Page 39 - Best of 2019 English

The aim is to secure the future of the Vitry plant with a range of investments and innovations. The “Vitry 2020” project involves optimization of material flow as well as installation of an automatic press and a collar forming machine. “We’re also testing a production process for tubes with variable wall thickness,” says Bruno Cojan, plant director
in Vitry.
The central production planning department at
Mannesmann Precision Tubes coordinates produc- tion at the two plants, but they tend to collaborate via the direct route. “The two plants work hand
in hand, sharing experience and data and helping each other out when capacity bottlenecks occur,” says Jean-Michel Pierrot. As the managing director he heads both sites, and he is familiar with the company's history. The original firm was founded in Tonnerre in 1895 as a producer of machines
for water mills. In 1964 a factory was opened in Saint-Florentin, where French tube manufacturer Vallourec later produced precision steel tubes. The precision tube activities pursued by Mannesmann and Vallourec were merged under the management of Salzgitter AG in 2007. Tube production at Ton-
Saint-Florentin is located 175 km southeast of Paris in the Yonne department belonging to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. The landmark is a church without a main tower
STIL interviewee: Alain Laplaud, plant director in Saint-Florentin (left), and Jean-Michel Pierrot, managing director of Mannesmann Precision Tubes France
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Photos: Gunnar Garms