Q&A: Rockwell expert on tire plant automation

European Rubber Journal  gets the inside track on automation of the tire industry from Paolo Butti, automation & tire industry leader, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Rockwell Automation:

ERJ From your knowledge of the sector, how would you describe the level of control & automation in the tire manufacturing industry today?

PB In recent years we’ve seen a rapid move towards fully integrated architecture, aligning machine performance to integrated motion and safety functions. That significant improvement in machine performance is driven by the availability of stronger control processing capability and smart drive technology. It’s also supported the market demand for ever improving tire quality while answering manufacturers’ needs to reduce energy consumption and maximise raw material use.

We expect to see the trend continue towards highly automated solutions as tire producers seek to remain competitive. The best opportunity for the industry to improve operational efficiency lies in the integration of automation and information systems.  With better, smarter and faster connected enterprises, data, trends and best practice analysis is allowing production and maintenance managers to push forward the next generation of tire manufacturing.

ERJ What are the main drivers and barriers in the adoption of advanced control & automation technologies in the tire-making industry?

PB One important driver for adoption of advanced control and automation technology is the area of industry standards and regulatory compliance.  Tire performance labelling will become an industry standard and manufacturers will compete for consumers based on a defined set of criteria. Consumers will expect "high value" tires to be standard even on economy vehicles which will put pressure on the manufacturing process to hold tighter tolerances and optimise efficiency.

Profitability is another key driver.  Approximately 50% of the cost of tire manufacture is material costs and there will be a continued pressure to reduce operational costs to maintain profitability.  Reduction of energy consumption and more efficient asset utilisation are driving an increased need for visibility into the manufacturing process and supply chain.

New markets and globalisation are also a major factor. Global wealth creation is driving demand for all consumer products which puts an increased demand on limited natural resources.  This is evident in the global fuel efficiency standards for automotive manufacturers.  From a product stand point, this means less tire weight and material usage in each tire.  In turn this drives the need for machines that can better control the manufacturing process to eliminate variance to maintain tire quality.

ERJ How well resourced are tire makers in terms of having the skills required for specifying, installing and maintaining the latest control & automation system?

PB Tire manufacturers certainly understand the importance of skills in this area and the best of them invest in training programmes for their employees while increasingly utilising external support to leverage full asset utilisation, spares management and safety compliancy. At Rockwell Automation we’ve seen increasing numbers of manufacturers taking the opportunity to upskill their workforce through our training labs which help engineers’ continuous development in programming and debugging the latest control and automation systems.

ERJ: Which technologies are proving most effective in helping companies achieve their targets for safety efficiency and productivity?

PB The internet of things, cloud, and mobile are all technologies with a lot of potential to increase manufacturing efficiency by enabling the Connected Enterprise.  Within the plant it allows for the connection of IT and Operations Technology (OT). This is actively reducing downtime and improving flexibility, which enables new levels of production optimisation and reduced maintenance.

As mentioned, energy efficiency is especially important and connected machines are using the big data available from highly connected components to support analytics and data management, for product superior quality and fully traceable processes.

In addition to the analytics within the plant, it is also connecting consumers to the manufacturing plant.  Consumer preferences on vehicle performance and potential quality concerns are available to manufacturing to immediately effect improvements or corrective action.

Another important technology development of recent years is integrated control and safety functionality.  Safety integration has simplified machine automation design, enhancing safety performance, and latest safety category adoption, following recent regulation changes.

This is especially effective when paired with dedicated safety services which can support tire makers and their supply chain of machine builders in designing, installing, commissioning and operating manufacturing in a safe and efficient way.

ERJ Finally, how would you describe the position of the tire industry in terms of its adoption (or readiness to adopt) advanced manufacturing concepts such as the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0?

PB Industry 4.0, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, and many government initiatives have formed to help industry apply the infrastructure that will achieve transformational economy-wide impact, manufacturing innovation and global competitiveness.  During TTE 2015 in Cologne I saw a great enthusiasm and appetite to benefit from these concepts. It’s a topic that we’ve been talking about at Rockwell Automation for some time through our Connected Enterprise initiatives which offer real examples of Industry 4.0 in practice today.

Much of the technology necessary to achieve the industry 4.0 vision exists and is implemented in tire manufacturing today in the form of IP-enabled networks, information infrastructure, and connected intelligent devices.  To take full advantage of these connected devices, tire manufacturers will need to better integrate their IT and OT and provide enhanced manufacturing visibility to both real-time operations and historical data for predictive diagnostics.

The Connected Enterprise provides a road map to help customers enable this vision through Assessment of the current OT/IT infrastructure; securing and upgrading networks and controls; defining and organising the working data capital; analytics to turn this data into information that is role based and actionable; and collaboration to anticipate and respond to external events in the supply chain or the customer base.

ERJ Thank you