Robin Delmas, Lean Manufacturing Engineer at Nexteam Group
A group-wide rollout that unified load/capacity planning across 14 production sites, 5 ERPs, and 4 business units.
About
Nexteam
Nexteam is an integrated player serving the aerospace and defense sectors, with end-to-end expertise in metallic parts across 4 disciplines:
machining
foundry
sheet metal work
surface treatment
Nexteam is also:
8 countries · 18 facilities · 3 design offices
+2,300 employees
€285M projected revenue in 2023 vs €220M in 2022
1 CSR action plan
1 Cyber Security program
1 modernization program
Impact
The story
Nexteam is an integrated industrial group serving the aerospace and defense sector, with deep expertise across 4 disciplines: machining, foundry, sheet metal, and surface treatment. With 14 production sites, 5 different ERPs, and fragmented load/capacity processes inherited from each site's own history, the group needed a unified tool that could bring structure, visibility, and credibility to their planning operations at scale.
The challenge
Before Oplit, Nexteam relied on complex Excel files with formulas and macros that were extremely difficult to maintain. The group had already attempted to standardize by sharing these files across sites, but the approach was fragile and inconsistent. Each site had its own load/capacity process, its own data format, and its own ERP. The result was a patchwork of disconnected planning practices across the group, with no shared visibility and no way to support rigorous capacity audit discussions with clients.
Oplit's approach
Nexteam started with a 3-month pilot on their Marmande site to implement and test the solution. Once validated, they rolled out Oplit across all 14 remaining sites in 6 months, organized into 4 deployment waves (one wave per business unit, every 6 weeks). The rollout required only 0.2 FTE at group level and 0.2 FTE per business unit, plus strong IT team responsiveness to deliver standardized data exports for each site.
Oplit is now used by 6 collaborators across sites and by production managers daily. All sites share the same planning language and the same tool. In one click, group managers can navigate from one site to another, see the current load/capacity situation, simulate transfer scenarios between sites, and identify where internal subcontracting could reduce delays. Load/capacity review meetings with clients have improved significantly in quality. Clients can now see live simulations, understand their own capacity footprint, and engage in more strategic discussions.
Oplit is now used as a strategic asset in client relationships. During capacity audit meetings, Nexteam presents live simulations via Oplit, showing clients their share of load, current capacity positions, and the impact of different scenarios. The robustness of the process and the traceability of hypotheses have made these discussions far more credible. As Robin Delmas noted, it became such a competitive advantage that Nexteam even tried to add an exclusivity clause to their contract with Oplit.
