Bayard, a company specializing in the manufacturing and design of valves and equipment for water networks, decided to digitize its performance management with fabriq in 2024. The goal was to improve information management, team collaboration, and problem solving, while strengthening the culture of continuous improvement within their Meyzieu (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) facility. Here’s a look at their experience after several months of using the platform.
Performance Management at Bayard Before fabriq
A few years ago, the Meyzieu site began its continuous improvement journey by implementing Short Interval Management (SIM) routines, problem-solving methodologies, and performance monitoring processes. However, all of this was being done on paper, which led to inefficiencies and significant time loss.
David Chambon, Bayard’s Director of Operations, attempted to digitize the process using Microsoft Teams to organize performance meetings and track actions. But this approach quickly reached its limitations:
- Duplicate Task Management : Whenever an action needed to be escalated or assigned to another team, it had to be duplicated—leading to inefficiencies and confusion.
- Lack of Global Visibility : Because of task duplication, team leads couldn’t get a clear, consolidated view of what was happening across teams, making it hard to identify bottlenecks.
- Unstructured Meetings : Without a centralized meeting tool, it was difficult to capture key takeaways, prioritize topics, or allocate resources effectively.
- Scattered and Limited Data : Data was spread across multiple documents, making it time-consuming to gather and prone to errors or loss.
- IT Security Concerns : Since not every operator had a dedicated computer, a shared PC which was always open was used on the shop floor, creating security risks due to lack of individual access controls.
These limitations were slowing Bayard’s transformation efforts and making it difficult to implement a robust visual management culture. The teams needed a more fluid, centralized tool that could easily capture and organize key information, streamline workflows, and improve focus during daily routines.
“We created Teams channels and could assign tasks within a team and track them, but if a task started in the production team and needed to be assigned to the methods team, we had to duplicate it. That made it nearly impossible for department heads to get a full picture. They had to look into each team’s space, which was time-consuming and overly complicated.”
— Yannick Besson, Production Director
Evaluating Digital Performance Tools and Choosing fabriq
During their search for the right solution, Bayard benchmarked several performance management tools. fabriq stood out for its ease of use and fast implementation. It offered an intuitive interface, came pre-loaded with many useful features, and didn’t require any coding or IT expertise to get started.
A visit to Bel, another factory customer, further reinforced their decision. There, they saw firsthand how the food group used fabric to structure its SIM routines, escalate information efficiently, and track KPIs. This visit confirmed for Bayard that fabriq was the right solution to support their digital transformation.
Deployment and Adoption of manufacturing
Bayard rolled out factory in several stages:
- Internal Digital Team : A cross-functional team of 8 to 10 people from production, quality, and sales was formed to lead the project.
- Progressive Rollout :
- July–September 2024: Initial onboarding and dashboard setup.
- October 2024: Deployment to six teams across production, support functions (methods, maintenance, quality), and the broader factory.
- December 2024: Expansion to all support services to improve synchronization and visibility.
Thanks to its no-code setup and intuitive design, fabriq was quickly adopted. Within just three months, teams were fully up to speed on their dashboards and using them daily to monitor performance and run their routines.
Tangible Results After 7 Months with fabriq
After more than seven months of using fabriq, Bayard saw significant improvements in how it manages performance and tracks actions:
- 10 Hours Saved per Week: SIM meeting prep is now nearly automated. KPI updates take just 10 seconds, and dashboards are refreshed in real time—saving about 10 hours a week previously spent consolidating data.
- Standardized Practices: A structured SQDIPP (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Inventory, Productivity, People) rollout helped harmonize routines and embed a consistent visual management culture across the organization.
- Stronger Collaboration: The tool makes it easy to escalate issues and share updates across teams, reducing oversight and increasing responsiveness.
- Improved Problem-Solving: With centralized access to 8D processes and full action histories, problem-solving has become more streamlined.
- Centralized Action Tracking: All actions are now captured and monitored in one place, creating a more structured and efficient follow-up process.
- Faster Response Time: With real-time KPI updates, teams can immediately address any discrepancies or issues from the day before.
“We’ve saved hours of work per day just preparing for SIM meetings. I used to spend two hours a week cleaning up actions and dashboards—and so did my supervisors. Across all departments, we’re easily saving dozens of hours weekly. Even without an API, we’re already uploading files that feed dozens of KPIs in minutes, and all dashboards update in seconds.”
— Yannick Besson, Production Director
“We’ve become more responsive, too. Every morning at the SIM meeting, our KPIs are already updated. We see issues from the day before and can act immediately.”
— Mathieu Goutagny, Methods & Lean Manager
fabriq has also helped Bayard put more efficient routines in place, such as start and end-of-meeting rituals, Gemba walks, and 5S practices. The team has embraced the Events feature to gain a high-level view of safety data and better manage HSE actions.
Now other departments like marketing, sales, and technical services are exploring how they can use fabriq. The tool is on track to become a central hub at the Meyzieu site, bringing together all actions and projects in one unified system.
Conclusion
Bayard’s story is a great example of how industrial companies can successfully embrace digital transformation with the right visual management tool. By centralizing information, improving collaboration, and automating task tracking, fabriq has helped Bayard structure and optimize its performance processes. A compelling case for the power of digital visual management in modern manufacturing.