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Regardless of industry, size or scale, the day-to-day challenges on the factory floor share commonalities – maintaining productivity, quality, low cost, and a skilled workforce. Embracing digital transformation can reshape operations allowing for more agility and responsiveness to meet these requirements.
Cooper® Tire and Rubber, Findlay, Ohio, has spent more than a century creating the right rubber-to-dollar ratio – offering high-performing tires at a competitive price.
Like most in the industry, Cooper Tire understands that two of the largest costs in tire manufacturing are capital and labor. The industry is capital-intensive and leaders need to attain a high level of efficiency with assets while continuing to focus on quality and safety.
While Cooper Tire always operates in an environment of continuous improvement, the opportunity for enhancing operations in this case was driven by the value of bringing consistency and commonality through a single manufacturing execution system (MES) solution deployed across processes, from mixing through final finish, and across facilities.
The MES is the heartbeat of any manufacturing operation. It is the foundational layer that oversees the production process for transforming raw materials into a finished product. This system is fundamental for achieving complete visibility and control over operations on the plant floor. Cooper Tire wanted a platform designed to meet their unique needs. To get there, Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT) would need to work together.
IT/OT Teamwork
Cooper Tire’s Core Team was tasked with designing and implementing a global MES across facilities.
This project had high visibility in the organization, driving the priority to get the right Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT) representation on the team, to foster productive collaboration across functional siloes, and result in IT/OT teamwork.
The first phase of the project was to complete the global design and implement in the first plant in Texarkana, Arkansas, with subsequent rollouts in additional U.S. plants as well as facilities in Mexico, China, and Serbia.
Cooper Tire wanted a platform designed to meet their unique needs. To get there, IT and OT would need to work together.
Functioning as a basic ecosystem, Cooper Tire’s MES would be the epicenter for how to plan, execute, and collect contextualized data. With strong integration capability with ERP systems, automation layers and apps, the MES becomes that bridge between specialty functions for increased efficiency and improved decision-making.
This MES could also implement enforceable workflows to maintain continued improvements and:
- Break down organizational information silos to connect people with systems
- Enable greater collaboration, standardization, and enforcement of best practices to improve productivity
The team began the process of digitizing manufacturing operations, designing and implementing a global MES across manufacturing facilities that produce passenger and light truck tires for both replacement and original equipment customers of Cooper Tire.
“This work was seen as a ‘no regrets’ foundational initiative,” said champion Phil Kortokrax, senior vice president of Global Operations & Procurement. “It was intended to create the digital foundation for future use cases in simulation, predictive analytics, digital twin and beyond."
Forward-thinking companies like Cooper Tire, that lean into innovation and implement modern technologies, will be ready for the challenges of today and prepared for the innovations of tomorrow.
Pandemic Poses Challenge
The team engaged over 100 subject matter experts across manufacturing plants and processes for the better part of a year – a challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A familiar scene for most manufacturers, as the project was kicking off the facilities went into a new way of working, delaying the start of the project and replacing in-person meetings with remote blueprint sessions and virtual plant tours. Many on the internal team had not worked together before.
Team members across manufacturing plants processes relied on virtual meetings to discuss and drive to decisions and reference local as well as global requirements.
Blueprint and design sessions utilized the skills and experience of the core team and Rockwell Automation team. Local plant champions helped ensure participation with the right resources at their locations.
For overall digital transformation, the key is being integrated to the right, reliable data. That allows for flexibility in focus areas, built on the same foundation.
Evolving Digital Transformation Implementation
Cooper Tire’s approach considers that, by being on a common platform, any best practices or improvements can be quickly rolled out to multiple locations in a data analytics use case. For overall digital transformation, the key is being integrated to the right, reliable data. That allows for flexibility in focus areas, built on the same foundation.
Digital transformation solutions provide increased interoperability, contextualized data, and advanced analytics with IT/OT integration. Using these solutions, future digital use cases have been prioritized by a group of manufacturing leaders and subject matter experts primarily around impact and effort. The list was generated based on pain points.
Meaningful Impact
Cooper Tire made a meaningful impact on its cost structure through the MES solution. “In addition, with the potential traceability improvements, we estimate that quality will continue to improve through enhanced robust systematic error proofing,” said Kortokrax. “Aside from the manufacturing cost efficiency and quality improvements, we estimate an annual savings in ongoing MES maintenance.”
Purpose-built for key industries to respond to variations related to specific processes, challenges and desired outcomes, Rockwell Automation has developed industry-specific MES solutions to meet the diverse needs of tire companies.
And forward-thinking companies like Cooper Tire, that lean into innovation and implement modern technologies, will be ready for the challenges of today and prepared for the innovations of tomorrow.
Published December 16, 2021