For over 10 years, the Bel Group, specializing in the production of healthy, single-serving snacks made from fruit and dairy products, has been structuring and deploying an ambitious operational excellence program across its 13 production plants worldwide. To enhance efficiency, Bel initiated a digital transformation of this program, with the support of fabriq.
In this article, we look back at the challenges that the Bel company faced before adopting the fabriq solution, then we detail the key steps of its implementation within the framework of Bel’s Operational Excellence program and the concrete benefits of its digitalization , at the group level but also at the pilot site level in Lons-Le-Saunier.
An operational excellence program has been in place since 2013, but the tools are scattered.
In 2013-2014, the Bel Group developed an operational excellence program to harmonize best practices across its various industrial sites. Its objective? To create, disseminate, and maintain common standards for all factories , within a framework of continuous improvement.
Each site was responsible for the local implementation of these standards, adapting the roadmap to its specific challenges. This approach promotes overall consistency while respecting the realities on the ground.
Limitations related to the lack of shared tools
Despite this structure, a major obstacle remained: the absence of a unified digital tool to manage this program.
“Each factory had its own supports and tools, often paper-based. This made it difficult to consolidate, share and monitor standards and action plans ,” emphasizes Patrick Sayegh, Corporate Digital Project Leader at Bel.
At the historic production site in Lons-Le-Saunier, Audrey Herry, Industrial Performance Manager, also mentions the great diversity of practices . “Each cell had its own tools, the rituals were different, and communication between teams was limited.”
Given these findings, the need for a single, structured digital solution became clear. In 2018-2019, Bel explored various digital solutions before ultimately choosing fabriq.
The deployment of fabriq within the Bel group
Before rolling out fabriq across all of the group’s factories, Bel first tested the solution at two pilot sites: its historic Lons-Le-Saunier site and a site in Poland. The method is clear: test on a small scale, validate the results, and then consider a wider rollout.
The historic site of Lons-Le-Saunier was chosen in particular because the teams had a strong desire to structure operational excellence standards and a real appetite for digital technology.
A pilot project structured in several stages
At the Lons-Le-Saunier site, the deployment of fabriq was structured in several stages:
- Construction of a common structure for the entire site, initially deployed in a pilot area for 3 months.
- Co-construction of dashboards with the teams: selection of the right indicators, definition of routines (instances, checklists…).
- Training for facilitators of performance management bodies (PCS)
- Global deployment of the solution across the entire site.
A gradual rollout across the enterprise
Following the success of the pilot, a global deployment plan was implemented to extend fabriq to all of the group’s factories. This deployment was carried out according to several criteria: the maturity of the sites in terms of operational standards, the maturity of the sites in terms of digitalization or their willingness to move towards it, as well as their capacity to absorb transformation and be ready to switch from one operating mode to another.
“Today, around ten sites are equipped, and others are in the process of being equipped. The objective is to digitize the entire industrial network in the next 2 to 3 years ,” explains Patrick Sayegh.
Benefits of fabriq for the Bel teams
The digitalization of operational excellence with fabriq has brought tangible benefits to the Bel Group’s factories:
- Consistent and clearly shared operational excellence standards and routines across sites.
- Enhanced standards , applied consistently and practically across all sites.
- Support for learning , with better dissemination of know-how and smoother management of action plans, not only internally for each site but also between factories in general.
The digitalization of PCs: a real lever for performance
At Bel, PCS (Performance Control Systems) are structured bodies for managing performance. Deployed at 6 levels (from line operator to plant management), they structure daily operations and ensure alignment between field operations and strategy.
They take the form of quick and frequent meetings, which aim to monitor the progress of activities, anticipate problems before they have major impacts , translate high-level objectives into operational objectives, and empower the team with regard to cross-functional projects and the coordination of activities.
Before fabriq, PCS (Project Specifications) were created on whiteboards. But this generated information loss, manual copying, and made escalating problems difficult.
Thanks to fabriq, these rituals are now digitized. The result: better real-time monitoring, data traceability, enhanced coordination between teams , and easier problem-solving.
Conclusion
The partnership between Bel and fabriq perfectly illustrates how digitalization can strengthen an existing operational excellence program. By providing simple, collaborative, and structured tools, fabriq enables Bel to implement its standards in the field , while accelerating the skills development and performance of its teams.
Curious how other manufacturers digitalize their daily management? Discover how a global medical device manufacturer transformed their operations with fabriq.