Opportunity in crisis

“In our experience,” Norman said, “Companies respond to a crisis in one of two ways. They either stop everything and just try to survive. Or they continue to invest and hope to come out of the crisis in a relatively better position than their competitors. We have taken the second approach.”

VMI did the same thing over a decade ago, after the 2008 – 2009 financial crash. During this period, VMI invested heavily in additional R&D and that led to the fast-track development of the MAXX tyre building machine. The recession, in other words, prepared the way for VMI’s greatest commercial success. During the past few months, the R&D team at VMI has again been working hard on new concepts, improvements to existing products and capability enhancements, moving into such comparatively new areas as software and data analytics.

All manufacturing companies depend on their Intellectual Property (IP) to differentiate themselves in the market, and VMI is no exception. VMI’s patented technologies are at work across the Asia Pacific region: in China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia. VMI works hard to safeguard its IP in all the countries where it operates. India is a key market for VMI because the independent judiciary there has an excellent track record in protecting the innovations of overseas companies entering the Indian market.
 

“Returning to ‘normal’,” comments Mike Norman, “may not be a realistic option, because our market in the next few years is likely to be very different from the recent past. You will not move from survival to growth by doing the same old things. The companies that stay successful will need to think and act differently.”

Recovery roadmap

So, what exactly will the future look like? And how can businesses in the tyre industry build a roadmap out of the crisis and towards a more confident, successful future? The Covid-19 crisis, after all, has just accelerated trends in the market that were already evident will not go away when the virus is contained.

The industry was in a state of rapid change long before the virus struck. Demand was dropping, globalisation had stalled, the industry was facing much stricter environmental regulations, while electric vehicle growth was rising fast, with a need for more tyre variants in smaller production runs… It is not possible to be certain of what other long-term changes might happen as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, but it’s pretty clear there will be many of them. This means that being more agile is not a “nice to have”: it’s a basic necessity.
 

“No-one is likely to recover entirely on their own,” as Mike Norman puts it. “We need to look for ways we can work together, support each other and rebuild as partners.” How to do that? Norman suggests three ways to accelerate recovery and build a stronger, more successful future, no matter how uncertain the market seems. First, work smarter and be more agile. Second, optimise everything. Third, focus on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Work Smarter, be More Agile

No-one accurately predicted the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis (even though potential pandemics were seen as a priority risk by most governments). The moral of this? We need to be ready for anything and everything. There will probably be a major crisis of some kind every decade and the industry must respond better to the next one. The best advice is to make your whole business more agile and resilient: easy to say but a lot harder to do!

Dealing with Change

“You don’t make a business agile overnight,” says Mike Norman, “but you can start to gain the benefits from carefully planned change pretty soon. And the benefits grow as you make more progress in the right direction.” Becoming more flexible and ready for the unexpected depends on the strategic choices you make. In particular, two factors will define how ready for the future your business becomes: Platforms and Data.

From Machines to Platforms

When VMI launched the MAXX tyre building machine over ten years ago, it was the first step towards building production platforms, rather than standalone machines. Platforms are the key to future-proofing a business, because they can stay up to date, no matter how fast and unpredictable market and technology changes may be. Every major production platform is built from components that are constantly being worked on, improved, upgraded, replaced and added to with new capabilities. By investing in a platform, your equipment can always stay at best practice level, so your investment need never become obsolete.

Updating the MAXX

With VMI’s MAXX machine, for example, in the past 10 years 7 major upgrades have been taken to market and many customers have simply replaced (for example) the original vision technology with the hugely improved PIXXEL system.

PIXXEL includes a greatly improved camera, now built in-house to meet a very precise specification and higher protection against dust and even water. As an integrated system designed from the ground up, PIXXEL also removes the need for a separate PC and transforms performance in such key areas as component guidance, breaker and tread splice monitoring and carcass drum monitoring. It enables more proactive intervention, can enhance process efficiency, and contributes to better use of machine data and management insights through analytics.
 

This is one example of how the platform approach, enabled by intelligent retrofitting, helps make investments go further, while improving agility. No company can afford to rip out and replace its existing investments, just because a hot new technology is being introduced. It’s about evolution: always being competitive with, or preferably, ahead of the market.

