Renault’s Cléon Plant : among the Group’s technological showcase


by Valérie Calloch

Corporate

With nearly 100 million engines and gearboxes produced, the Cleon plant is celebrating its 60th spring this year.

Originally created to manufacture gearboxes, it also produces gasoline engines, diesel engines and electric motors.

Resolutely looking to the future, it is one of the Group’s pilot sites for industry 4.0.

Faced with a rapidly growing market, the plant will triple its electric motor production capacity and industrialize a new generation electric engine from 2021.

Mechanical excellence

Cléon is at the cutting edge of technology. Three “Alliance Standard Line” machining lines were inaugurated a few months ago. These lines machine crankshafts, cylinder housings, and cylinder heads. They are flexible (petrol, diesel) and produce engines for Renault and Nissan.

They have a double vocation: to respond to the industrial and capacity evolution of the plant, but also to anticipate the adaptation of the product to meet the new pollution control standards. More ecological and interconnected, they transmit information directly to their pilot, to the installation driver and can alert for example on a rise in temperature, a vibration on a bearing, to anticipate its change.

The Cléon site: a major player in the French Electric Vehicle cluster

The Group’s technological showcase

Thus, predisposed to the factory of the future, these new production lines allow the predictivity of maintenance*, the exploitation of data related to parts and the unit traceability of products.

The plant also tests and deploys many of the plant’s 4.0 technology bricks: automated logistics carts, sensors, 3D printing, exoskeletons, collaborative robots or virtual reality training.

Digital applications on smartphones also make everyday life easier for operators.

The Cléon site: a major player in the French Electric Vehicle cluster

2018 - Industrial Sites France - Groupe Renault - Map

Another reason for pride and belonging for its employees: Cléon is the only plant to produce electric motors for the entire Group.

The Cléon plant is one of the major players in the French centre of excellence for electric vehicles. It will triple its electric motor production capacity and industrialize a new generation electric motor from 2021.

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*Predictive maintenance makes it possible to collect data so as to detect and prevent machines breakdown risks

Cléon in a few figures

The Cléon plant manufactures engines and gearboxes on 141 production lines equipped with 461 robots. Its production supplies 39 assembly sites of the Alliance and some other manufacturers.

63% of the business is dedicated to Renault and 37% to other brands: Samsung, Dacia, Nissan, Daimler and Opel. 49% of the activity is exported.

More than 5000 people work on the site. In the midst of digital transformation, the plant’s employees have developed their skills and taken up the challenge of industrializing new processes. Renault Cléon has also embarked on a collaborative approach with its subcontractors, suppliers and equipment manufacturers to build on a forward-looking ecosystem.

 

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