Expert's take

SIAE: the Electronics activity of LACROIX has underlined its commitment to its clients in the avionics sector

24 May 2019

LACROIX Electronics

Markets

As a French designer and manufacturer of electronic assemblies, we regard the avionics sector as an essential driver of our growth. Building on a close relationship with our customers, we have embarked on ambitious projects aimed at meeting their needs.

Core electrical units, ventilation systems, fuel management… aeronautics is an industry requiring more and more electronic functions. In this particularly demanding sector, where highly complex systems are subjected to extreme conditions of use, standards are both numerous and stringent. Equipment suppliers must earn the trust of aircraft manufacturers over the long term. The Electronics activity of LACROIX, present at this year’s International Paris Air Show (SIAE), Bourget, has successfully risen to these challenges, and its aeronautical branch has experienced double-digit growth for more than ten years.

Customer-oriented organisation

We chose to focus our organisation around the customer by creating an avionics sales department in 2017. Our teams are dedicated to a single customer and all activities are managed under the responsibility of one person throughout the entire lifespan of the project. This highly flexible organisation improves customer relationships and proximity, enabling us to be faster and more agile in our decision making and, ultimately, to respond more effectively to customer demands.

Erwan Joret
Avionics manager - Electronics activity of LACROIX

This close connection is being reflected in the opening of a new workshop in Tunis, scheduled for 2020, ensuring greater proximity to our customers’ needs, completing the Saint-Pierre-Montlimart’s plant, near Nantes, where 130 employees work for the avionics branch. The batches produced range from a few dozen to several thousand units per year for programs such as the Airbus A320 NEO and A350, the Boeing 777X and 787, as well as business and defence aviation models. In addition to vibration and endurance testing, performed on site, most boards undergo a tropicalisation phase. Furthermore, perfect expertise in assembly processes makes it possible to perform operations related to modification documents without affecting product robustness.

Setting new standards

The Electronics activity of LACROIX is committed to obtaining Nadcap certification, a prerequisite for many equipment suppliers.

We plan to pursue this quality procedure by adapting our industrial production tools. Our future factory, Symbiose, currently at the feasibility stage, will integrate the Nadcap dimension and will bring a real boost to operational excellence, thanks in particular to new digital solutions and our automation and robotisation processes.

Firmly committed to quality and to regular, controlled growth in this activity in line with its customers, the Electronics activity of LACROIX plans to develop design and integration of all or part of these systems. To meet this objective, the company now has more efficient machinery and better qualified staff, thanks to specific, advanced training programs.

We have a sufficient level of maturity to oversee the assembly of complex systems. Our integrated supply chain, our cross-cutting experience in other markets such as the automotive industry, and our design center are all assets for ascending the value chain of our customers and offering them an optimal service.

See you in a couple of weeks for another article on the avionics sector… We’ll be taking a look behind the scenes at the varnishing of our electronic products.