Innovate and making this innovation a reality: this is the objective set up by Pr[í]me, part of the Altran Group. Pr[í]me provides ideas to their client and imagines the potential solutions to make the ideas come alive, to industrialize and to commercialize them. An innovation expertise acknowledged at the 2007 Janus awards.

How do you innovate? How do you give your best with a sometimes very limited amount of time? And how do you integrate new technologies into these innovations? Answering to these three questions is the mayor challenge to the company Touax and Prime (Group Altran) is there to help them face this challenge. The expertise shown overcoming this challenge was rewarded in September 2007. Touax (third European player in location of modular construction solutions) and Pr[í]me received the 2007 Janus reward for the product providing an answer to these questions: ε-space. 

For Touax, the stake was to put a new line of construction units, modules on the market in less than one year! It concerns a solution that, using the same unity, allows the construction of temporary spaces or permanent as in the case of industrial applications for communities or buildings (offices, open-space, class rooms, nurseries etc.) These constructions are composed by standard elements (modules) that are superimposed and juxtaposed without altering the units during the assembly.

Pr[í]me was solicited to overcome this challenge. The company created two teams: one for the creation and development of the product ε-space the other for the study of the production potential, the dimensioning of the production and finally the launch of the production itself. The management combining new technologies from different sectors allowed the ε-space to bring together more than 30 consultants within design, eco-engineering, structural calculations, materials, purchase, industrial processes, standardization and regulation.

To assure this team work and allow the customization to the needs of each client, Pr[í]me adapted an original method of working. It can be devised into the three following phases; creation, direction and anticipation. Creation is the ability to innovate at the base of specific brief provided by the client. Direction handles another step in the innovation ladder and consists of directing innovation within a specific area. Thirdly, anticipation, that is strategically very important to the company as it will need to prepare the innovations of tomorrow.

Confident in this clear three phase organization, Pr[í]me moves forward with each innovation according to a predefined angle depending on the project, may it be differentiation or diversification of a product or service or the case of an urgent situation. For the latter situation, Pr[í]me has developed an efficient method to innovate in a very short time limit.

Pr[í]me innovates in every sector with a categorization into seven areas of competence:

• Creativity & Inventivity
• Industrial Design
• System Engineering
• Competitive Intelligence
• Pr[i]me Lab
• Modeling & Simulation
• Innovation Value Management   

www.altran.com/prime

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