Bridgestone details premium tire production strategy

Tokyo – Bridgestone Corp. is targeting growth through the restructuring of its production processes across global operations, with the aim to increase the production of premium tires.

In particular, the Japanese group plans to reinforce the production of tires based on its lightweighting Enliten technology across passenger car, light truck and truck & bus segments.

As part of the plan, the tire maker said it would focus investment on 16 plants whose manufacturing processes will be restructured to produce "premium tires", Bridgestone said 9 Aug.

Furthermore, the group is aiming to incorporate its BCMA (Bridgestone commonality modularity architecture) base technology across the plants.

The BCMA, according to Bridgestone, enables the sharing of tire development modules, while simplifying the supply-chain and allowing more agile R&D and production.

Bridgestone expects to create value and help increase earning power by the integration of Enliten and BCMA as ‘base technology for design’ and 'base technology for manufacturing and R&D'.

For this stage of the strategy, Bridgestone is aiming to upgrade nine facilities for passenger car tire production, including three plants in Tosu, Hikone and Hofu in Japan.

In addition, the group will upgrade its facilities in Nog Khae, Thailand; Wuxi, China; Aiken, South Carolina; Monterrey, Mexico; Burgos, Spain; and Poznan, Poland.

Five truck and bus tire plants in Amagi and Tochigi, Japan; Chonburi, Thailand; Warren, Michigan; and Stargard, Poland will also be upgraded to feature Enliten technology as well as sustainable retreading processes.

Overall, the group will move to smart manufacturing with “productivity improvement initiatives”, while aiming to reduce energy consumption per unit.

The plans tie in with the group's earlier update in July which detailed the second stage of its 10-year growth strategy to improve profitability.