DOM-Ronis modernizes the design of its key heads

Historical know-how

Anchored locally in the Centre-Val de Loire region since the 60s, DOM-Ronis brings together the know-how of two of its former major competitors:

• LAS Ricouard, created in 1930 and specializing in office furniture and zamak foundry in Sancoins, with symmetrical keys notched on both sides,
• and Rhône-Isère, founded in 1916 in Lyon and focused on electrical equipment and pin tumbler cylinders, with asymmetric keys cut on one side only.

Following the merger of the two entities in 2005, the entire Lyon business, including all production machinery, was transferred to Sancoins. With a covered area of ​​12.000 m2, the factory now boasts different product technologies, albeit compatible, but more importantly, more than 50 key profiles to be manufactured for renowned brands such as Delsey, Louis Vuitton, and Peugeot and Citroën cars.

Necessary streamlining to serve greater flexibility

« With 87 different key shapes, some of which had become obsolete and generated colossal machine maintenance costs (for example, the typical 13 profile of the Citroën 2CV) for very small production runs, it was essential to start from scratch. Especially since there were 340 possible iterations in terms of marking and personalization for all our keys, which is considerable. » explains Aurélien Baillon, Product Manager for the Industry Business Unit.

Initiated in 2019 jointly with the DOM-Ronis design office, this colossal optimization has now made it possible to halve the number of keys to keep only 2 key profiles and 43 iterations.

In a second step, the century-old brand wanted to standardize the production of its keys in order to:

• to improve its competitiveness,
• to increase the flexibility of its production process for retained models,
• and to give a renewed and coherent image of its product ranges.

In addition to a considerable interest in terms of responsiveness for its customers, this industrial desire of DOM-Ronis also aims to facilitate future developments of new keys for R&D as well as the procurement process, while keeping costs as low as possible.

A new look for DOM-Ronis keys

The key, the only visible part of DOM-Ronis's locking solutions, reflects the brand's image. For the French manufacturer, it was therefore essential to accompany this product rationalization by modernizing the design of its key heads, whose shapes have evolved over the years (round, square, etc.) to become somewhat outdated.

The challenge: to draw inspiration from the image of the DOM Security group, the European leader in the manufacture of mechanical and electronic locking systems to which DOM-Ronis belongs, while preserving the historic reputation of the Ronis brand in the same geographical area. From now on, the new key head conveys the company's dear values ​​of quality, security, robustness and ergonomics thanks to:

• to a contemporary aesthetic with a hexagonal shape reminiscent of French manufacturing,
• to the Ronis logo, whose brand image remains very strong on the market,
• with different thicknesses slightly hollowed out at the head which ensure good grip and handling of the key, whatever its size.

A long-term undertaking, given the 43 key variants involved, the first two models featuring the new design are the CC and 4R profiles. Produced on the same machine at a rate of 250.000 keys and 600.000 keys per year respectively, this allows the manufacturer to fine-tune the changeover process before extending it to all of its references.

Beyond repositioning DOM-Ronis on high-quality products and differentiating itself from its direct competitors, the company hopes that this new design will make the keys, in the more or less long term, immediately identifiable and recognized as a guarantee of quality.

« To hear someone say in a few years, this is a Ronis key, that would be a great satisfaction. » confides Aurélien Baillon to conclude.

The next step in this new industrial strategy implemented by DOM-Ronis: the modernization of the factory through the acquisition of automated machines to gain even more flexibility.