Michelin unveils aircraft tyre plan & welcomes new activities in Bourges

The Bourges site in France is Michelin’s only aviation tyre plant in Europe. It has 643 permanent employees and produces approximately 130,000 tyres per year for civil, military and business aviation. The facility is currently gearing up to manufacture the Michelin Air X Sky Light, a new generation aircraft tyre that is lighter and longer lasting. The factory works with important customers such the French Air and Space Force, the United States Air Force, Airbus, Dassault, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Air France, Lufthansa, Easyjet, Emirates, Avioparts, and Takhzeen Aerospace.

Michelin reports that production in Bourges has grown significantly over the past two years, and this increase has led to certain organisational issues as well as the need to recruit and train almost 240 permanent employees in 2022 and 2023. To deal with these challenges, plant management launched a collaborative project involving the entire Bourges workforce as well as employee representatives.

After examining ways of improving performance at the Bourges site, Michelin formed ten working groups to focus on a range of topics: management quality, safety culture, training, product quality, well-being in the workplace, projects and innovation, economic performance, environmental impact, working environment and client reception.

Working together, the stakeholders came up with a five-year plan to ensure the Bourges plant performs better. Michelin comments that this plan for 2028 will enable Bourges to “consolidate its performance on a very brisk aircraft tyre market.” This “collaborative project” will involve “all of the site’s stakeholders” and aims to “enhance industrial performance.”

Developing a high-added-value market

The Bourges site is also expanding its activities to include Michelin Inflatable Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary developed to leverage the capabilities of the AirCaptif start-up acquired by Michelin Group in 2021. Michelin announced the addition of this business to Bourges during the site’s 70th-anniversary celebrations in November 2022, and some Michelin Inflatable Solutions teams are already working there. So far Michelin has invested 3 million euros to create an initial 2,000 square metre workshop, which will be ready for operations in January 2024 with a team of 30 employees.

Michelin Inflatable Solutions is active in the aviation and defence sectors and intends to capitalise on the proximity of the Bourges site to the AirCaptif team in Trappes and Michelin R&D teams in Clermont-Ferrand in order to develop these “high added value markets.” Michelin Inflatable Solutions’ operation in Bourges should eventually cover 6,000 square metres and facilitate the creation of approximately 100 jobs.