Making Better Use of Data

Production machines of every kind generate vast amounts of data, but our industry has not traditionally been very inventive about using this for competitive advantage. If you are going to build a more agile business, then data is going to make a very important difference. Data in the future will enable:

• Predictive and proactive maintenance, reducing unplanned downtime and leading to more efficient management of production equipment.
• Analytics to spot emerging trends, from faults to potential process optimisation opportunities.
• Managing groups of machines from a central control area, reducing human touch points and speeding production.

Data is not a magic ingredient, of course, and neither is it new. The big change here is the ability to apply analytical tools and create insights for action in real, or near real time. This means the tools to enable greater flexibility are available now. We just need to use them more effectively than before.

Optimise everything

Change on a large scale can cause anxiety and, let’s face it, by now everyone has suffered enough disruption to last them for a long time. As Mike Norman puts it: “We don’t want to suggest anything that makes life harder at a difficult time, so the key to moving forward, we think, is step by step, keeping risk as low as possible.”

Process optimisation should be carried out on an incremental basis. As you work to analyse and improve all aspects of your production processes, you begin to find that complete stages can be cut out, time will be saved, resources used (energy, materials, people…) will be reduced and every saving goes straight to the bottom line. These are the tactical changes that drive immediate improvements, while buying time for longer-term, strategic changes.
 

Optimise Core Processes

Nobody tolerates inefficiency or poor-quality processes willingly, but sometimes it is easier just to let things stay as they are to avoid difficult decisions and potential disruption. Now is the perfect time to rethink processes and optimise them.

Places to look include materials storage and handling, transportation through the plant, improved testing to identify faults early in the process… This is all about organising the people and assets you already have, to make them more efficient. VMI’s experience is that you can remove over 10% of costs from production processes before you need to do anything disruptive. That’s additional profit every company needs to bank.

Optimise Service Options

Service within the tyre industry has traditionally been about break fix, supply of spares and providing engineers on site fast. These remain important and necessary, but service can and should mean a whole lot more, especially now we are using data to identify emerging trends and manage production equipment more effectively.

Rich data flows and new analytical tools enable you (and your service provider) to identify issues before they become faults and redefine policies to make routine maintenance more agile, responsive and proactive. This helps ensure that assets run as efficiently as possible, with minimal downtime.

“We at VMI,” Mike Norman said, “are becoming more ambitious about how we define Service. We think it is about helping customers be more successful in a strategic sense, often by fine-tuning their assets and processes to be more efficient.”

This goes beyond maintenance. Data analysis, backed by responsive service, helps tyre building companies respond to market needs more flexibly, constantly making their production environment more flexible. It’s not just about the machines, therefore, but about how you optimise technology across their entire life cycle for better response to changing patterns of demand.

Optimise People Management

In the end, all businesses depend on the quality of their people, and we believe this difficult period gives manufacturers a much-needed opportunity to look at who they employ, the skills they possess, the training they receive and how they interact with production equipment. Here, as well, expert service support can prove valuable.

“We possess a huge resource in the form of expertise, domain knowledge and insight,” Mike Norman comments. “This is at the disposal of our customers and we encourage them to make more use of what we can deliver in human terms.” The aim is to transfer skills and knowledge in order to help customers improve the quality of their own human expertise.

The future is likely to be more about extremely flexible, extremely smart systems, delivering precisely to the ever-changing needs of the market. Maximising the potential of these systems is going to need smarter people, with improved training and access to specialised expertise.

“We respect people too much to treat them without due care and attention. We assume our customers feel the same way.”

Employees have many of the right answers to tomorrow’s problems in their own heads. We need to maximise this human capital.

Solving the cost equation

Every company in our industry has taken a financial hit. Sales have been stopped in their tracks in many cases, so cashflow projections are no longer relevant and income streams have dried up. At times like this, nobody makes friends by suggesting that the right option for investment could be the one with the highest capital cost.

Why is TCO so important? It’s about getting into production and turning investment into profit as fast as possible. VMI’s engineering approach is designed to ensure that each machine works out of the box. It does not require long months of fine tuning and commissioning work on customer sites to reach peak efficiency. Installation leads to delivery right away- that’s the idea, ensuring that your investment leads to profit as fast as possible.
 

