Ulysse Nardin

Optimizing component production control with Ulysse Nardin.

DELMIA is a tool that is indispensable to our organization. The different teams in Ulysse Nardin are completely satisfied by their daily use of the solution.

Stefano Marzo
Head of Movements Supply Chain, Ulysse Nardin

Goal

Ulysse Nardin wanted to optimize the way it manages the flow of its production of watch components, mainly the ébauches, gears and regulating organs, moving from unit production to mass runs of several thousand items.

Benefits

  • Financial savings: reduce scheduling time, in-process inventory, just-in-time production and run times
  • Strategic gains: improve Supply Chain service level reliability and anticipate and eliminate bottlenecks
  • Organizational gains: fine-level control of multiple trades and shops, anticipate subcontractor information via precise communication of volumes and lead-times

Introduction

Founded in Locle, Switzerland, in 1846, and a subsidiary of the Kering group since 2014, Ulysse Nardin is a watch manufacturer that produces ‘Haute Horlogerie’ Swiss watches.

For Ulysse Nardin, true technical mastery implies perfecting its timepieces in the purest meaning of the term. To guarantee excellence, the watchmaker designs and manufactures most of its movements in-house. It is one of the rare ‘Haute Horlogerie’ watchmakers to produce its own balance springs1 and escapements². The factory is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and unites 40 trades to produce the components and movements of its different collections.

1Balance springs: very fine springs considered as the soul of the mechanical watch
²Escapement: mechanisms that count the oscillations of the balance of a watch

A comprehensive suite of Planning & Scheduling solutions to optimize production flows

To manage the flow of its production of watch components, which ranges from unit production up to mass runs of several thousand items, the factory selected DELMIA. DELMIA software is designed to meet the challenge and specific requirements of manufacturing operations.

A Lean manufacturing project

Lucas Humair, Ulysse Nardin’s Industrial Director stated: “Ulysse Nardin has coupled the DELMIA solution to its Solvaxis ERP and launched a Lean Manufacturing project. We can now optimally control our just-in-time production, reduce run times and balance the loads across the different shops, while minimizing bottlenecks and in-process inventory.”

The DELMIA solution was implemented and fine-tuned by, and under, the responsibility of the Head of Movements Supply Chain in charge of defining the model best suited to the needs of the factory in cooperation with DELMIA specialists.

Main benefits recorded

  • Financial gains: the scheduling is easier and faster to implement, which means the team can focus on value-added tasks (reduced scheduling time by 25%, reduced in-process inventory, just-in-time production, reduced run times)
  • Strategic gains: improved, more reliable Supply Chain service level, anticipate and eliminate bottlenecks
  • Organizational gains: fine-level control of multiple trades and shops, anticipate subcontractor information via precise communication of volumes and lead times

A positive result: flexible solution accommodating multiple trades and shops

“The different teams in Ulysse Nardin are completely satisfied by their daily use of the solution. It offers a detailed two-month view of the load while remaining flexible in case of need, taking into account the many trades and shops to manage and any production contingencies. DELMIA is a tool that is indispensable to our organization. We plan to deploy it in other planning units of our departments, for example the movements assembly process.”

Stefano Marzo, Head of Movements Supply Chain

Ulysse Nardin case study

About Ulysse Nardin

Products: ‘Haute Horlogerie’ watchmaking
Headquarters: le Locle (Switzerland)
Workforce: 300 employees
For more information: https://www.ulysse-nardin.com

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