Successful Lean-Agile transformation at the Aumovio plant

Since 2019, the automotive sector has been experiencing a deep structural crisis, marked by a strained market and a questioning of traditional industrial models. Vehicle electrification and the rapid evolution of technologies have accelerated these transformations, changing customer expectations, development cycles, and industrial performance requirements.

An automotive plant recognized for its culture of excellence

Established for more than forty years, the Continental Automotive plant in Toulouse specializes in the manufacture of embedded electronic systems for the automotive industry. It employs approximately 450 employees and produces high-value-added components that meet stringent quality, reliability, and industrial performance standards.

In 2025, a strategic change led to the creation of Aumovio, a new independent entity originating from Continental’s automotive sector. In this context of instability, the site’s leadership team initiated a profound transformation of its operating model, with a clearly defined objective: to ensure the site’s survival without resorting to external investments, while targeting a 17% cost reduction over five years. This ambition was not based on the logic of one-off cost reduction, but on a structural redesign of the plant’s operating practices.

To achieve this, the site launched a Lean-Agile transformation across the entire organization, moving away from traditional management methods. This transformation was supported by agile, collaborative, and adaptive governance focused on team accountability, continuous strategic alignment, and the development of a strong collective culture. It was this ability to sustainably transform both operational and managerial culture, while generating measurable results, that led the Toulouse site to be recognized with the Kaizen Culture Excellence Award at the Kaizen Awards France 2025.

Challenges transformed into strategic opportunities

For Aumovio, the evolving industrial context provided an opportunity to critically question its operating practices and evolve its operating model. To achieve an ambitious objective of sustainability and performance, the site chose to approach the challenges it faced not as obstacles, but as structural transformation levers aligned with its vision and long-term ambitions.

Figure 1 – The message “We are Aumovio” painted on the floor

Strengthening organizational ability

The need to address rapid changes and shifting priorities highlighted the need to develop a more dynamic organization. This challenge encouraged the site to rethink its management mechanisms to achieve responsiveness, adaptability, and strategic coherence.

Evolving governance toward greater participation

The context also highlighted the value of adopting more collaborative governance models. By encouraging more active team participation in defining objectives and improvement trajectories, the site identified a major lever to strengthen strategic alignment and collective engagement.

Figure 2 – Tracking of quality and production objectives

Fully leveraging the potential of teams

The transformations undertaken highlighted the importance of placing operators at the center of the performance model. The site leveraged this opportunity to strengthen team autonomy, ownership, and initiative, supported by a strong culture of collaboration.

Achieving economic performance without external investment

Finally, the ambition to ensure the site’s sustainability without resorting to external investments constituted a structuring challenge. This constraint ultimately steered the transformation toward sustainable, internally driven solutions grounded in continuous improvement, optimized practices, and tight alignment between strategy and execution.

A transformation driven by the teams

To address the identified challenges and achieve the transformation objective, the team implemented a set of coherent and complementary initiatives. Designed to evolve the site’s ways of working, these initiatives draw on Lean management and agility principles and place teams at the center of the transformation effort.

Building a shared and common vision

The first structuring action was to define and share a clear vision for the site as a whole. This vision, developed in collaboration with the teams, aimed to position the plant as a reference site among those in high-cost areas, capable of combining industrial performance, agility, and collective engagement. It served as a reference framework to guide decisions, align priorities, and give meaning to the actions undertaken.

The Obeya room was a central tool in this process, enabling the visualization of strategic objectives and real-time tracking of progress. This system strengthened transparency, communication, and engagement, fostering constant alignment between teams and management.

Figure 3 – Obeya room

Developing an agile culture across the site

To strengthen organizational agility, a training program in Agile methodologies was deployed to a large portion of the workforce. More than 150 employees were trained in agility principles, the functioning of autonomous teams, and the key roles associated with them. This action enabled the gradual adoption of the new practices and served as a major lever for cultural transformation.

Implementing strategic management through OKRs

To ensure clear, shared strategic alignment, the site implemented an Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) system. Each team defined its objectives in alignment with the overall vision, within a framework structured by regular monitoring and adjustment rituals. This management approach promoted transparency, accountability, and collective engagement around strategic priorities.

Figure 4 – Collaborative performance analysis in the Obeya room

Structuring the organization around an ART system

The site’s organization was structured around an ART (Agile Release Train), in accordance with the SAFe framework. The implementation of incremental planning, Scrum ceremonies, reviews, and retrospectives enabled planning deliveries, strengthening collaboration between teams, and integrating continuous improvement into daily operations. Teams thus gained greater autonomy while maintaining strong strategic alignment.

“We moved from a fixed annual strategy to quarterly planning, with regular check-ins that allow us to adjust our actions continuously.” – Christophe Jarque, Quality Manager

Establishing continuous communication with stakeholders

Ultimately, particular attention was given to communication with internal and external stakeholders. Regular exchanges were held to share progress, validate completed increments, and adjust direction as needed. This approach strengthened trust, the legitimacy of the transformation, and the site’s ability to evolve coherently in an uncertain environment.

Figure 5 – Follow-up meeting

“Every quarter, we have our clients directly assess our improvement priorities to ensure we remain aligned with what matters most to them.” – Pierre Sanseau, Factory Manager

Results that exceed the objectives

After five years of Lean-Agile transformation, Aumovio achieved tangible and sustainable results, demonstrating the effectiveness of an approach focused on agility, continuous strategic alignment, and collective engagement. These results reflect both the economic performance achieved and the profound transformation of the site’s organizational and cultural model:

• Reduction of production costs by 25%,exceeding the initial objective set at 17% over five years.
• 18 increments delivered with the teams, all validated with stakeholders, ensuring continuous alignment between strategy and execution.
• Deployment of the agile logic across all production lines and support functions integrated into an agile portfolio logic, with dynamic priority management.
• Profound cultural transformation, with more than 150 employees trained in Agile methodologies and active involvement of more than 60% ofteams from the earliest phases.
• Strengthening of team autonomy and accountability,fostering initiative and the ability to define strategic priorities collectively.
• Evolution of the managers’ role, shifting from directive oversight to a coaching approach built on transparency, trust, and strong support for teams.
• Internal and external recognition,positioning the site as a reference within the group for industrial Lean-Agile practices.

When collective action makes the difference

The Lean-Agile transformation undertaken by the team above all reflects a collective stance in the face of instability. In an environment marked by successive crises and uncertainty, the site refused passivity and resignation. Instead, it chose to adapt to reality, take action, and mobilize collective intelligence to actively build its future.

This dynamic led to a profound questioning of traditional roles at both the leadership level and within teams. In Pierre Sanseau‘s words, the transformation involved “transparently sharing the company’s challenges, context, and results, and trusting teams to define the path forward themselves.” This shift in posture strengthened autonomy, accountability, and employee engagement.

On the team side, this evolution also marked a turning point. Being fully involved in the site’s strategic decisions and priorities gradually gave rise to a new collective dynamic. As highlighted by Cécile Capdeviolle, Customer Quality Team Manager: “We were asked to take responsibility for our decisions, almost as if everyone became their own CEO. At first, it was unsettling, but little by little, we gained confidence and autonomy.” This mutual trust formed an essential foundation for facing the most unstable periods.

Figure 6 – Photo of the Aumovio team celebrating the project’s success with the Kaizen Culture Excellence Award

By choosing not to endure crises, but to reinvent itself collectively, Aumovio proves that industrial resilience relies above all on the people who make up the company. It is this ability to come together, learn, and progress collectively that enabled the site to transform instability into opportunity and build sustainable successes shared by all.