At the GE Healthcare factory, located in Buc (Yvelines), on the edge of the Versailles national forest, it is time for celebration. The American group, resulting from the split from General Electric in 2023, inaugurated, on Tuesday October 1, the first assembly line for medical scanners in France.
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Pair of giant scissors to cut the red ribbon, audience of local elected officials and video message of congratulations from the Minister for Industry, Marc Ferracci, extolling the virtues of the health reconquest, the global medical imaging giant has put the small dishes in big to celebrate the return of the scanner industry on national soil. Because since the American takeover of the General Radiology Company in 1987, then a subsidiary of Thomson, the production of these devices, used in the diagnosis of numerous pathologies and for which demand continues to increase today, had disappeared. of France.
Operational for several weeks, this new assembly line is intended to supply the entire European continent, whose market is estimated at two billion dollars (1.8 billion euros). To begin this French renaissance, GE Healthcare (19.6 billion dollars in turnover in 2023) paid one million euros to repatriate to Buc – its European headquarters – the assembly stages of the Revolution Maxima, its best-selling scanner model in the world.
Parts from China
Until now, these were carried out in China, which caused significant delivery times for European customers. “ Instead of three to four months, we can now fulfill orders in four weeks », explains Jean-Philippe Bousquel, General Manager Imaging at GE Healthcare International.
The manufacturer, which shipped its first scanner assembled in France to the Montargis hospital center (Loiret) in mid-September, aims to deliver between 200 and 250 devices per year to hospitals, clinics and radiology centers. The blue white red label is, however, still far from won. Because if the generator is indeed French, the vast majority of the parts which make up the scanner, like the tube, an essential element which makes it possible to produce X-rays, remain manufactured outside Europe, notably in China and India. Assembly is also not done entirely in France: the rotary positioner is thus pre-assembled in the group’s Chinese factory, before being shipped to Buc.
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The tests and calibrations, these personalized configurations according to the customer’s needs, and which constitute the essential added value of the product, just like the research and development and the design, are however completely carried out in France, argues the group. “ The French origin represents more than 50% of the value chain of this device », insists Elie Chaillot, the boss of GE Healthcare International. Ultimately, the company plans to expand its local network of suppliers in order to replicate the model of its flagship mammography device, Pristina. Launched in 2016 in Buc and exported around the world, the latter displays more than 90% of components coming from Europe.