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Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company has unveiled plans to create a new facility in Luxembourg that utilises an innovative production process to meet growing customer and consumer demand for premium tyres. The plans, according to the company, are part of ways of advancing the company’s connected – business model. Expected to gulp a whopping $77 million and set to open in 2019, the facility, which will produce approximately 500,000 tyres annually and create approximately 70 new, full-time positions, is located near the company’s innovation centre and tyre proving grounds in Luxembourg.
Named Mercury, the proprietary process features highly-automated, interconnected workstations, using additive manufacturing technologies to efficiently produce premium tyres in small-batch quantities on-demand for replacement and original equipment customers.
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company, Richard J. Kramer, who made the disclosure as well as the company’s plans at the groundbreaking event for the facility last week, said: “Mercury addresses the increasing complexity in the tyre industry as the number of vehicle models and options available to consumers continues to proliferate. ”
Kramer added: “It gives us the capability to increase our speed and flexibility to meet the growing demand for small volumes of high-margin, premium Goodyear tyres and to deliver them to customers on demand, faster than ever. Mercury will advance our connected business model, which aligns all of our assets – from the production floor to consumers who choose Goodyear online and at retail. It will complement our existing high-volume facilities and give us a true competitive advantage.”
The technology used in the Mercury production process, according to the company, was developed and tested over the past five years at Goodyear’s innovation and development centres. The name, Mercury, is a reference to the mythical god of trade and travel, which inspired the creation of Goodyear’s winged foot logo by company founder Frank A. Seiberling.
Goodyear, one of the world’s largest tyre companies, employs about 65,000 people and manufactures its products in 47 facilities across 21 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry.
