Dozens of business leaders from around the world gathered at Goodyear’s Akron, Ohio headquarters recently to learn the latest in global demand trends in the automotive and tire industries and how these trends will challenge the tire maker’s research and development efforts.
“We brought together our key suppliers from across a wide array of industries and laid out our vision of the future for them,” says Jean-Claude Kihn, Goodyear’s chief technology officer. “We described the technologies we need to be successful in the future – to drive relevant innovation into our new product engine. Our message to them was simple: Our goal is innovation leadership. We can try to achieve it separately, or we can succeed as a team, multiplying the shared benefit of our combined R&D efforts.”
Kihn and his team of scientists and engineers at the company’s two Innovation Centers in and Colmar Berg, Luxembourg “have embraced a much more open philosophy regarding innovation and new product development than is common in the tire industry,” he reports. They have also expanded their collaboration with the company’s global procurement organization.
Kihn notes that the company will continue to team with leading research and testing institutions like Sandia National Labs. The new initiative allows Goodyear to also tap into its close working relationships with their suppliers to encourage joint technology development that will help the tire maker bring “game changing” tires to market at a faster pace.
According to Mark Purtilar, Goodyear’s chief procurement officer, executives from the supplier companies left the meeting feeling energized. “The post-event feedback clearly demonstrates their overwhelming support of our initiative,” he says. “They recognized the fact that this is a totally unique approach in our industry.”
The 30-plus firms taking part included as DuPont, Sumitomo Chemical, ExxonMobil, Bekaert, Kemai and Rhodia.
“Our suppliers have the skill, resources and experience to innovate in their respective areas – based on our input,” Kihn says. “They are excited about the opportunity to team with Goodyear at a whole new level. They realize that it’s a winning proposition for both parties.”
Since the April meetings, the participating suppliers have proposed nearly 200 initiatives regarding acquisition cost, materials management, conversion cost and new product development that can have a direct, positive impact on the company’s tire lines. “These initiatives will serve to enhance Goodyear’s overall R&D expenditures, but more importantly, they will significantly enhance the company’s supply chain,” according to Kihn.
“When fully aligned with Goodyear’s new products engine, the combined effort should accelerate significantly the introduction of relevant new innovations,” he says.
“Innovation in difficult times makes more of a difference than ever,” ssays Bert De Graeve, CEO at the Belgium-based Bekaert Corp., which provides drawn steel wire. “We greatly appreciate Goodyear’s commitment to long term collaborative innovation with its suppliers. The definition of a good supplier goes well beyond a cheap supplier for the next quarter, and Bekaert is ready to take on the innovation challenges outlined by Goodyear’s executive leadership,” he declares.
Goodyear and the supplier firms will facilitate the application of engineering development into new tire products while protecting each other’s intellectual property through a series of new, or enhanced, technical and commercial agreements. “We want to ensure that the commercialization of any innovation occurs at the appropriate stage of a product’s development,” Kihn explains. “And we also want to make sure that there are sufficient incentives provided to our suppliers so that they concentrate on the most marketable innovations.”
For more information, visit www.goodyeartires.com.