How EDF cut a one-hour task down to fifteen minutes in its PLM.
To build six new EPR2 reactors, EDF relies on the PLM 3DEXPERIENCE, the backbone of its digital programme. A rich but demanding tool, long shunned by its 4,000 users. Since January 2026, Lemon Learning guides, renamed Wattson internally, have supported them directly inside the tool.
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► Customer story A central PLM so complex that others did the data entry for staff.
EDF is building six new EPR2 reactors, at Penly, Gravelines and Bugey. To run this digital programme, the group chose Dassault Systèmes' PLM 3DEXPERIENCE in 2017-2018: it centralises the programme's documentation, information and certifications. Project managers, architects, engineers: nearly 4,000 people with very different jobs work in it, more or less at ease with the tool, sometimes on confidential data.
The tool is powerful, but its usability holds people back. Short on time, many staff got into the habit of handing their data entry to external consultants. Training lost its value for lack of practice, and when data had to be entered in a hurry, errors piled up. With one more constraint: in the PLM, you cannot delete as you please, every action must leave a trace.
In 2024, despite change management running since 2018, adoption had plateaued at around 30%. EDF then launched a tender, won by Lemon Learning in summer 2025.
"In PLM3DX, we cannot delete things as we please: we are required to keep a trace of what we do. All of this made it complex and made people afraid to enter data into the tool."
Cathy Bonnor Head of the Wattson initiative, EDF
Guides built together, then a self-sufficient in-house team: Wattson.
EDF started with one sub-process and one volunteer. The first guides were designed in a sandbox at the end of 2025, with the Lemon Learning teams, and approved by the process owner, who guarantees the tool's standards. The first ones went live on 17 January 2026.
Rather than outsourcing guide creation, EDF set up its own unit: a project manager who tracks needs and the sub-processes to cover, a second designer, and a third person on a work-study contract. To make the approach their own, the team gave the guides a name: Wattson, with its own logo and a dedicated mailbox to answer users.
Step-by-step interactive guides
Business tasks of 40 to 50 clicks, guided directly in the PLM. Beyond 50 clicks, the guide is split into several stages to stay easy to follow.
The process owner, guardian of the content
Each guide starts from an existing document (PDF, Word, Jira) provided by the process owner, who approves the method before publication and flags version upgrades.
Announcements at every version upgrade
With each new PLM version, in-app announcements present the key changes, directly in the tool, with no email.
Business teams on board
Business teams were given design rights, without publishing rights. When business teams take part, they champion the tool with users.
"Previously, they had their PDF and the PLM3DX software: they needed two screens to follow what they had to do. The big plus Lemon Learning brought is that, directly in the software, we told them what to click on and gave them a bit of context so they could perform their operations correctly."
Cathy Bonnor Head of the Wattson initiative, EDF
A one-hour task cut to fifteen minutes, and a self-sufficient team within a few months.
Next step: multi-tool. EDF wants the PLM to be its showcase and to extend Wattson to other applications, while preparing for more frequent version upgrades: every 8 weeks from October 2026, then the move to SaaS at the end of 2027.
"We reduced the time spent, for example, from an hour to 10 or 15 minutes: they didn't want to juggle between screens."
Cathy Bonnor Head of the Wattson initiative, EDF
"Now that we are starting to be a bit more experienced, we are naturally a bit more autonomous, even though we still have regular follow-ups with the Lemon Learning teams to support us if we have the slightest problem or the slightest question."
Katia Smaniotto Wattson project manager, EDF
"Our roadmap is to move towards multi-tool usage, with PLM3DX ultimately as our case study, to show that we can make something nice and, in any case, easy."
Cathy Bonnor Head of the Wattson initiative, EDF
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