In the PSA factory in Poissy, workers are not busy assembling the DS3 Crossbacks, the SUVs usually produced on this site. The hundred or so employees, all volunteers to get out of partial unemployment and make themselves useful, assemble the small mechanical cases of artificial respirators that hospitals need today.
A meticulous job they are not used to. But after a few days of running in, they are ready. “Some wondered if they could do it with their big fingers. Some parts are so small that they are assembled with tweezers, ” says Franck Guérin, manager of this workshop, which was set up in an empty space two weeks ago.
All of them are launching the new "reinforced" health protocol: taking temperature at the entrance, mask, freezing, distance between employees, etc. A protocol that will be deployed throughout the group when activity resumes. "As long as the car sales are frozen, we will not resume," said Yann Vincent, the industrial director of PSA, however.
By mid-May, Poissy employees must make 10,000 boxes to honor the delivery promised by a consortium of companies (PSA, Schneider Electric and Valeo) to help Air Liquide cope with the influx of requests. PSA will simply invoice the hourly cost of the work to Air Liquide. “Last Friday, we assembled four boxes. Tuesday, Sept. Today, seventy-three, ” explains Franck Guérin. Next week, the workshop is expected to climb to 300 a day and run until May 15.
