“It was the center of attraction for students during the last Siane (the Industry partners fair held at the end of October in Toulouse, editor’s note)”, recalls Éric Giraud, CEO of the Aerospace Vallley division. The event was an opportunity to give a preview of what will be the future factory-school of the industry of the future in Toulouse.

Presentation of the machines of the future factory-school in Toulouse (Credits: Siane).

The latter is taking shape in the new Jacqueline Auriol training center, located in Montaudran and which will eventually bring together 1,500 students in the mechanical engineering and robotics sector (from the university, the IUT, the Insa, the ‘Isae-Supaero) is intended for the aeronautical and space professions.

Augmented reality, AI and robots

The factory-school will have a space of 500 m2 with a fairly diversified fleet of machines: machining and milling center, numerically controlled lathe, water jet cutting, assembly area in augmented reality, platform supervision, additive manufacturing equipment… “Pad’Occ (for acceleration platform towards the Industry of the Future in Occitanie) will allow students to train in these new machines and to develop proof of concept (prototypes) there, but it will also be open to business owners. ‘company that wants to enter the industry of the future’, said Éric Giraud this Tuesday, January 18, when greeting the press from the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster.

Led by the Federal University of Toulouse, the project is supported by multiple establishments research and training, the Aerospace Valley cluster and 30 manufacturers (including Airbus, WeAre, Tarmac, etc.). It was former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe who launched the idea of ​​creating regional platforms to accelerate the industry of the future at the end of 2018. The Occitan project was the winner of a dedicated call for projects as part of the 4th future investment program (PIA4). Between 10 and 14 million euros of financing are planned to support its development.

“It is a significant investment which can be explained because it is a project in several stages. The first is based on the gradual arrival of numerically controlled tools. In the second stage, supervision machines allow for “simplify the control of the entire factory-school from a mobile phone. The third phase aims to develop artificial intelligence from the data provided on the machines, for example to reduce chips during production”, continues Éric Giraud.

The first visits and demonstrations are carried out in June 2022. An equivalent platform, Practice 4.0, was created on the Bordeaux-Talence campus.

Many jobs in tension in aeronautics

The Toulouse factory-school could also be a showcase for recruitment in the aeronautics sector.

“The president of Gifas Guillaume Faury has proven that there will be 15,000 recruitments in France in 2022. Toulouse brings together a quarter of aeronautical jobs in France and 40% of positions in the sector are concentrated in the Greater South-West of France. after INSEE. To ensure the upturn in production, there will be needs in the coming months for all profiles: operators, technicians, engineers. New emerging needs also in artificial intelligence or cybersecurity. The rise of low-carbon aircraft will require a whole series of skills, from production to transporting hydrogen to airports”, notes Bruno Darboux, president of Aerospace Valley.

The account center creates a map of the different needs of the aeronautical sector in partnership with training establishments to ensure that adequate courses will be created in the coming years.