Yet, for businesses that believe in their own long-term future, all the investment decisions you make in this, the worst of times, will be critical in defining how well you compete once the crisis is over. Mike Norman’s view: “The three points we think you should always bear in mind are Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Quality and Value.” Here is why.

Total Cost of Ownership

Production assets, such as VMI’s MAXX machines, are designed to stay fully operational for around 20 years. By the time owners get to year 5, the key to profit will be productivity and efficiency day by day, month by month, year by year.

The machine is designed to work efficiently, with planned maintenance and regular upgrades as new options appear. “Our customers can make promises to their own customers with confidence,” said Mike Norman. “They know they will be able to deliver as planned, on time, meeting contracts every time.” You cannot operate successfully with demanding end users unless you have this assurance.

If you buy a machine that does not work at once, you need to consider the major hidden costs due to being slow into production once it is delivered. These should be added to the true investment cost. So should downtime, scrappage, extra power usage, extra employee time through the entire product lifecycle… It mounts up. If you believe your company has a long-term future, then TCO is the only financial measurement that counts.

Quality as the Key

Tomorrow’s market will almost certainly require shorter production runs of high-quality products, with many more variations. We won’t be able to afford the scrappage levels that have been normal in the past. High product standards must go hand in hand with higher levels of environmental efficiency, lower energy usage, near elimination of waste and new levels of production flexibility. Assured quality will be the key to staying competitive in this new reality.

Moving up the Value Chain

In an uncertain market, ambitious companies need to aim for higher value products and prove they deserve to charge premium prices to meet their profit targets.

VMI machines can create auditable data that will show, not only what the product is, when it was produced and where, but also full operational conditions at the time. This can go into such fine detail as the materials used, cuts and splices made, length of storage, when and how the compounds were mixed: the entire life cycle from design to delivery.

Tyres have their own pedigrees, that is already taken for granted, but now it is possible to review all relevant data in much greater depth than before. Those companies able to prove their own quality standards will move up the value chain and maximise their profits. Those that can’t, will not.

Facing the Future

Where does all of this leave us as we face the task of rebuilding economies, our industry and our businesses? Especially in countries that are strongly dependent on a globalised marketplace and are facing real concerns about the future of free trade?

South Asian companies will continue to find opportunities in the global market, but they may need to rethink their strategies to maximise these. There is a model in other industries for the changes that need to happen in our own. For example, India has developed from being an offshoring centre for low cost IT processing to becoming home to global leaders in quality and innovation. VMI expects to see tyre producers in Asian countries follow a similar path, from cost competition to quality leadership. We are ready to help in this process.
 

Mike Norman’s view is that companies need to build their own road to recovery, and keep their nerve as they move forward. “The market will come back,” he says, “but it will take time and there will be some rough patches ahead.” But there are plenty of actions that can be taken here and now to bring recovery closer and help secure the long-term future of dedicated and ambitious companies.

“Being more agile, more flexible in everything we do is a non-negotiable requirement,” he emphasises. “It’s not enough to talk about unpredictability, or expect the unexpected: you have to build the capabilities that lead to true agility.” The good news is that it is possible to take short-term action, without high cost and improve performance relatively fast.

“Flexible production platforms, more and more creative use of data and analytics, straight through production with minimal stops for materials handling, building to precise market needs; these are the big prizes that ambitious companies need to aim for.”

There is no “either-or” about this. By making small-scale, rapid improvements, companies make space for the larger changes that will transform their long-term prospects. Will it be easy? Probably not, but, as Mike Norman says: “We have to face up to the challenges of our own times, whether we like them or not. If we believe in the future of our companies, we will accept the challenge and be successful.”

 

Bridgestone will supply tailored-made tyres for Lamborghini’s Huracán STO, which will be launched in 2021.

Bridgestone ensured the high-performance tyre can maximise the Huracán STO’s traction, handling, control, and extreme overall performance.

Key to the tyre’s success in maximising the super sports car’s performance is the combination of pattern and cavity design. The Potenza tyres apply an asymmetric tread design for enhanced steering response and cornering stability, and an internal crown structure that distributes footprint pressure evenly when cornering.

