According to Joseph Boccard, taking initiatives, however bold, can have only one possible result: success. This mindset was inherited by his son Francisque Boccard, who, by stepping up the firm’s transition to the industrial piping universe, provided it with a national stature.

In their turn, Alain and Jean-Luc Boccard broadened the horizons by taking up the challenge of accompanying customers in global markets and setting out to win new markets, with teams which developed and managed business locally.

In their wake, Bruno and Patrick Boccard accelerated and consolidated the business, market and regional diversification via a new strategic vision – that of an industrial turnkey constructor for industry – the development of customer intimacy and trust in employees, customers and partners in these terms: Alliance for success.

An untouchable* number that our teams ultimately achieved in response to the challenge set by Chobani: building the biggest yoghurt plant in the world in less than one year (326 days only!).

In addition to the scale of the project – a 93,000 m2 complex on 81 hectares of land – the installations had to be modular, to ensure extendibility and adaptation for the production of new yoghurt product ranges.

Such complexity entailed a Design to Build approach, where the design and construction phases are carried out in parallel, in order to achieve shorter delivery times and minimize risks. The proactiveness and coordination of Boccard Food & Beverage, Boccard Food in Montauban, Boccard Process Vessels in Roanne and Boccard Life Sciences in Houston were decisive to adjust the cursor in what was a marathon run at the speed of a sprint.

* An untouchable number is a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer.* An untouchable number is a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer..

50 years’ collaboration punctuated by numerous projects started in the wake of the oil shock, when France undertook the construction of nuclear power plants to ensure its energy independence. As early as 1972, Boccard SA worked on the site of the Bugey power plant, where it was planned to put into operation four 900 MWe units.

These units, preproduction models, made it possible to organize and consolidate program contracts CP1 and CP2, i.e. 28 units built between 1974 and 1983. During the commissioning period, Boccard developed the expertise of its teams, assimilating the constraints specific to the nuclear industry: traceability of assemblies and operations, quality control, independent quality assurance, cleanliness, complexity of installations, and a radiation protection constraint.

The business expertise continually acquired enabled Boccard to assist EDF in execution of the following programs which would introduce new series (P4, P’4 and then N4) and a new reactor generation (EPR). Even now, Boccard is still a leading player alongside EDF in the construction of EPRs in the United Kingdom and India.

“Delivery to the customer is always a special moment, when the satisfaction of having done useful work leaves you with a good feeling. Following a project from A to Z and coping with its specific features is also an opportunity.

We obtained an initial contract on the La Hague site, for an initial period of 20 months, which finally became 8 consecutive years of presence on the site after winning additional contracts for several workshops.

I had the good fortune of being the first one to arrive on the site and the last to leave it! For me that is a sign of trust and recognition. It proves that, at Boccard, there are numerous prospects, provided that you are motivated. Because the firm looks above all for people who are permanently committed.”

Claude Goyer • Project Director

40 YEARS’ SERVICE AT BOCCARD

Since the 1980s, we have come to realize the potential of digitilization and information systems in the planning and management of prefabrication.

Various developments performed in-house produced a proprietary system, BocTrack, which was first deployed on major prefabrication projects before being extended to all our business areas: engineering, construction and maintenance. BocTrack is now our comprehensive Computer Aided Production Management (CAPM) tool which allows us to monitor and control the execution of our projects, from receiving the isometric drawings through to assembly, while factoring in the requirements specified by our customers upstream.

Our customers, through access to their secure space, can constantly watch progress on their project thanks to reports updated in real time. Precious support for Ecopetrol, which we are assisting with production management and assembly for the “Energy and Steam” project at its Barrancabermeja refinery in Colombia.

Developing people’s skills and knowledge so that everyone gains in independence, self-assurance and expertise is a major key to success of the projects that we carry out. The geographic diversity of our operations, combined with the large number of markets that we address, is a great springboard for our employees to build their careers. BocMobility is designed to assist them in their choice of development.

At Boccard, developing does not merely mean changing job position or environment, but also learning from others. Expertise is nurtured by common experience shared between different generations, reflected by Dominique, Antoine and David De Rouck. Boccard Academy, which organizes skills development, promotes this transmission of knowledge at the company level.

Danone’s Ghana subsidiary, Fan Milk, the West African specialist in ice creams and fruit drinks, trusted Boccard to increase the production capacity of its ice cream plant by setting up a new yoghurt production line.

This was a very big project (8,400 hours of engineering work, 7,300 hours of automation, 4,000 hours of prefabrication in the workshop, 5,300 hours for start-up and production monitoring, 2,000 hours of supervision in the field, and 21,000 hours of on-site installation work). So five business units were hastily deployed: Boccard Process Vessels manufactured the tanks, Boccard Polska took charge of shipping the equipment, and Boccard Côte d’Ivoire performed installation on site with help from Boccard Russia which sent out a field technician.

The Food & Beverage Business Unit, for its part, coordinated all the work and controlled overall project management. A team spirit that was applauded by Patrick Kers, Danone Project Manager in Africa.