https://fabiencharneux.com/ Notes by Fabien Charneux, General Manager: running operations and projects, leading managers, lessons from manufacturing in China and Vietnam, and AI on the shop floor. en https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/managing-managers/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/managing-managers/Mon, 09 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat changes when you stop managing people and start managing managers: three ways of leading, from matrix project teams to running a country. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/slowest-station/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/slowest-station/Mon, 09 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow to find the bottleneck on a labour-intensive sewing line when almost nothing is measured: a low-cost proxy signal, how to read it, and what it must never mean. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/requests-you-cannot-serve/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/requests-you-cannot-serve/Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTA bag factory that designs buckles and foam inserts sounds odd. Listening to what customers asked for but we did not sell became the most useful market research we ever did. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/what-a-bsci-audit-asks-of-a-factory/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/what-a-bsci-audit-asks-of-a-factory/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat an amfori BSCI audit covers, what the day looks like from the factory side, and how a buyer can read the report beyond the grade on the front page. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/china-plus-one-is-a-question/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/china-plus-one-is-a-question/Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTMoving production out of China is easy to say, hard to plan. Three MBA ideas, total cost, the price of a second source and policy as an input, seen from Vietnam. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/customer-audits-versus-certificates/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/customer-audits-versus-certificates/Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy a carmaker's own supplier audit asks far more than ISO 9001 or IATF 16949, and what I took from it into a bag factory in Vietnam. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/minimum-viable-product-factory/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/minimum-viable-product-factory/Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe minimum viable product, learned in an MBA project and used on the shop floor: how AI as a working assistant makes a first version cheap, and what it never replaces. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/enter-it-once/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/enter-it-once/Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhen inbound interest multiplies, the spreadsheet breaks first. One rule, enter information once, then reuse and track it, with a named person approving every decision. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/why-i-keep-ai-out-of-the-final-decision/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/why-i-keep-ai-out-of-the-final-decision/Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTI use an AI assistant daily but almost never let it decide. I ask for options with pros and cons, challenge the answer, and only delegate reversible decisions. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/manufacturing-glossary-oem-odm-moq-bsci/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/manufacturing-glossary-oem-odm-moq-bsci/Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTPlain definitions of OEM, ODM, CM, MOQ, BSCI and NCAGE as used in bag making, and where the same words mean something else in automotive manufacturing. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/before-a-first-order-in-vietnam/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/before-a-first-order-in-vietnam/Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTQuestions to ask a Vietnamese factory before a first order, and why total cost matters more than unit price. Written from the factory side of the table. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/what-to-say-twice-across-languages/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/what-to-say-twice-across-languages/Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMTWorking with Chinese, Vietnamese and French colleagues taught me that a message can change meaning in translation. How I check that an instruction was understood. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/working-with-a-french-head-office-from-asia/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/working-with-a-french-head-office-from-asia/Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMTRunning a plant in China for a French group taught me to stay in touch with colleagues at every level of headquarters, not only my manager. Why it pays off. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/a-week-as-plant-general-manager/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/a-week-as-plant-general-manager/Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 GMTHow a plant general manager's week is organised: the meetings that set direction, the daily time on the floor, and the two things that always take more time than planned. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/preparing-a-successor/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/preparing-a-successor/Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMTHow my successor in China came to take over my role: a manager I had led in France, who knew the team first, and what I think made the handover hold. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/preparing-a-business-for-sale/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/preparing-a-business-for-sale/Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMTLessons, not the deal: what I would prepare first if I might one day sell a business: a clean story, an honest data room, one point of contact and early staff communication. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/integrating-an-acquired-plant/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/integrating-an-acquired-plant/Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMTHow to integrate an acquired plant without losing its people: a shared plan, clear gates, and the acquired team reporting its own progress. A method, with one regret. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/group-strategy-local-plan/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/group-strategy-local-plan/Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMTA group strategy fits in a sentence; a local business plan is a hundred decisions. A four-step method for the general manager who has to translate between them. https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/managing-machines-or-people/https://fabiencharneux.com/notes/managing-machines-or-people/Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMTWhat changed when I moved from an automotive plant where machines make the parts to a factory where people do: what transferred, what did not, and why.