Press - Innovation and partnerships, drivers of growth0 pages

STRATEGY

WELDING

GYS Industry

Innovation and partnership,
the driving force for growth
In 2014 GYS the French
Industrial company celebrated
its 50th year in business as it
continues to go from strength
to strength. Employing more
than 500 people both in France
and abroad, GYS continues its
investment strategy from Saint
Berthevin near Laval, France.
Over the years GYS has
developed increasingly powerful
and sophisticated state-of-the
art welding products
establishing itself at the leading
edge of technology. In order to
meet customers’ needs, GYS
invests in process and product
innovations, as well as placing
emphasis on a close
partnership with its customers.

B

oth the company and headquarters of GYS have grown
significantly since the current
management took over in
1997. The Saint Berthevin site is currently being transformed to fulfil
increasing
production
needs,
improve reactivity, boost the organisation and provide employees with
the best possible working conditions.
A recently acquired plot of land adjacent to its current site will provide
much larger warehousing by 2016,
extending the site to over 400,000 sq
ft.
Bruno Bouygues, GYS’ general manager along with his father and CEO
Nicolas Bouygues, often invite their
partners, distributors and large end
t

The headquarters of GYS, located in Saint-Berthevin Mayenne, expands over the years. In 2016, it will extend over 430 000ft². It was 75 000ft² in 1997.

Innovation and partnerships are the drivers of growth at GYS.

users to visit the industrial site to
share the company vision for the
future.
According to Bruno “The market is
constantly shifting and the size of
our family business allows us to
adapt quickly to new circumstances.
We are convinced that our future is
closely linked to our clients’. We
strive to understand what our distributors and end users expect from us,
to know what challenges they face
and how we can help them to overcome these challenges, meet their
expectations and remain their privileged partners for the road ahead”.

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18t

April 2015

Increasingly Diverse Skills
Not content with being among the
most important equipment and welding product players, the GYS industrial site is driven by a relentless
force, its evolution is driven by a
single goal: to better meet the needs
of its customers, whatever part of
the industry they come from. This
strategy has paid off with GYS’ turnover growing, thanks to some prestigious export markets.
GYS strives to constantly innovate
both product and manufacturing
process so that its’ ‘Made in France’
products remain in prime position
both in the EU and worldwide while
remaining at the forefront of global
technology. During the GYS journey

new markets have been explored
and
its
industry
knowledge
expanded. Arc welding led GYS to
spot welding, which in turn led to in
house mechanical parts manufacturing. These mechanical skills encouraged GYS to develop pulling and
lifting equipment, especially since
its experience in battery chargers for
the automotive industry made it
possible to capitalise on existing
business partners to distribute these
new products. Similarly, from the
base of spot welding for the repair of
cars now riveting products have
been introduced for alternative vehicle construction methods. And
induction heating generators were
born from a demand from the automotive industry.
“Thanks to our in-house expertise,
we were able to quickly develop an
induction generator using technologies at the forefront of global manufacturing. This technology will gradually replace direct flames used to
heat metal in the repair process.
More accurate, faster and safer, it
also allows many new applications”
explains Bruno Bouygues.
In the same spirit the company has
drawn on the requirements of its
export customers, including Germany and Japan, improving the quality
of its products and services, thus
enabling GYS to penetrate high-end
markets.

At the cutting edge of
global technology
The pillars of this approach are the
engineers and technicians of GYS’
research centre, combining and sharing their expertise in mechanical,
mechatronic, electronics, electrical,
induction, plastics and software
engineering. They constantly work
on the company’s business driven
project, with the ambition to bring
new developments to fruition quickly
and effectively.
“The main elements of our research
centre are based on creativity, strong
internal communication and sharing
of expertise. The sustainability of
this triptych is our guarantee of success. Combined with a strong customer focus, it allows us to constantly
offer new products that are a better
fit for the needs of end users”.
GYS is also working on expanding its
skills in the world of battery charging. In a few weeks, the extension
of the new GYSFLASH product range
will give GYS the means to furnish
showrooms and professional diagnostics experts in the automotive
industry with a stabilised power
supply preventing power surges and
sub voltages that may damage highly sensitive and complex vehicle
electronics.
“The level of sophistication in
modern vehicles imposes the same
level of sophistication for our products. There are only a few global
players in this niche market and we
will boost our offering with a new
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19t

April 2015

product range. It is more advanced,
both from a technological and design
perspective, as well as significantly
less expensive than the competition.
These products will also we hope,
help us enhance our reputation with
car manufacturers. I believe we have
reached a milestone in our 2015 strategy, aiming to make our products
more powerful and technology heavy in order to help our customers
overcome the new challenges they
face”.
The company is also developing
more complex, synergic curves for
its industrial welding plant which
are essential for making progress in
the welding sector. A real transfer of
the manufacturer’s know-how to the
machine, translated into complex
mathematical algorithms, results in
the synergic programs automatically
integrating the various parameters
that need to be taken into account by
the welder, or the robot. A good
example is the recent launch of the
new welding machine TIG 220A AC/
DC enabling an advanced adjustment when welding aluminium
(triangle, trapezoid, sine, square).
The precision of the advanced parameters enable the device to weld
metal combinations that had been
difficult to work with before now.
This approach also requires an analysis of the ever more sophisticated
man-machine interface as all
advanced stations will soon integrate a ‘plug and play’ system in
order to make the welder’s skilled
job easier. The research centre also
works on plasma cutting in order to
perfect cutting quality. After years of