directly to the group’s Chief Transformation Officer, based in Northern Europe, to coordinate the essential reorientations of the mission and ensure their effective implementation.
4. ASSESSMENT
Welcomed by the CEO himself, Vincent ANGNAM has fully succeeded in his mission. The transfer was a success. Of the 250 employees, he managed to reclassify 243 of them, with the congratulations of the unions with whom he worked closely. The site was sold to an investor who wanted to use it to redeploy another activity in the Ain.
As for Vincent ANGNAM, he is expected to take on another subject of industrial reorganization of a Polish site for the same group. For an additional year, he strengthened the site’s operational excellence and deployed a Lean Manufacturing plan for all departments. In October 2018, this plant was recognized as the group’s most productive in Europe.