Yesterday, on Thursday October 27, things were buzzing at i2S. We had the great privilege of meeting the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, as part of the « Factory of the Future » program launched by the New Aquitaine region.

So what is New Aquitaine’s factory of the future?

Initiated in February 2014, the « Factory of the Future » program now includes 290 ETIs and SMEs with over 20 employees from all over New Aquitaine (Aquitaine, Limousin, Poitou-Charentes).

This program is founded on three pillars:

production tools;
industrial organization;
and human beings in the factory (training, working conditions, and management).

This ambitious program is about « making New Aquitaine a leader in French industrial renewal in the digital age and helping companies develop a new type of production that is competitive, humane and respectful of the environment « .

40 minutes to convince from the know-how to the show-how

Speaking of programs, the one devised by i2S for the visit of our famous guests was intense, a winding course on the theme of « seeing what the eye cannot see ».
Not easy to achieve but, as always with us, we managed it despite the troop of journalists.

Pascal Thuilliez, Business Development Manager for Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and Philippe Bayle, i2S’s great expert in image quality received the Prime Minister, Alain Rousset , the President of the New Aquitaine region, and Jean-Luc Gleize, the President of the General Council of the Gironde, in our showroom which is dedicated to the dissemination of culture and knowledge.

Although i2S is a small French SME, major national institutions like libraries and archives look on us as the « Yves Saint Laurent » of rare and precious document digitization thanks to our high-end scanners.

Our book scanners are equipped with our LIMB heritage software which is developed in agile mode, allowing some of the most prestigious libraries and national archives in over 100 countries, to manage their heritage digitally. Thus, in all humility, we are participating in the safeguard of humanity’s heritage, a field of activity in which we are now a world leader. According to our calculations, the installed base of our book scanners can scan 10 billion pages annually.

Meet our engineers

The second step was to present our products and some prototypes.
Our optical engineer, Bruno Hiberty, was responsible for presenting our terahertz camera. With our partners, C.E.A. Tech, we have a joint laboratory dedicated to the development of terahertz imaging solutions and multi-spectral imaging, an agreement that has allowed us to position ourselves among the key players in the sector. In order to meet the challenges, this joint laboratory has a technical platform with substantial resources that is used to test, characterize, and validate materials. Terahertz waves are the non-ionizing waves that penetrate certain materials. Tomorrow we will make a camera that will be able to see through walls or scan a closed book.

Quickly and agilely, not unlike our in-house engineers, our guests explored the prototype of a disruptive scanner, another dedicated to monitoring cells, and a 3D dental probe produced using « sustainable lean » manufacturing. Using this method, we already produce 1,000 units a year of a revolutionary oral endo sensor, with ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certificates.

Meeting liberated associates

To finish his visit, the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls wanted to meet with some employees to discuss corporate liberation. Two members of the works council, Anne, a production technician and Daniel, our R.S.I., were accompanied by Alicia Malé, an image processing engineer and Fabrice Dupuy, a sales engineer.

At i2S, we have a primary objective: encouraging our associates’ scope for initiative so we can move from collaboration (working side by side) to cooperation (working together). Thus, we strive to lead our associates towards more autonomy so we can always be more competitive. Releasing our collective energy and intelligence so we can all succeed, means our teams, focused on our corporate strategy, can work independently and be completely responsible for themselves. We are organized in « squads », we work in kindness and respect, and we use common methods and tools such as speed meetings, CRM, Lean Canvas, sustainable lean, 5S, the scrum, etc.

Mr. Manuel Valls said to Jean-Louis Blouin, CEO of i2S « You all seem to be happy here. Thank you for your warmth and your welcome. You should congratulate your team for the work they have accomplished and be proud to fly the colors of French technology abroad ». Although i2S lets you see what the eye doesn’t know how to see, its employees are always smiling and dare to try a little more each day, and that can be seen!