Industrial quality axis

An important part of the research carried out at the SYMME laboratory is aimed at improving the quality of manufactured goods. This research is done in connection with local or national industry.

Supporting manufacturing industry by producing methods to improve product quality is a priority at both national and regional level. Indeed, this industry is a major provider of jobs in both production and services: the reduction in direct employment in industry is offset by the transfer of jobs from services to industry, as attested by various economic studies [Élizabeth Rignols, "L'industrie manufacturière de 1970 à 2014"; Insee Première, No. 1592, 26 April 2016], [Anne-Aël Durand, "Au-delà d'Alstom, l'emploi industriel poursuit son déclin en France", LeMonde.fr, 16 September 2016].

The quality of a product is obviously dependent on its design, particularly the choice of materials, but also on the control of the processes that go into its manufacture. Product/process optimisation is an important theme of the "Industrial Quality" axis. This optimization usually requires the development of new methods of analysis, modeling and adjustment which constitute the fundamental contribution of this theme. We would like to remind here that if the subjects of study are applied, the developments they require are often fundamental and innovative in terms of concepts and methods.

The quality of a product must necessarily be measurable. This is the subject of research conducted in a second theme called "Product Inspection". In the past, our work has mainly focused on product geometry and several of our laboratory results are well known by the scientific community in this field. In recent years, we have been working on the development of methods for inspecting the sensory quality of a product (visual and haptic).

The quality of a product cannot be dissociated from the quality of the organization that creates and markets that product. For several years now, we have been developing, through the theme of "Process Optimisation", research into the continuous improvement and operational excellence approaches practised in companies. Our work focuses on aspects that have been little explored to date, such as Lean Information or Lean ISO. The conceptualization and modeling of business practices, with the aim of making them transferable, are at the heart of this work. This research complements the modeling and simulation of production systems aimed at innovating in industrial organization choices.

 

Themes