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An interview with Guillaume Lopez

1/ Can you make a portrait of yourself in a few words ?

I was born in Mazamet, a lover of the great outdoors and nature, so I found it very hard to have to leave « my countryside » to complete my studies in Toulouse. I got an HNC in Mechanics and industrial automatisms, then I had to register in the Institut Supérieur de Technologie – Higher Institute of Technology – in Toulouse to take an engineer’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. Thanks to work-based learning, I had the opportunity to join the professional world with Groupe Gamerin, a service provider for EADS, among others. After three years’ studies and my diploma in the bag, I was offered an open-ended contract job. I was in charge of the preparation and validation of electrical running tests and mechanical resistance of satellites batteries. So I had the privilege of working in the premises of Astrium, Interspace …and being in close contact with the « space industry ». I have kept a lot of acquaintances in the Mazamet area, especially with my rugby team, and although I loved working with this Toulouse-based company, Luc and Thierry offered to join them in the Phalippou-Frayssinet company with the position of manager in charge of Maintenance and Industrial Development. It required serious but quick thinking and here I’ve been for about five years offering my experience for Groupe Frayssinet’s benefit in order to pilot the maintenance process the best as I can.

2/ Can you introduce yourself and present the role you play with Groupe Frayssinet ?

I joined the company as a Mechanical engineer in December 2003 at the post of manager of Maintenance and Industrial development.
I’m in charge of an nine people team and also of the management of all the maintenance on the industrial site. The experience and multiple skills of our operators are major assets in the achievement of preventive or curative maintenance, but also of new works and operations. Our autonomy is an advantage for the production unit, in terms of response time and effectiveness in case problems crop up. However, we occasionally call in sub-contractors to carry out bigger works. I am also responsible for the outside contributors and for the different works going.

3/ What have been the major innovations since you arrived ?

The first innovation was the « legal » reorganisation of the mechanical department. Indeed, the maintenance workshop used to be a department depending on the Frayssinet production unit, and the MECA workshop was a company manufacturing and repairing fertilizer spreaders. To date, the whole of the maintenance staff has been integrated into the MECA company, which comprises both the spreaders and maintenance activities. When Groupe Frayssinet was created, this company became one of its subsidiaries, which has allowed our customers to have an added guarantee both for the spreaders manufacturing and « the good health of the production tool ». Then the methods of intervention follow-up as well as stock management were considerably improved. Indeed, the implementation of CCMX ( an ERP software ) has brought about a lot of rigorousness and discipline in the control of the maintenance department costs. Finally, the implementation of ISO and certification have brought formality and the necessary means to the managing of the Industrial maintenance process.

4: You are talking about process, but is MECA associated to the quality management system ?

Indeed, out of concern for coherence, homogeneity and effectiveness MECA is a process of Groupe-Frayssinet’s quality system. This commitment facilitates in-house exchanges and coherence between the different departments. The industrial maintenance process can be assimilated to a service provider connected to every other process in the system. It is therefore absolutely normal this logic be implemented.

5/ What is major concern during a production campaign ?

The priority for the production unit is to run in full swing so as to get the best productivity rate. But beyond this and to quote one of ISO’s favourite phrases : the « customer satisfaction » is our year-long main concern. Indeed, we always have to be « in the forefront of the battle », awake, tuned in, to rapidly solve the different problems and above all to improve the posts that need it.
The strength of our department lies in everyone’s skills and experience, which facilitates our anticipation long beforehand, hence puts preventiveness forward and spares us too important and penalizing standstills in our production.

6/ To-date, what is your best rewarding achievement ?

For one thing, the pride to be one of this group of men and women who make up Groupe Frayssinet. We belong to a family business conveying the most important human values to me, but with assets and a technical potential worthy of big companies. Eventually, the spirit within the maintenance process helps collect very good results in terms of effectiveness and production, if one believes quality indicators !
Let’s benefit from the rare opportunity to combine customer satisfaction with the pleasure to work …