As well as the road-focused, custom-developed Potenza fitment, Bridgestone will also be providing a track-oriented, road-homologated version of the tyre that applies “race” technologies to maximise the vehicle’s track performance, especially in dry conditions.

Steven De Bock, VP Consumer Replacement and OE at Bridgestone EMIA, said, “It’s been a pleasure for our team to work so closely with Lamborghini for the first time, and on such an exciting project. The Huracán STO is an incredible piece of engineering that deserves a custom tyre that can fulfill its full potential. I can proudly say that Bridgestone has delivered such a high-performance tyre. It has been fantastic for the team to have worked on a project that is at the forefront of technology in so many ways.”

Hankook, one of the major global tyre brands, has started testing and development operations at its new ultra modern facility in Spain.

The testing facility has been set up on the premises of the Applus+ IDIADA Group and can also cater to European premium car manufacturers that have their own demanding tyre tests. The facility is completely automated and will host a 20-member team from the Spanish testing centre, which is affiliated to the Hankook Europe Technical Centre.

Klaus Krause, Head of European Research and Development Centre, said, "With the further expansion of our testing capacities in Spain, we are reaching the next level together with our local partner Applus+ IDIADA."

He also added, "We are confident that the newly installed testing facilities in particular will significantly improve our efforts to provide the best tyre testing conditions and services to our employees and customers. In addition, we will also be able to conduct significantly more tests on site." (TT)

ASCENSO introduced a construction tyre - BLB 730- which is used for boom lift vehicles used in construction and other industries. It comes with several features that cater to the unique needs of aerial lifting equipment.

The BLB 730 tyre is available in different sizes to fit various boom lift vehicles. This range of sizes provides versatility and compatibility with different types of aerial lift work platforms.

“ASCENSO's BLB 730 tyre is a significant advancement in specialised equipment for the construction industry. It focuses on load capacity, stability, traction, and durability to improve the performance and safety of boom lift vehicles. Whether working at heights or manoeuvring on tough terrains, this tyre offers reliability and durability for efficient operations,” said the company in a statement.

The BLB 730 tyre is built to handle heavy loads and stabilise boom lift vehicles. It has solid lugs and a more extended shoulder design, which ensures good traction and prevents slipping during operation. This is important for safely carrying heavy weights at high elevations. ASCENSO has used a special rubber compound in making the BLB 730 tyre, making it durable and long-lasting, resulting in less downtime and more productivity on construction sites.

To make the tyre even better, the company has optimised its inner volume to reduce tyre fill consumption, reducing the risk of tyre punctures, minimising the need for maintenance, and keep the vehicles running smoothly.

Falken Tyre Europe is an official IHF Men's World Championship 2023 partner for the upcoming tournament, the company has announced. The tournament is taking place at nine venues in Sweden and Poland from 11-29 January, 2023. Falken Tyre claims that the partnership was organised by the sports marketing agency SPORTFIVE. SPORTFIVE is responsible for exclusive marketing and media rights for all IHF World Championships until 2031.

Falken Tyre claims that this is its second agreement with the International Handball Federation. In addition to title and logo rights (Official IHF Men's World Championship 2023 Partner), the company has also secured advertising rights, including the Falken logo in each goal and centre circle of the courts, as well as the presence of Falken branding in the official tournament social media communications and print materials. According to Falken Tyre, this is complemented by 30-second video ads that will be shown on the big screens in the nine sports halls before the start of each match and at half-time.

Sharing his views, Robert Müller von Vultejus, Chief Growth Officer at SPORTFIVE, said, “With Falken, the IHF World Handball Championships have secured a great partner who is positioned with far-reaching influence in the relevant core markets. We are delighted to have been able to bring two global partners together for one of the most exciting sporting events of next year.”

Markus Bögner, COO and President of Falken Tyre Europe GmbH, explained, “Handball isn’t just of great importance in Europe, but all over the world, which has led us to partake in this top-level tournament once again. The fact that the international tournament is taking place in countries that are among our core markets is another great reason for our involvement. We can also look back on a long partnership with our colleagues at SPORTFIVE, who always offers us excellent opportunities that are an excellent fit for the Falken brand, which stands for enthusiasm, performance and achievement.”