e.l.m leblanc and IMT sign a framework agreement on the industry of the future

Both partners are strongly involved in issues related to the industry of the future, and have decided to pool their efforts and formalize their collaboration.

A lasting partnership based on three components: research, R&D and foresight.

1.    Develop cutting-edge research in the following fields :

• digital technologies,
• acoustics,
• Big Data and Machine Learning,
• Industry of the Future,

2.    Develop innovative joint R&D projects on key industrial challenges such as automation, Big Data, the Internet of Things, security, as well as the production line, logistics and transport, human-machine cooperation and intelligent agents.

3.    Engage in future-oriented reflection and research on humankind’s place in the digital and industrial transitions, and create and develop new paradigms (business models, new organizational forms, new products and services) for the industry of the future.

The partners’ perspectives

For IMT teams, the cooperation with e.l.m. leblanc represents an outstanding full-scale and operational testing ground for production. As a company that is very advanced in its own industrial transformation, e.l.m. leblanc is the ideal player for confronting IMT’s research with the practical issues that arise from the changes currently underway in the industry of the future.

In the short term, researchers will work with e.l.m. leblanc teams on issues related to the metallurgy of stainless steel, to big data (maintenance and predictive manufacturing), “factory service” prediction, industrial IoT and the Smart Factory (analysis and modeling of logistic flows, changes to the workstation and the production line).

According to Christian Picory-Donné, Director of Partnerships and Transfers at IMT, “these projects will lay the foundations for many different forms of collaboration that will of course bring together R&D, but also initial and lifelong learning, foresight and think-tanks. This will provide many cross-fertilization opportunities with this major industrial partner.”

According to e.l.m. leblanc, the upheavals taking place in the world due to new technologies will only continue and increase in the coming decades. As an industrial company, e.l.m. leblanc is facing an unprecedented challenge. The company is concerned about its present and future ability to understand these constant waves of changes – specifically changes in business models and production methods.

According to Philippe Laforge, Chief Executive of e.l.m. leblanc “Our partnership with a leading academic player like IMT is essential in this dynamic and uncertain context. IMT provides us with its expertise, not only in terms of the latest developments, but also in research applied to the challenges of our profession. This collaboration, resulting from our regional and national foundations, is at the heart of e.l.m.’s development strategy in France”.