Orano customer testimonial: faster digital transformation thanks to IDhall

Orano’s industrial processes site at Bessines-sur-Gartempe is a centre of technological excellence that experiences constant change, while enjoying ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certification. Consistent with the high requirements set by these standards, in 2019 employees instigated a process intended to improve collaborative working around various business processes and the monitoring of action plans. Read the testimonials from Régis Mathieu, Bessines-sur-Gartempe Site Manager, and Laure Rousseau, Head of IT, to find out how IDhall helped to accelerate their digital transformation.

About Orano’s industrial site at Bessines-sur-Gartempe

A big name in nuclear energy and fuel, Orano Group is at the forefront of expertise in transforming and managing nuclear materials so as to protect the climate and health, and save the world’s resources. Created more than 50 years ago to exploit uranium mines and process the mineral into yellowcake, the Orano site at Bessines-sur-Gartempe (in western Central France) was converted around twenty years ago - after uranium mines in France closed - to work in various areas such as the development of new extraction procedures, the development of therapies making use of radioactive elements to treat certain cancers, the management and monitoring of former mining sites, the storage of depleted uranium and the establishment of a mining museum.

The Bessines site currently employs 150 people, and is recognised as one of Orano Group’s major R&D centres. In September 2021, Orano officially opened its Innovation Centre for Extractive Metallurgy on the site. This new 8,300 m2 building cost €30 million, and is home to research activities and laboratories that are used to initiate new industrial pilot schemes, such as one to recycle heavy-duty batteries.

A common need across all staff to digitalise certain business processes

The story first dates back to 2019, when employees saw a need to modernise joint security inspection processes. At the time, the documentation was still paper-based and required two final approvals with a signature, a process that inevitably led to delays. The desire to accelerate the site’s digital transformation snowballed and other teams quickly showed their interest in improving other processes, such as “Manager in the Field” inspections for operational excellence, quality incident and discrepancy report handling, and actions resulting from areas for improvement or sensitive points raised during audits or inspections. All these areas were treated differently at the time, sometimes using paper, and all too often using Excel. Repeatedly re-entering data and sharing spreadsheets by email complicated the monitoring of actions and were undoubtedly inefficient and lengthened the time taken.

Selecting IDhall platform to support digital transformation

The Bessines-sur-Gartempe site team started by investigating the list of approved applications already identified at the Orano group level. These included IDhall, about which positive feedback already existed as regards how it monitors quality shortcomings. In addition, it was directly available for users on the move, which was an essential requirement.

The team therefore requested a tailor-made presentation from Humanperf Software based around three separate business lines, namely Orano Med for processes specific to the production of pharmaceuticals, Orano Mining to look at the quality of research processes in its extractive metallurgy centre, and the Hygiene, Health, Safety, Security and Environment department which is the support unit for security matters on the Bessines-sur-Gartempe site. This first stage confirmed that IDhall delivered a comprehensive response to the requirements, in terms of both digitalising the process, and for data retrieval and management aspects.The wealth of features available as standard was very reassuring, and the dashboard can be displayed immediately to any user wanting to manage their action plans and analyse activities within their scope. Once Orano’s security tests were successfully passed, IDhall was selected. The system was renamed LEA (“Logiciel d’Exploitation des Actions”, broadly meaning action supervision software) and the first training courses and system configuration exercises then started.

Practical benefits in action plan monitoring quickly obtained

IDhall was rolled out gradually, keeping within Orano Group’s constraints. In the security support unit, for example, the system was first implemented to digitalise quality-related collaborative processes, i.e. incident reports, discrepancy reports and audit reports. For each new area that joined the IDhall system, a presentation was given to the users concerned to demonstrate how it could be customised to meet individual needs, without getting lost in specific adjustments. Orano felt it was important for everyone to use a standard solution that could and would be regularly upgraded. IDhall’s ease of use meant that acceptance of the new system was swift, quickly improving interactions, with managers and end users now working better together, by virtue of the platform’s collaborative aspect.

Regardless of the line of business, any situation where collaborative processes are based on re-entering data and the use of Excel spreadsheets is bound to be inefficient. The dynamic and collaborative aspects of the IDhall solution are now recognised by all staff on the Bessines-sur-Gartempe site, who see far greater uniformity in action monitoring and reporting. All data is structured and can be cross-referenced even if it comes from different types of inspection, which was impossible when data was stored in different Excel spreadsheets.