1. Please identify one significant development in the tire industry in the last 2-3 years, and explain its importance.

One significant development is the transformation into Smart Factories which includes a high automation level as well as new digital solutions. This is necessary in order to be able to react quickly to customer specific requirements.

2. What do you see as main obstacles to the development of the tire manufacturing industry in the coming years?

New digital processes need a high data availability which can be a problem in old brown-field plants. As digitalization becomes more and more important, it is also necessary to define who has access to the data, who owns the data and who analyses the data.

3. Which technologies will play the biggest role in shaping the ‘tire factory of the future’, and why?

The use of small, autonomous vehicles in the tire production system, realizing a batch size equal 1. This way, flexibility and system reliability can be increased which makes it easier to react to unforeseen events.

4. What major changes do you expect to see in tire manufacture and supply over the next few years?

The use of digital twins as those are necessary to simulate new production systems / factories before installation as well as to adapt existing systems. Another important aspect is Predictive Maintenance.

5. Any other points?

It is easier to introduce new solutions and approaches in green-field plants. However, one also has to offer solutions which enable tire manufacturers to transform old existing brown-field plants in smart factories.