Pirelli announces plans to expand Italian digital centre

Bari, Italy – Pirelli & C. SpA is planning to expand its digital solutions centre in Bari, in the Italian Apulia region, a year after opening the centre to advance its digital capabilities.

Pirelli said 13 Nov that it aimed to expand the number of employees at the technology unit to 80 by 2025, up from the 50 initially planned. The facility currently employs 30 people.

Pirelli has so far invested €4.5 million of its total €9 million budgeted for the centre, which is part-funded by the Apulia local authority.

“After just one year of activity, we have achieved ambitious goals which has led us to further invest in the Pirelli Digital Solutions Center,” said Marco Tronchetti Provera, executive vice chairman.

Linking Pirelli with Bari University and the Bari Polytechnic, the centre promotes “active collaboration” between the institutions for innovative projects.

The goal, Pirelli said, is to optimise production processes by developing smart manufacturing systems based on digitalisation and AI capabilities.

The team in Bari is involved in projects to develop software and algorithms that are already used in the group’s tire design, production, and marketing processes.

The software, the tire maker said, contributes to the achievement of “significant reductions” in terms of costs and time and enhance sustainability.

In particular, the hub is developing algorithms to accelerate product development times, improve quality, maximise machiner-efficiency and support new digital services.

In addition, it has created a “virtual tire design” solution to simulate the performance of new materials in new tires.

Another target for the digital platform is to optimise the supply-chain through predictive demand models, linked to improved production processes.