Having joined as a multi-skilled worker in 2003, Christophe Ruis, 44, progressed within the company Galland to become production manager. He is currently in charge of planning and scheduling: a position at the heart of the industrial process, which requires patience, organization and rigor. A position that suits this athlete accustomed to long-term challenges!
In June, I will celebrate my 19th birthday at Galland. I joined in 2003 as a multi-skilled worker, with my BEP as a maintenance agent in my pocket. I had already worked in large companies as an assembly agent or numerical control operator. I left the Bélier foundries to come to Galland. The company had just moved into its new premises in La-Lande-de-Fronsac. There was everything to do: we were between crafts and industry, but I already felt that there was talent, energy and a tremendous capacity to adapt here.
“My first piece: a riveted aluminum recall arm”
I remember my first parts: the riveted aluminum return arms, the 204895 and the 204902. Then, Galland made a technological leap forward by moving from small series made manually (with a drill) to larger series requiring mastery of numerically controlled tools. In 2003, there were 7 of us to manufacture between 700 and 1000 section insulators. 5 years later, our rate was twice as high with only 5 operators. Newcomers sometimes have trouble believing that we manufactured so many parts and turned in 2/8 in a workshop that was more modest in size (half the size)! Since then, the workforce has grown, the site has industrialized and expanded, but without losing its proximity: three families still work among the staff, and management knows how to listen.
“To plan is to foresee the unforeseeable.”
My job has also changed. I am responsible for ensuring that customer orders are delivered on time. I make sure that there are always raw materials in stock, machine capacity and personnel to produce. We enter as much data as possible into the ERP – the management software – to be increasingly precise, more productive and therefore more profitable. The period is complex, because the pandemic and recent geopolitical events make this management very delicate. The rise in raw material prices, the health crisis, logistical difficulties – all these factors are additional challenges to our production organization. More than ever, planning means anticipating the unpredictable: it is up to us to organize production in such a way as to include these imponderables in order to gain agility and deliver to our customers on time. It is a difficult context, but one that allows us to launch a real dynamic and unite a team. It is this cohesion and sense of challenge that I find in the sport that I practice without moderation!
His hobbies
I am training for the Tour d'Aquitaine by bike and I am also trying the Tour des Charentes by mountain bike. Having already participated in ultra trails for several years, at the end of March, I am participating in the 24h multisport for my association: the spondylarthritis team France, where we show that thanks to sport, we can overcome the problems linked to our illness*.
His mantra
“Dare and fight!”
