We talk a lot about Industry 4.0 and automation, but rarely about people — who often remain the real bottleneck to performance. At Tech For Industry Show 2026 (Paris Expo Porte de Versailles), a panel hosted by Mercateam brought together three very different manufacturers — Clément Doreau (LVMH Beauty), Frédéric Vivian (Bonduelle) and Emmanuel Troncé (Aubert & Duval) — around one idea: valuing the operator and using data to manage teams can generate real performance gains.

The three companies illustrate contrasting contexts and IT maturities. LVMH Beauty (beauty division, over 10 houses including Dior Parfums, Guerlain, Givenchy, Officine Universelle Buly) works on converging heterogeneous systems (SAP and other regional ERPs, industrial systems sometimes 20 years old, recent MES). Bonduelle, a family group producing exclusively vegetables (42 sites in Europe and America), relies on centralized IT with a single ERP surrounded by specialized tools (agronomy, supply chain, PLM). Aubert & Duval, a French metallurgist of critical parts for aerospace, defense, space and nuclear, deals with an "extremely heterogeneous and obsolete" information system in a highly regulated environment.

Five years earlier, across the 6 French factories tracked, most workshop managers handled staff in Excel files: who's good at what, who has which skill, who I'll need tomorrow. At Dior Parfums (a factory of over 2,000 employees), fifteen to twenty workshop managers spent over half a day a week on this. Since 2022, a transformation project with Mercateam brought two answers depending on site size: assistance with assignment for large factories (building bridges, running the team "transfer market"), and automation of assignment for smaller sites with versatile managers. A dashboarding layer finally allows anticipating recruitment and temp needs. Results: hundreds or even thousands of hours saved, plus an unexpected gain — screens displaying each employee's assigned workstation stabilized and accelerated production start-ups.

At Bonduelle, factories are "in the middle of the fields," with a field-to-factory window under 4 hours and heavy reliance on seasonal workers during campaigns. The problem: harvests don't go as planned (machine breakdowns, localized weather events). Then the workstations of hundreds of seasonal workers — not Bonduelle employees — must be reorganized day by day, notifying them one by one by phone, a considerable time sink. As at other manufacturers (Michelin is cited), people gathered around large boards to swap workers "the old way." Digital streamlined this reorganization and communication (now by SMS).

At Aubert & Duval, a critical part is one whose failure can ground a plane: it's essential to ensure the right, properly trained and qualified person is at the right workstation. The acquisition three years ago by the Safran / Airbus / Tikehau Capital consortium acted as an accelerator: the Mercateam project helped characterize and standardize skills matrices across workshops and factories, formalize qualification expectations and roll out structured action plans. Key point: this tool puts an HR management tool in operational hands, generating very rapid adoption where digital sometimes raises fears. It's now also used by HR for a medium-to-long-term view (anticipating capacity vulnerabilities, retirements and know-how loss).

A shared observation emerges: technical skill, long held in managers' heads, on Excel or paper, becomes usable data to cross with quality and performance stakes. In aerospace with full order books, this helps anticipate retirement waves and know-how loss, secure versatility and mutual aid between workshops, and absorb load on vulnerable positions.

With a substantial digital transformation plan over the past year, Bonduelle wants to maximally digitalize its factories without pitting technologies (AI, robotics) against human resources: the goal is a compromise helping operators work better and more easily. Current project: a digital identity for each seasonal worker and a portal for better communication (schedule, agenda, training, support).

For Aubert & Duval, Industry 5.0 aims to strengthen human-machine cooperation: no digital application is self-sufficient, the trade remains the target, and technology must put the employee back in a position to make the right decisions closest to the field, with more autonomy and refocused on their know-how. A concrete example (in pilot phase): facing an anomaly on equipment (a furnace heating parts), the operator queries a system live that consults documentary databases (operating procedures, technical docs) and returns immediate safety actions synthetically. Crucially: unlike a generative AI that might hallucinate, the system, if it can't find a reliable answer, says so and automatically switches to an expert chat calling a metallurgist — maximum field responsiveness.

For LVMH Beauty, the augmented operator is one with real-time access to information and knowledge to develop. In a geopolitical and economic context forcing reinvention, employees must adapt to changes and tools they don't yet master (everyone can query an LLM, but few know its regulatory or cyber risks). The augmented operator will thus know which tool and information to use at the right moment, while developing their know-how. Example: if perfume is growing fast today, the focus could shift to skincare tomorrow — hence the need for employees to readapt, and for factories to meet increasingly volatile demand.

A cross-cutting need emerges: employee versatility and empowerment. Gone is the era of "Gérard, do this on Monday"; the aim is to give operators access to information, the ability to see their schedule, swap their shifts and tasks (a widespread practice in the US). The real question — "will the operator be replaced tomorrow?" — finds its answer here: the priority is rather to have versatile super-operators, moving from one machine to another, with information access and easy communication. A model that makes them more empowered, happy and valued, while bringing performance and productivity in a world demanding agility.

What is the augmented operator? An operator with real-time access to information and knowledge (via digital tools and AI) to make better decisions, gain autonomy and versatility, and develop their know-how — with technology helping, not replacing them.

What is a skills matrix? A tool formalizing, per position and per employee, the required skills, certifications and qualifications. Standardized and digitalized, it ensures the right person at the right position, anticipates capacity risks and supports training plans.

How can an AI assistant help an operator without hallucination risk? In Aubert & Duval's example, the system consults internal documentary databases and returns the actions to take; if it can't find a reliable answer, it flags it and switches to a human expert, instead of inventing a response.

Why is skills management strategic today? Because skill becomes usable data to cross with quality and performance, and because it helps anticipate retirements and know-how loss, notably in sectors with full order books like aerospace.

This panel was recorded at Tech For Industry Show 2026, the B2B trade show for industrial transformation (Smart Manufacturing, AI, Supply Chain) at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Watch the full discussion above, and join us on May 19–20, 2027, Hall 7, for the next edition.