Opinion: New (type of) tire plant manager wanted

A multinational tire manufacturing group is looking to recruit a senior manager.

The job requirements are that ‘the successful candidate must have deep experience and expertise in IT or electrical & electronics engineering.

Experience of working at a senior level in the tire industry would also be an advantage, but is not essential for the role.’

While this job description is clearly fictitious, it does reflect comments picked up for our feature on automation in the tire industry.

These pointed to the need for a new breed of decision-maker in tire-makers’ boardrooms: people that understand digital manufacturing and supply-chain technologies and the benefits they can deliver at all levels of an organisation.

While there are signs of change, the tire industry remains conservative when it comes to adopting digital or indeed any new technology – perhaps reflecting how most senior managers have their roots firmly in the traditional process, chemicals and steel industries.

Major tire makers obviously already have senior managers with skills from outside of traditional tire manufacture. For example Bridgestone Europe’s recently appointed chief operating officer Yves Kerstens joined the company in 2005 as vice president of supply chain management and IT having previously worked in the finance and logistics sectors.

More generally, though, the status of people with skills in electronics and related disciplines tends to be lower in the tire sector than in other industries.

This was a view expressed by several commentators for our feature, among them Peter Haan, whose automation leadership role at Siemens covers both the tire and battery manufacturing industries, “In the battery production sector, the head of electrical engineering at a machinery OEM is very often a member of the board,” Haan said.

“At most tire machine companies, the head of electrical engineering is maybe a head of department. [They are] the poor guys in the tire company, whereas in [other] sectors electrical engineering is a driving force.”

This situation might change as the tire manufacturing industry starts to adopt digital manufacturing concepts such as Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things. This, however, could be a slow process given the age of many tire plants and the entrenched working practices that exist everywhere from shopfloor to boardroom.

The move to automated and integrated production will, therefore, require managers with the vision, expertise and ideas to drive a staged introduction of ‘smart’ technologies that enhance the efficiency, quality and safety of the tire manufacturing process.

Article originally published in the March/April issue of ERJ.