Striving for best-in-class industrial performance

In a volatile, competitive environment, we need to excel at what we control: operations. Striving for best-in-class industrial performance, we at FORVIA are transforming our activities for sustainable competitiveness. Our innovation ecosystem brings together our own experts with cross-sector mobility innovators around the globe, enabling us to pioneer transformative technologies with speed and efficiency.

A comprehensive approach to excellence

Our 360° lean manufacturing approach, the FORVIA Excellence System (FES), is designed to help us achieve best-in-class industrial performance. It integrates the best processes and practices from Faurecia and HELLA, incorporating digitalization and our sustainability roadmap. Rolled out to FORVIA sites since mid-2023, FES plays a key role in achieving both our financial POWER25 and scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality targets for 2025. This is our way to execute and improve. It serves as the foundation for delivering safety, performance and total customer satisfaction.

Excellence is a quest

Digital transformation; industrial application

Across our sites, we deploy automated guided vehicles, data analysis, and 3D simulations to optimize operations. In 2023, more than 90 digital model plants were utilizing the latest digitalized tools and processes, and over 30 more are planned for 2024. Innovative approaches are tested in benchmark model plants before wider implementation. We are also exploring GenAI, with pilots launching in selected plants in 2024.

Sustainable competitiveness

Olivier Lefebvre

Executive Vice President, Group Industrial Operations and Clean Mobility, FORVIA

“With its emphasis on digitalization and sustainability, the FORVIA Excellence System aligns perfectly with our industry 4.0 ambitions, representing a roadmap to premium customer service, intelligent production, maximum efficiency, and sustainable competitiveness.”

Allenjoie: a blueprint for Industry 4.0

Forvia_2023_Allenjoie_Seating

Inaugurated in 2023, the Allenjoie platform includes two major sites and is FORVIA’s technological flagship in France. One plant produces seating components at an unparalleled degree of digitization and automation, making it one of our most advanced facilities worldwide. The other is the first mass production site of vehicle hydrogen storage systems in Europe, and will support the evolution in transport from ultra-low to zero emissions.

Forvia_2023_Allenjoie_Seating

Both plants are industry-leading examples of sustainable production, meeting the strictest environmental standards. The platform’s rooftop solar arrays, biomass-fired boilers, heater recovery and rainwater sanitation systems have earned it BREEAM Excellent certification — the first awarded to an industrial site in France.

Sustainability and smart manufacturing
Also inaugurated in 2023, the Phoenix plant
in Fengcheng, China is an industry-leading example of sustainable production. Net zero on scopes 1 and 2 and designed using digital-twin technology, this plant sets a new precedent for the Group.

Quality: a mindset of excellence

In the automotive industry, quality is not just a function — it’s a mindset. It means delivering excellence at scale, with the ambition of achieving zero defects.

Quality spans multiple dimensions: from perceived quality (design, comfort, finish) to compliance with technical, safety, and regulatory standards, and ultimately, to customer satisfaction across the entire product lifecycle.

At FORVIA, quality is embedded in everything we do. It requires discipline, rigor, creativity, transparency & a problem-solving mindset— every day. As the industry undergoes its most profound transformation since the invention of the combustion engine, our commitment to quality remains a cornerstone of our performance and reputation.

1000
programs in 260 plants
300+
programs launched every year

Quality as a Key Differentiator

In a highly competitive and complex industry, quality remains one of the few levers we fully control — and one of the most powerful ways to differentiate ourselves. While innovation is essential, quality is what builds trust, ensures safety, and drives long-term customer satisfaction.

To deliver quality in a rapidly transforming industry, we focus on:

design worhskop with 3 persons in a meeting room

Designing right from the start: Translating customer expectations into robust product and process designs, sometimes with multiple finish levels for the same part — all from the first try.

woman working on a car cockpit board assembly line

Flawless industrialization: Using standards and simulation to ensure smooth mass production with minimal waste and maximal consistency, across highly diverse and specialized sites.

a woman and 2 men discussing near monitoring screens in a modern plant

Lifecycle quality management: Monitoring product performance throughout the product’s life, resolving issues proactively with tools like the 5Star app for real-time customer feedback and continuous improvement.

man and woman colleague discussing at a desk in front of a computer

Our 5Star app enables real-time customer feedback, helping us stay proactive, transparent, and responsive. The application is currently being updated to meet our customers' new quality standards and to keep providing them with a seamless five-star customer experience.

150
quality supplier awards in 2024
4.8
stars out of 5 in customer satisfaction app
43
customers engaged
2923
feedbacks received in 2024

We link Total Customer Satisfaction (TCS) and Quality because they are inseparable. A zero-defect culture is essential not only to maintaining strong customer relationships, but also to delivering long-term value

Through digitalization and continuous improvement, we are setting new standards in quality performance and customer service — reinforcing our role as a trusted partner over time.

