Factory Booster Day shows Stellantis looking to outside suppliers and startups for contained plant fixes it can repeat across sites
Stellantis held its 2026 Factory Booster Day on 21 October, drawing manufacturing challenges from 63 of its plants and proposals from 280-plus suppliers and startups. Over 80 were chosen to present work in AI, automation, robotics, vision systems, energy management and digital manufacturing.
Run annually since 2016, the event uses an Open Challenge process that pairs problems raised by plant teams with outside solutions. Projects that succeed are readied for rollout across the network, and Stellantis links the programme to its FaSTLAne 2030 strategic plan.
Earlier editions show the model at work. At Michigan’s Sterling Stamping plant, ThinkDigits added real-time monitoring of blank draw-in to catch stamping deviations sooner, saving almost four times its initial cost each year and prompting extension to more lines.
In Zaragoza, Zeiss brought fixtureless geometry checks for stamped parts that remove the need for dedicated fixtures, while Uptale swapped paper-based instruction at Sochaux for immersive training and virtual line tours. Both are contained fixes of the kind that can be repeated across plants.
“Factory Booster Day reflects the power of collaboration between our manufacturing teams and supplier partners,” Francesco Ciancia, Chief Manufacturing Officer at Stellantis, said. “By starting from real plant challenges and focusing on solutions that can be deployed at scale, we are accelerating innovation where it matters most: on the shop floor.”
Source: Stellantis
