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It has also unveiled a new organisational plan
under which the group would be structured around
three large regions and seven divisions.
Detailing the new initiatives at the board of
directors meeting at Neuilly-sur-Seine Dec 10th,
Thales chairman Luc Vigneron said: "We resolutely
intend to implement the actions for the transformation
of Thales, which are aiming at a better control
of our bids and programmes, improved productivity
and a simpler organisation.
"Better performing, more efficient and more
reactive, Thales will have the necessary room
for manoeuvre to pursue its development and come
back to profitable growth," Vigneron added.
At the heart of the initiatives is a performance
plan to ensure productivity improvement of Euros
1.3 billion over the next five years.
"This productivity effort is a prerequisite
to keep the Group's competitiveness and will mobilise
everyone within the company," Vigneron pointed
out.
The production plan aims at:
* Bringing down non-quality costs and increasing
customer satisfaction to align the entire group
to the levels achieved by its best-performing
units,
* Raising the efficiency of engineering, industrialisation,
supply chain and information systems, and
* Significantly decreasing overheads.
Under the new organisational plan, the three
regions would be responsible for their profit
and loss accounts, while the seven divisions would
be in charge of research and development, product
policy and industrial policy worldwide.
"A comprehensive review of the company's
activities has been performed over the last few
months. It has confirmed the wealth of Thales's
technological portfolio, the quality of its staff
throughout the world and the robustness of its
customer base, and this has enabled Thales to
overall withstand the world economic downturn
well," a company statement said.
"However, important difficulties on several
aerospace and security programmes have strongly
impacted operational profitability and highlighted
the necessity for a profound transformation of
the operating processes used by the group,"
the statement added.
It was against this backdrop, and as the global
environment continues to show depressed air traffic,
government budgetary constraints and a weak dollar
against the euro that Vigneron presented the new
initiatives, the statement said.
(IANS)
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