IBM has published an angry response to the lawsuit filed by Bridgestone America’s alleging IBM’s computer system threw the tyremaker’s “entire business operation into chaos.” IBM insists that its Bridgestone’s mismanagement of the project that caused the problems, according to Business Insider International.
Continental has been working on automated driving systems for some time now, and began open road trials of this technology early last year. It also entered into a research partnership with BMW to develop an ‘electronic co-pilot’ in January 2013. The German firm is now extending its collaborative activities; the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper shared on 21 August that Continental intends to develop self-driving cars together with IBM and Google.
German tyre maker Continental intends to optimise the way in which its 190 locations in 39 countries around the world work together with each other. To achieve this, the company will draw upon solutions from IBM in Germany, utilising its ‘Connections’ and ‘OmniFind’ software in order to respond to unforeseen events with greater flexibility and to take advantage of new business opportunities.
Curt Andersson has been named president of Goodyear’s North American Tire unit, a position that has been “open” since current NAT president Rich Kramer was promoted to COO of the global company last year. Andersson, 48, comes to Goodyear from Crouse-Hinds of Syracuse, New York, were he served as president of the Cooper Industries unit. Prior to Crouse-Hinds, Andersson was senior vice president of industrial integration for The Timken Co. in Canton, Ohio, and held management posts with General Electric.
Reports from multiple news sources suggest that Pirelli is planning to shut its final-salary pension scheme in order to protect the company’s future. The closure would, according to the BBC, affect 743 staff members, all of whom would be eligible to join the defined contribution scheme open to new recruits to the manufacturer since 2001. Consultations with staff have begun, with a view to cancelling the scheme at the end of 2009.
Mitas and IBM announced on November 10 that IBM will create for the Czech Republic tyremaker a new enterprise integration platform based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The new platform will, says IBM, significantly streamline application alignment and management, shortening time necessary for change deployment. Other benefits of the new Mitas platform include cost savings through more efficient system administration.
According to a report in India’s Business Standard, Ceat Tyres has recently automated its business processes on the Software Application Protocol (SAP) platform. The SAP implementation covers the company’s entire office network, consisting of corporate office, two manufacturing plants, 34 regional offices, 28 RDCs, 125 clearing and forwarding agents, 3,500 dealers, a warehouse, 15 outsourcing locations, 8 RPD & Mixing locations.
Unlike most companies, who phase in new IT systems in stages, Ceat has opted to have all modules in its 180 plus locations go live at the same time. Ceat Tyres vice-president Arnab Banerjee explains the reason behind this decision: “If we look at the industry, most of our peers have used a phased approach. We were advised to follow it too. However, in this kind of implementation there is resistance to change and opposition to new systems and processes. So, we thought that instead of going through these issues in phases, let’s take the problem head-on and implement it in one go.” The project was implemented within a timeframe of eight months.
James A. Firestone, president, Xerox North America, has been elected to the Board of Directors of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The election of Firestone brings the size of Goodyear’s board to 13 members. Firestone, 53, is an executive vice president of Xerox Corporation and has led the company’s North American operations since 2004. He has also served as head of Xerox’s channels group and was the company’s chief strategy officer.
“Jim has a wealth of managerial experience with a diverse group of respected companies, including Xerox, IBM and American Express,” said Goodyear Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert J. Keegan. “We are confident that he will contribute significantly to Goodyear’s continued growth.”
IBM has submitted a patent application for a sensor that can warn drivers when tyre tread becomes worn down to 3mm or less, the level at which tests conducted for the British Rubber Manufacturers Association indicate that a tyre’s road holding ability begins to be significantly affected.
Goodyear Dunlop Tires has announced a 10-year Business Transformation Outsourcing programme worth an estimated 50 million Euros in cost savings in two years. The agreement to partner with IBM on a procurement-to-payment program for indirect supplies represents another step in the company’s effort to reduce costs by 1.5 billion US dollars by the end of 2005. Goodyear Dunlop Tires Europe will retain its core purchasing competencies, the activities of between 50 and 80 Goodyear Dunlop employees will be transferred to IBM, on a phased basis.
Michelin and IBM have announced that the tyre manufacturer has installed for all Europe a new Web-based system – based on a Web-enabled IBM eServer zSeries mainframe – that improves service to its network of 50,000 European distributors by allowing them to place orders for Michelin products directly over the Web any time of the day or night. The system is initially being deployed for use by Michelin’s large European distributors in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and will be made available to the most of the company’s European network tyre distributors. Full deployment will be by 2004.
Rubbernetwork.com, the global market place for the tyre industry, has entered into an alliance with IBM, i2 and Ariba, who will connect the software of individual member companies to the network.
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