Bonus Feature - Goodyear looks to the future for technology

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

Joe Zekowski has been head of Goodyear's technical centre in Luxembourg for just over a year. Speaking exclusively to ERJ, Zekowski said part of his job is to work with the marketing people within Goodyear to get a long-term picture of the needs of the customers. Then his task is to develop technologies and systems that will be able to meet those needs when the market starts to demand them. Currently, he said, the company works on a timescale of three to five years, but as the business becomes more sophisticated, the company is trying to extend the timescales out to around 10 years.

Zekowski said that with rolling resistance, for example, there is a need to develop tyres that deliver better fuel economy, so that, "we have a three- to five-year project, and we will get results through that period." The results, he explained, come in on a rolling basis; not just at the end of a project. However, he added that senior management is trying to get ahead of the game by extending this perspective to ten years or more. "Not everyone is so keen to look that far forward," said Zekowski, but for Goodyear to be successful, that is a requirement from the business side.

”Everything we do its tied to the marketplace and the customer,” he said. "Even on the fundamental side: how we spend that money is focussed on the market and the customer. We do not do fundamental research to make the scientists happy. We do things that will deliver results in the future."

This means, said Zekowski, that the technologists have to "make sure we are in touch with what the business needs to drive that."

He said Goodyear does this by first splitting the business into segments such as truck, car, motorcycle and so on.

For each of these segments, he said, the marketing and management teams develop a road map of the characteristics likely to be required over a 10-year period. Zekowski's team then has to develop the specific technologies needed to feed that roadmap, he said. He added that this is not just about materials and product design, but includes manufacturing technology as well. "We have to make sure the product technology and manufacturing technology are linked and going forward. We are looking further out and driving technology all the time."

He said he relies on the marketing people to tell him how the markets will be split into the future, and what kinds of technologies each of those market segments will require.

This, he said, requires a balance between fundamental research and product-focussed development.

Zekowski likened the process of developing new products to a commercial bank account where you deposit money and later withdraw it. You can't continually withdraw cash without putting in some deposits. He said it is the same with technology.

However, in technology, he said the deposit side tends to come from fundamental research and science. In order to ensure that there are sufficient technological fixes available for future products, he said, you have to ensure that the right deposits have been made in terms of fundamental research.

Zekowski said the fundamental science side is funded through corporate budgets, but where there is a product-focussed development, that is funded from the business segment management. If segment managers need a development, then they must pay for it, he explained.

On the fundamental side, however, Goodyear sets up evolutionary projects to deliver the right technologies for the future. He said Goodyear's technology team has a strategic initiative to develop that. "we need a new technology to drive rolling resistance. That technology will come into our bank and will be available for applied products when it is needed.

Runflats for the future

Asked what is the future of the tyre, Joe Zekowski said, "After a year on the job [as head of the Luxembourg tech centre] the thing that excites me is the runflat." He said "if you have a blowout, the runflat offers both safety so far as keeping control, and mobility in getting somewhere you want to be. Someone has to put a value on that. And runflats are the only things that can deliver both those benefits."

In response to comments that runflat tyres offer poor handling and an uncomforatble ride, Zekowski said "it is an evolving technology, so we are now in a better place than we were then. Don't make that decision based on the original runflat."

He added that the latest generation of Goodyear runflat tyres, "can match the comfort level of standard tyres." He said this next generation runflat should not be compared with the tyres of one year ago, let alone those from 2002.

Zekowski said, "I have seen a change in perspective in the year I have been here. When I arrived, there were serious questions about whether they [the car makers] would follow runflats. Right now, every one of them is seriously looking at their strategy gong forward. They do not want to make that strategic assessment based on old technology. "

Asked what proportion of tyre will be runflats in ten years' time, Zekowski responded, "We can say we see more interest in developing options as runflat from a variety of customers. I believe that the next few years will tell the story as to whether it becomes a mainstream, otr whether it ends up on a select few models." He added tat Goodyear is still optimistic about that story.