Delphine FILLOT

Group Total Customer Satisfaction & Quality Senior Vice President

“Customers are at the center of all that we do. We owe them full satisfaction. We want to ensure that our customers' expectations are applied every day by everyone, at every stage of our value chain—from design to operations execution”

Quality in action

At FORVIA, quality is everyone’s responsibility. It is embedded across the entire value chain, from concept to customer experience for each level of our organisation to have role to play

Our expertise is structured around five key domains:

Customer Experience

Capturing and acting on feedback throughout the lifecycle to ensure satisfaction and loyalty.

Advanced Quality (Program & Engineering)

Designing quality into products and processes from the earliest stages.

Supplier Quality

Ensuring our partners meet the same high standards we apply internally.

FORVIA Management System

Providing a unified framework of standards, methods, and tools for consistent execution.

Operations Quality

Driving excellence on the shop floor through rigorous process control and digital tools.
Operations Quality is fully integrated into our FORVIA Excellence System (FES) — a comprehensive framework that brings together our best industrial practices, sustainability goals, and digital transformation initiatives. This system ensures that our execution is consistent, rigorous, and future-ready, supporting a culture of operational excellence across the entire organization.
The deployment of FES is currently underway within our Engineering functions, following the CEO of FORVIA’s ambition to roll it out across all functions.

As vehicles become more complex, so do our quality demands:

  • Safety remains paramount.

  • Sustainability adds new constraints, requiring us to integrate bio-sourced and recycled materials without compromising performance or aesthetics.

  • Digitalization introduces new risks — especially with the rise of Software Defined Vehicles — requiring perfect alignment between hardware and software updates.

To stay competitive in a context of accelerated development cycles, we must detect and correct issues faster — even anticipate them. That’s why we invest in:

  • Advanced digital tools like thermal imaging and cross-site data analytics to detect anomalies early.

  • AI and GenAI to simulate product design and predict quality outcomes before production begins.

Our end-to-end Quality digital roadmap supports a shift toward proactive quality management, setting new benchmarks in performance, customer service, and operational excellence.

Image
3 men during a break in a modern plant
Collective thinking
Innovating requires collaboration and knowledge-sharing across industries. We actively engage in consortiums that bring together key players, startups, think tanks, and academic institutes, serving as a powerful tool for securing funding, pooling skills, and sharing innovation risks.

Various collaborations to ignite innovation inside the Group

Partnering with schools and institutions

Since 2022, we’ve participated in four EU-funded programs exploring sustainable composite manufacturing and circular approaches for automotive electronics. Our R&D teams engage with French engineering schools on polymers and mechatronics. We have also partnered with the University of California (Berkeley), the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore), and Tongji University (China) for cutting-edge sensor development. In 2023, we started a four-year collaboration with CentraleSupélec (France) focusing on the automotive applications of artificial intelligence for sensor fusion.

Collaborate with industrial leaders and promising start-ups

We collaborate with a diverse range of players, from global industrial groups to promising start-ups with disruptive ideas identified through our scout network. In Berlin, we operate The Drivery, a mobility innovation hub with over 800 members, including 140 start-ups, and expanded this concept to China in 2023. These innovation ecosystems are crucial to meet scope 3 targets. 

Activate technological players

We also strategically partner with key tech players – for example, Accenture for scaling our digital transformation, Palantir for data analysis, and Microsoft for our AI transformation. Data-based innovations leveraging AI facilitate collaboration between designers, engineers and customers, accelerating product development. Our digital transformation boosts our competitiveness and our capacity for innovation.

Using AI to accelerate innovation

Industrial

FORVIA harnesses data and AI across its value chain, with a dedicated team and powerful tools in a company-wide program. This initiative improves decision-making and execution across R&D, Operations, and support functions. Our Palantir Foundry platform is a key asset in this domain. AI improves quality control, safety and the driving experience, with features such as hands-free trunk access and child-presence detection in unattended vehicles.

COF'Heat

In sustainable materials engineering, AI develops predictive algorithms for adaptive formulations, ensuring stability and compliance of end products despite variations in raw materials. FORVIA also embraces generative AI solutions such as GitHub Copilot for software coding, critical in the continuous improvement of operational efficiency and product portfolio enrichment.

Symbio, an example of Innovation
Through this equally owned joint venture between FORVIA, Michelin and Stellantis, we inaugurated SymphonHy in 2023: Europe’s largest integrated site for producing hydrogen fuel cells, paving the way for large-scale production.