A Smart Lab at Sierre

Constellium Sierre, SA partners with a local engineering school as part of the Smart Process Lab (SPL), which has increased the production of extrusions. 

Constellium Valais and the Haute École d’Ingénierie of HES-SO Valais-Wallis join forces to create the first industrial and academic lab for applied research and development in Valais, Switzerland.

Digitalization is a challenge for all manufacturing companies today. For Constellium Valais and the Haute École d’Ingénierie HES-SO Valais-Wallis, it was natural to join forces and gather competencies around digitalization concepts to further master industrial processes. This partnership includes the creation of a “Smart Process Lab”, an applied research and development laboratory.  A joint financing approach between Constellium Valais, the Haute Ecole d’Ingenierie and tier funds is supporting this 2M CHF 5 years collaboration. Both Management teams will be closely involved in the launch of the Lab in order to move forward quickly and effectively.

Lionel Thomas, Constellium Valais Director explains: “The creation of this Smart Process Lab is a great opportunity for Constellium Valais to expand our industrial competencies in Applied Research and Development and digitalization. The proximity of our industrial plant and the HES-SO will facilitate the implementation of the projects and therefore quickly gain in competitiveness, by accelerating the introduction of new added-value products to the market. This Lab should also help us to generate new ideas of product to broaden our horizons on other markets, and also to improve our quality and efficiency in our production processes.”

The training of future engineers is also an important part of this collaboration. Indeed, the future engineers will be involved in think tank session to address Constellium’s industrial challenges, and all the technical learnings generated by the think tank will be directly transferred in the Smart Process Lab for Constellium benefits. This partnership will foster future engineer’s employability thanks to concrete industrial learnings, thus it will provide the industry the right skills to guarantee their development. “Employability is also part of Constellium Valais strategy,” mentioned Lionel. “Staff transition is a real challenge for us in the short and long terms, and this partnership will facilitate the transfer of young and qualified engineers to the different Constellium Valais plants. A real plus for young engineers, and for Constellium Valais!”