Youssef El Bazi is man­ag­er of new projects for seat com­po­nents in Forvia’s Europe and North Africa region. A 2008 grad­u­ate of the Inte­grat­ed Pro­duc­tion and Logis­tics (PIL) pro­gram in mechan­i­cal sys­tems engi­neer­ing at the UTC, this engi­neer likes to see his career path match the needs of the com­pa­ny, and vice ver­sa. Here’s how we met!

«I’ve cho­sen a career path that is essen­tial­ly and pri­mar­i­ly in the field. I start­ed out at Forvia-Fau­re­cia, one of the world’s lead­ing auto­mo­tive sup­pli­ers, in Kéni­tra, Moroc­co, as a pro­duc­tion super­vi­sor, so as to be as close as pos­si­ble to the heart of the action. Then, I start­ed work­ing on new projects for the man­u­fac­ture of “cov­ers”, i.e., the tex­tiles and leathers that cov­er car seats,» explains the engi­neer, who is quick to point out the exper­tise of the teams around him. We’re talk­ing about mil­lions of parts to be man­u­fac­tured, with repeat­ed ges­tures and dex­ter­i­ty required for each one. In 2011, Peu­geot 301 and Cit­roën C‑Elysée vehi­cles will be cov­ered by this «made in Kéni­tra» pro­duc­tion process. «It’s a great suc­cess! It con­firms that Moroc­co is the right part­ner and that Moroc­can engi­neers have the right skills to meet any demands.

In 2012, Renault launched the start-up of its sec­ond pro­duc­tion line at its Tang­i­er-Mel­lous­sa site, con­sol­i­dat­ing its posi­tion as Renault’s lead­ing pro­duc­tion site in Africa. This new line will man­u­fac­ture the Dacia Sandero and the Step Way. «This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to man­u­fac­ture more parts, such as foams and head­rests. We were helped by the high degree of inte­gra­tion of the plant’s chem­i­cal activ­i­ty. We became the lead­ing equip­ment sup­pli­er for the seats busi­ness,» recalls Youssef El Bazi, who also saw his plant grow with an exten­sion in 2015. At the same time, he was appoint­ed Pro­duc­tion Man­ag­er for the Mégane 4 project.

From Morocco, opening up to the whole world

«There are around five hun­dred employ­ees and a dozen engi­neers work­ing with me to meet this chal­lenge. The results are good and, once again we’re prov­ing our com­pet­i­tive­ness.» In 2017, the pro­duc­tion man­ag­er saw his scope evolve towards oth­er mis­sions, ini­tial­ly as Forvia’s Excel­lence and Dig­i­tal Sys­tem Man­ag­er, then Qual­i­ty Man­ag­er still with­in the same plant. «In 2021, I was pro­mot­ed to Plant Man­ag­er in Kéni­tra, where I now man­age over 1 600 employ­ees, exec­u­tives and managers.

At the age of 40, Youssef El Bazi, him­self a native of Kéni­tra, has hand­ed over to his deputy to take on the role of man­ag­er of Faurecia’s new Europe and North Africa projects. «Because we have more and more cus­tomers. We need to be agile and mul­ti­lin­gual and I’d like to thank UTC for that. This school pays a great deal of atten­tion to gen­er­al cul­ture and lan­guages and above all to the agili­ty of its edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem. You have to be open to the world and, in this respect, UTC-Com­pieg­ne offers so many perspectives!

Bio express

• 2008: earned his engi­neer­ing diplo­ma in GSM (mechan­i­cal sys­tem engi­neer­ing) – elec­tive spe­cial­ty Inte­grat­ed Pro­duc­tion and Logis­tics (PIL) at UTC-Compiegne
• 2009: start­ed at Fau­re­cia Group (Kéni­tra — Moroc­co) as Pro­duc­tion Supervisor
• 2011: Project Man­ag­er (cov­ers, foams and headrests)
• 2015: Pro­duc­tion Manager
• 2017: Fau­re­cia Excel­lence sys­tem & Qual­i­ty Manager
• 2021: Plant Manager
• 2024: New Projects Man­ag­er Europe / North Africa

KD