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aGC GLASS euROPe LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, BELGIUM (2013)
GLaVERBEL aND aGC GLaSS EUROPE
Glass manufacturer Glaverbel was founded in 1961 by the merger of Belgium’s two largest producers of at glass at that time: Glaces et Verres (Glaver S.A., founded in 1931) and Union des Verreries Mécaniques Belges (Univerbel S.A., founded in 1930)1. In 1981 Glaverbel in turn became part of the international AGC group (Asahi Glass Company, Ltd), the world’s biggest manufacturer of at glass. In 2007, AGC decided to introduce a single global name for all the different companies in the group, and so Glaverbel became AGC Flat Glass Europe. The name of this European opera- tion was changed in 2010 to its current name, AGC Glass Europe.
AGC Glass Europe manufactures, processes and distributes at glass for the building sector (both for exterior glazing and inter- nal uses), the car industry, the solar heating industry and other specialized industrial sectors.Today, the company employs some 14,000 people worldwide. AGC Glass Europe has its own research and design centre, and more than 100 production units throughout Europe, from Spain to Russia.
The headquarters of AGC Glass Europe were originally located on Chaussée de La hulpe/Terhulpsesteenweg in Brussels.This is the well-known Glaverbel Building. AGC’s leasing arrangement for
the building came to an end in 2013. With this in mind, in 2009 a thorough audit was carried out with Progema. The different aspects of the company were examined: nances, organization, commu-
1 - Francis Poty and Jean-Louis Delaet describe the history of the glass industry in Wallonia in their book Charleroi, Pays verrier (Éditions La Centrale Générale, Charleroi, 1986).
nication, ef ciency, etc. On the basis of these parameters, several scenarios were developed for a move to one or more new prem- ises. The locations of the other AGC of ces and production units were also investigated to assess their relative advantages and disadvantages. The audit examined the structural con guration and internal organization of each unit. It also looked at the way the different departments at the various locations communicated with each other.
It was concluded that the organization of the ‘old’ of ces had not evolved to keep pace with changes in modern communication technology and contemporary methods of working. As a result, internal communication among staff and among management of the different units was more dif cult than it needed to be. In addi- tion, more and more of the company’s employees were working from home or ‘on the road’, so that expensive of ce space was not always being used ef ciently.These of ces were not compact, nor were they optimally organized.Too much circulation space and too little light were common factors identi ed at the different locations. It was also established that energy use was consistently high.
In the rst place, this analysis was a useful support tool in the search for new premises and led to the translation of AGC’s needs into a speci cation based on the conclusions of the audit.
aGC GLASS COMPANY NORtH ameRICa ALPhARETTA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
aGC GLASS, WORLD hEAD QUARTERS TOKYO, JAPAN