Ulysse Nardin

Founded in Locle, Switzerland, in 1846, and a subsidiary of the Kering group since 2014, Ulysse Nardin is a watch manufacturer that produces ‘Haute Horlogerie’ Swiss watches.

For Ulysse Nardin, true technical mastery implies perfecting its timepieces in the purest meaning of the term. To guarantee excellence, the watchmaker designs and manufactures most of its movements in-house. It is one of the rare ‘Haute Horlogerie’ watchmakers to produce its own balance springs¹ and escapements². The factory is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and unites 40 trades to produce the components and movements of its different collections.

¹Balance springs: very fine springs considered as the soul of the mechanical watch
²Escapement: mechanisms that count the oscillations of the balance of a watch

To manage the flow of its production of watch components, which ranges from unit production up to mass runs of several thousand items, the factory selected DELMIA. DELMIA software is designed to meet the challenge and specific requirements of manufacturing operations.

Lucas Humair, Ulysse Nardin’s Industrial Director stated: “Ulysse Nardin has coupled the DELMIA solution to its Solvaxis ERP and launched a Lean Manufacturing project. We can now optimally control our just-in-time production, reduce run times and balance the loads across the different shops, while minimizing bottlenecks and in-process inventory.”

The DELMIA solution was implemented and fine-tuned by, and under, the responsibility of the Head of Movements Supply Chain in charge of defining the model best suited to the needs of the factory in cooperation with DELMIA specialists.

• Financial gains: the scheduling is easier and faster to implement, which means the team can focus on value-added tasks (reduced scheduling time by 25%, reduced in-process inventory, just-in-time production, reduced run times)
• Strategic gains: improved, more reliable Supply Chain service level, anticipate and eliminate bottlenecks
• Organizational gains: fine-level control of multiple trades and shops, anticipate subcontractor information via precise communication of volumes and lead times

“The different teams in Ulysse Nardin are completely satisfied by their daily use of the solution. It offers a detailed two-month view of the load while remaining flexible in case of need, taking into account the many trades and shops to manage and any production contingencies. DELMIA is a tool that is indispensable to our organization. We plan to deploy it in other planning units of our departments, for example the movements assembly process.”

Stefano Marzo, Head of Movements Supply Chain