The Manufacture des Forges, pride of Audemars Piguet

“A strategic move for Audemars Piguet and a symbol for the region, this is a construction in the finest watchmaking spirit, with care and attention paid to every detail,” is how Philippe Merk, the newly-appointed CEO, described Audemars Piguet’s architectural gem. Three hundred staff, previously spread across different sites in the region, now work under one roof at the new Manufacture des Forges. The building, which adjoins the company’s old premises, represents a CHF 35 million investment and was designed to meet the Minergie-Eco®* standard, a first for an industrial building in Switzerland. “Work began in June 2007 and the first workshops moved in late last year,” commented Philippe Merk. “The Manufacture has been fully operational since this summer.”

A healthy, ecological building

Audemars Piguet’s new production facilities comply with Minergie-Eco® criteria, “expressed through enhanced user comfort and energy savings within a healthy and environmentally-friendly construction,” the brand explained. Even before the first stone was laid, the site, a former sawmill, had to be depolluted. Materials are either recycled or have a low environmental impact, such as fibro-cement for the outer walls, eloxed aluminium for the window frames and FSC-certified wooden floors.

Energy consumption is another key factor in the new building’s ecological credentials. A carbon-neutral wood-fired heating plant ensures remote heating for the Manufacture and, in due course, for some one hundred homes in Le Brassus. A cooling ceiling ensures a comfortable temperature in summer. Close attention has been paid to electrical and telecommunications equipment to control exposure to electromagnetic fields. Outside the building, the site has been carefully landscaped and the stream that runs through Le Brassus returned to its original bed.

Rethinking production flow

Important changes are underway elsewhere too, as Audemars Piguet has taken this opportunity to completely rethink production flow. “We aim to reduce stock and production times, which are far too long,” explained Pascal Nareburu, who is head of production. “We must be capable of doing in eight months what used to take two years. It’s a matter of organisation. In a similar vein, we now have a fully digitised inventory system. As from next January, we will be introducing a machine, designed by Audemars Piguet, that can simulate one year’s wearing of our models. This will enable us to deliver watches whose movement is already run in, exactly like a car engine. The number of watches returned for after-sales service is already proportionately low. With this new method, we can expect fewer still.”

The inauguration of the new manufacture was also the occasion for Audemars Piguet to take stock of sales. “Whereas Swiss watch exports fell by 26% on average over the first seven months of the year, our sales, while down, haven’t posted such a significant drop,” commented Philippe Merk, with no further precisions. “We have won market share with what we can say are satisfactory results. In this context, we can exclude redundancies at this time. We are simply envisaging introducing shorter working hours in some of our workshops. We are encouraging internal mobility, such as by seconding watchmakers to our after-sales service for complication watches, and have introduced flexi-time. Meanwhile, we are focusing on skills training so that when the economy recovers, we will be ready.” All that remained was for Jasmine Audemars, chair of the board of directors, to note that a company such as Audemars Piguet was sufficiently solid to sail through difficult times. The Manufacture des Forges is ample proof.

*Minergie®, the Swiss standard for buildings, has incorporated environmental criteria to become the Minergie-Eco® standard. The Minergie standard guarantees a certain level of user comfort and energy efficiency whereas Minergie-Eco attests that the building complies with stringent criteria of health and environmentally-friendly construction.