BrazilEFESO Consulting helps Thélios with improving its value chain
Paris-based management consultancy EFESO has helped luxury eyewear produced Thélios cut its production lead times and ‘work-in-progress’ volumes by over 35% – through a new human-centric, lean manufacturing model.
A joint venture between Italy-headquartered luxury eyewear company Marcolin and global luxury brands group LVMH: Thélios designs and produces eyewear for top brands worldwide – including Dior, Stella McCartney, Celine and Berluti, among others.
Supporting this volume is Manifattura Thélios – a production centre located in Marcolin’s home base of Longarone, Italy – that houses 100 of Thélios’ 250-strong workforce. Looking to optimise its entire value chain – including Manifattura – to meet customer demands in an increasingly challenging luxury market, Thélios turned to experts from EFESO Consulting to design a new, tech-powered production model.
Key objectives were shortened lead times, predictive maintenance capabilities, portfolio rationalisation to focus on popular products, and more balanced workloads. Operational excellence is among EFESO’s core competencies, and the firm deployed three experts to support the project.
Lean transformation
After two months of scoping the status quo at Thélios, the experts developed a broad-based optimisation plan. In focus were ‘lean’ operating models – which focus on rapid prototyping and testing over short periods of time to cut the costs, time and energy required for production.
EFESO applied lean principles to Thélios’ industrial strategy by implementing new, dynamic assembly lines – designed to reduce working capital and production time. Also in the mix was a new capacity model, which could balance workflows across prototyping, development and manufacturing.
And the impact has been impressive: response times are down, which puts more Thélios products on the shelf with greater frequency; work-in-progress products have been cut by between 35% and 50%; faster prototyping and knowledge deployment has improved product value creation; and technical losses are at a low due to digitalisation.
Topping this off, workflows are operating in balance, critical issues are being detected and dealt with at early stages, and production lead times have been cut by 35%. The product suite has been rationalised too: Thélios now produces 30% less obsolete items.
Human-centric approach
Per the experts, much of this success goes beyond just the technical prowess of the new model – it boils down to the fact that people are at the heart of the transformation strategy.
“Human dynamics were at the centre of all EFESO interventions; in fact, the adoption of lean concepts, where flow is predominant on local productivity required a lot of effort to break the traditional production paradigms,” reads an EFESO statement.
Former Thélios CEO Massimo Stefanello backed this up: “The difference in working with EFESO is that together, in a very down to earth and joined up way, we managed to obtain serious improvements of our value chain, but it’s their focus on the human side of things which is a real asset in this type of projects.”
