Towards the homogenization and standardization of practices at Délifrance with KIMEA

As head of prevention, safety and ergonomics projects, Paul Lavaud, Safety and Ergonomics Project Manager, has been coordinating group-wide initiatives since May 2024. His role is to support HSE teams in improving prevention and strengthening the safety culture.

We met with him to understand how he uses the KIMEA solution to change practices in France and abroad.

Délifrance in numbers

Strengthening existing ergonomic analyses: the starting point

Based at the group’s headquarters, Paul Lavaud is the only ergonomist at Délifrance. To roll out his actions in the field, he relies on local HSE teams, made up of an HSE manager and safety coordinators or facilitators, who act as key relays on each site.

Before acquiring KIMEA, Délifrance teams carried out workstation analyses using manual rating grids. However, these tools had certain limitations: they were subject to the individual interpretation of the person conducting the analysis, and the rating methods were sometimes considered time-consuming.

Yet, Délifrance’s primary ambition is clear: to reduce risks and sustainably improve working conditions so that every employee can perform their job in complete safety. A conviction embodied in the group’s motto:

Nothing justifies getting injured at work.

As a result, Paul Lavaud set out to find a tool that could make ergonomic analyses simpler, faster, and more consistent, while complementing and enriching the existing grids in order to better target prevention actions and reduce workstation hardship.

Towards greater simplicity and consistency with KIMEA

In February 2025, Paul Lavaud turned to the KIMEA tool to meet this dual need:

• Save time and simplify the execution of analyses.

• Ensure consistent use and results, in order to better identify priority actions.

The initial objective remains unchanged: to protect employee health and improve working conditions across all production lines. But with the adoption of KIMEA, teams now have a shared, intuitive, and objective tool, capable of strengthening the approach already underway.

A daily tool anchored in the field

Délifrance production sites are divided into three main categories: bread, viennoiseries, and pastries. Each site is unique, with a wide variety of jobs ranging from dough kneading to handling chemical products for packaging.

In this context, KIMEA is used in several ways:

→ Detailed ergonomic analyses to complement existing workstation studies and prioritize actions based on results.

→ Before/after evaluations when introducing new equipment (whether handling aids or production line machinery) to measure their benefits.

→ As a “coaching” format: operators watch themselves on video, identify postures to improve, and often come up with their own solutions.

Coaching: a new approach to revention

The use of KIMEA as a gateway to raising awareness is a key element highlighted by Paul Lavaud.

On several sites, the ergonomist went directly to the production lines, focusing on priority workstations previously identified through initial ergonomic analyses (carried out internally or using KIMEA results).

After filming the operators concerned and waiting for the video to be processed, the ergonomist returned to the site to hold one-on-one sessions, showing each operator their video results.

With coloured sticks showing the tensions, this allows employees to easily identify the issues observed and the movements that are not being performed in the best way.

Easier acceptance

The response was generally positive. Employees participated without hesitation, reassured by the confidentiality of the process (blurred faces, strictly internal videos).

Benefits already observed since using KIMEA

A few months after adopting KIMEA, the first results are visible.

→ Validation of new installations

→ Change in individual practices

→ Clear definition of priority workstations

A concrete example illustrates these benefits: at the Béthune site in France (62), the installation of a new croissant machine was analysed before and after its installation. This assessment showed that the new machine, in addition to being efficient, improved working conditions for operators, with a significant reduction in the KIMEA risk score compared to the previous equipment.

Beyond these impacts, the tool stands out for its simplicity:

The tool is very easy to use in the field. All you have to do is take out your phone and make a video. This does not disrupt the operator’s work, and we avoid wasting their time or disturbing them during their observations.

The data processing platform, KIMEA Cloud, is intuitive and easy to use, making it simple to leverage results to guide and implement action plans.

Looking ahead…

Délifrance’s objective is now to standardize and harmonize practices across all production sites. Paul Lavaud is responsible for steering the central deployment to define usage standards common to all sites.

In the long run, each site will progressively gain autonomy in the use of KIMEA, leveraging the tool according to its specific needs while remaining aligned with group-wide standards. This approach fosters the spread of a shared safety culture and ensures the sustainability of best practices at both national and international levels.

Final word

In a nutshell, KIMEA means standardization and ease of use.

Thank you to Paul Lavaud and the communications teams at Délifrance for sharing their experiences, and thank you to all the teams for their trust!