ERS MACHINES SPÉCIALES : HISTORY

The E.R.S limited liability company was created in March 1971by three associates: Mr CONESA, Mr FANELLI and Mr MICHALET. It had a capital of 45.000 €. Its main vocation was the study of tools and small installations for industry in general. Its first customers were :

• THE CAR INDUSTRY AND ITS SUBCONTRACTORS :
  • R.V.I. VÉNISSIEUX (69), press workshops ( cutting tools ),
  • R.V.I. BOUTHEON (42), gearboxes assembly lines.
• THE DOMESTIC APPLIANCES SECTOR WHICH WAS BOOMING AT THAT TIME :
  • CALOR,
  • FAR,
  • BSN (press tools and several different small machines).
• THE ALUMINIUM FOUNDRY AND THE STEEL FOUNDRY :
  • FONDERIE DE L’AUTHION (49), dead-head-cutting-off machines.
  • FONDERIE SIFA (45), sawing of heads of aluminium motor pieces.
  • Many small aluminium foundries in Lyons region, (SACCHI, DURANTON, SICFOND, THOUIN, DERVAUX, etc.…).
  • Steel foundry : R.V.I. VÉNISSIEUX (69), grinding, etc...

In 1980, after a market evolution, E.R.S specialized in the design and the production of special machines "CLES EN MAINS" in three main lines of products :

• Riser saws and finishing equipment for light metals alloy foundry (50% of our turnover)
• Automatic machines producing hinges, strapped hinges eyes, bolts and other building hardware (25% of our turnover).
• Automatic special machines for working on tubes: reducing, pinching, cutting, etc... ( 25% of our turnover).

En 1997/98, à la suite de départs en retraite successifs des créateurs, l’entreprise continue grâce à l’implication du personnel déjà présent dans la société depuis plusieurs années, comme Messieurs GUINOT, FAURE et LAVERIE, ERS poursuit donc son objectif de satisfaire la clientèle dans la tradition du service.

MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE COMPANY :

The company realizes technical studies, locally looks after the manufacture of mechanical pieces, undertakes the assembly and the adjustments of every machine, conceives the hydrolic groups, the electric parts, the programs for automatic running, carries out the tests, the perfecting, the starting and the after-sale service of the machines.

Our company exports on average 15 to 20% of our turnover : Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands. (In 1998, we exported 40% of our turnover).

Our activity has given our French and European customers the possibility to resist foreign competition for 20 years : our machines are competitive in terms of price and quality. They prevent our customers from delocalising their productions to countries where labour is less expensive. Therefore, it preserves jobs in France as well as in Germany, Netherlands, etc...
Thanks to local and regional subcontracting, our company gives work to a dozen of SMEs in Lyons and Saint-Etienne region.
In the technological designing of the machines produced by E.R.S, many European-made components are used: hydraulic and pneumatic jacks, dozens of electric and electronic components coming from Germany, Italy, France, Great-Britain, etc...
This also contributes to maintain an industrial activity for all our European partners.

Thanks to the diversity and the quality of our technical solutions, many of our customers manage to keep up their position on the European and even the international market. And therefore, they can preserve employment.

• The firm SERRES DE FRANCE at EYGALIERES (13) became the first European green-houses producer. They export 65% of their turnover in sixty countries.The four automatic installations we supplied them, and which they still use, have contributed a lot to this success.
• The equipments we have delivered to some of our customers since 15 to 20 years have helped them to become leaders in their speciality :
  • In France :
    • Aluminium foundries of the VALFOND group
    • BREA Foundry
    • AFBAT METAL Firm
  • In Germany :
    • ALBERTS Firm
    • POLLMANN Firm
  • In Nederland :
    • BODEGRAVEN Firm
    • SNELDER Firm
  • In swisserland :
    • SANER Firm

Thanks to the equipments we provide our customers of the foundry industry with, they can supply car pieces in a more competitive manner to VOLVO, GENERAL MOTORS, RENAULT, PEUGEOT et CITROEN, MITSUBISCHI, CHRISLER (U.S.A.), without forgetting firms like BOSCH, LUCAS DIESEL, DELPHI, etc.....

THE BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY :

Our markets are now characterized by a deep change concerning the problem of competition and the satisfaction of our customers demands : Indeed, our customers expect our company : to make modifiable machines that can be used for several purposes.

• o increase the performance and the reliability of our machines as they are used 24 hours a day and six days a week.
• to reduce the adjustment time.
• to use new technologies in terms of automatism (graphics screens, industrial PCs,etc...)
• to manufacture machines that can be integrated into data processing networks in order to manage production.
• to provide them with machines that can be integrated into automated cells.
• to produce machines that evolve with the changes and the improvements of products :
  For example, a saw must follow the evolution of a manifold modified for injection, then adapted to gazoil, then to Turbo,etc...
  
• to find a way for our conceptional systems to match with our customers' plans.

Our company undertakes the technical follow-through, the modifications or the evolutions of the programs as well as the maintenance with new,quick and high-performance means : For example, we use a modem link to install maintenance systems.

We have to be reactive and well-organized to manufacture high-quality products and to deliver them in time.

• In our opinion, showing initiative and favouring technological innovation is an efficient means to face competition as they often sell cut-price to survive.
• Innovation is often considered as a key factor to find partners. In this way, our company has to jump ahead our customers' demand by favouring technology and newest techniques.

Thanks to these different measures, our customers appreciate our partnership and they are given precious advice in order to optimize their productivity or to improve the ready-existing solutions whithout increasing the cost of their production.