- Member
- Delhez
For over 25 years, Delhez has specialized in sheet metal and tube machining
Punching, bending, folding, flattening, laser cutting and welding, it produces customized metal parts in stainless steel, steel and aluminum, in one-off or mass production runs
- Ecosystem
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- Industry 5.0
- Success criteria
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- Production or business model transformation
- Sales revenue inscrease
- Job creation
It currently employs 48 people, with Christophe and Stéphan Delhez at the helm!
Based in Thimister, near Verviers, the company has invested heavily to stay at the cutting edge. The series began with the first investment of the father, then a roofer: the purchase of one of the first folding machines in Belgium, intended for his own zinc roofs and, incidentally, those of others. Very quickly, in 1994, the roofing business was abandoned to devote itself solely to folding as a family, the father and his three sons.
Driven by the founder's motto
Do what others don't do or do it better", Delhez is driven by a policy of continuous investment to differentiate itself from the competition
Since 2021, the company has invested over €6 million in machinery. In total, Delhez has invested more than €15 million over the past 10 years, sometimes with the help of the MecaTech cluster.
The MecaTech cluster is an important part of Delhez's strategy," says Delhez, "It gives us the opportunity not to be afraid when a good idea comes along. The MecaTech cluster helps us to go further in our development. Thanks to the financial support, there's less risk involved", says CEO Christophe Delhez.
In terms of growth, the company is not lagging either
nearly 30% growth by 2022. The year 2024 marks a turning point, with a new project: the construction on the site of a new extension for painting large surfaces. The only thing missing was this type of finishing, so as to be able to control the entire process and offer a complete package, from customer drawings to delivery of the finished product.
From an economic point of view, this makes it possible to manage all the links in the chain, in terms of quality too. The loop is closed. It's also important from an environmental point of view: the entire product will be manufactured on site, without the need for more lorry journeys to subcontractors.
Digitalizing to optimize, and a PoC for Delhez
In 2022, Delhez was selected by the MecaTech cluster for its POC (Proof of Concept) project, focusing on the digitalization of industries and the digital techniques of the future.
The project was subsidized to the tune of 70% by the Walloon Region. Working with external partners, Delhez has developed a production planning tool. This tool, which is now essential, enables us to measure lead times in real time, thereby increasing reliability for our customers and optimizing production flows. "Thanks to the MecaTech cluster, we've been able to try out new things.
It helps us get our foot in the door. We were able to test the program and ensure that we could retrieve all the data already present in the plant's IT tools," explains Christophe Delhez. In the future, the company hopes to continue automating heavy, repetitive tasks so that its teams can concentrate on high added-value operations.
Delhez SA, an industry of the future!
On 8 February 2024, Delhez was awarded the "Factory of the Future" label for the second time.
The award is part of Digital Wallonia's Industry of the Future program, a project designed to support industries as they move towards Wallonia 4.0. In 2021, the FOF enabled us to benchmark ourselves against other companies, to see how well we were governed and to extend our network in a very qualitative way.
This second award means we can be proud that we're on course for a bright, modern future," concludes Christophe Delhez.