The announcement was made at a gala ceremony during Tire Technology Expo in Hanover, Germany on 15th February, where Mr Emilio Tiberio, Head of R&D, Bridgestone EMEA region, received the award on behalf of the Bridgestone Corporation. He said, “We are very proud that the EXAMATION tire assembling system has been recognised with this prestigious award. We believe that the application of our ICT technology and AI to our production systems will create great benefits, and help us fulfil our commitment to “Serving Society with Superior Quality”.

The judges applauded Bridgestone’s achievement in the use of AI in a tire manufacturing plant. The first application in 2016 at the Hikone plant in Japan proved so successful that was quickly decided to implement EXAMATION more widely. Subsequently, it is being introduced in the Tatabanya plant in Hungary and in the new plant in Russia.

Shunichi Yamazaki, president, Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, Japan, and one of the panel of judges noted. “In Japan, a generation of highly skilled engineering workers has reached retirement age. It can be difficult to completely transfer the skills of highly technical workers to younger colleagues. This system proposed by Bridgestone is a useful substitute, preventing human error and improving efficiency and production quality. It measures no less than 480 points of quality data by sensors, and carries out automatic control in real time by artificial intelligence so that a tire may be assembled in optimal conditions. It is expected that this type of intelligence technology will become an epochal system across all the manufacturing industries.”

Commenting further on this award, Mr Graham Heeps, editor, Tire Technology International magazine and chairman of the judging panel, stated: "The use of artificial intelligence and sophisticated data analysis will be important trends across many manufacturing industries in the next decade. Bridgestone's innovative EXAMATION system is proof that the tire industry is at the cutting edge of production technology."

This is the 6th time that Bridgestone has won a Tire Technology award since the programme was introduced in 2008. In the inaugural year and in 2016 Bridgestone won the Tire Manufacturer of the Year award, followed by Technology awards for its Contact Area Information Sensing technology (CAIS) in 2012 and ologic reduced-rolling-resistance technology in 2013, and the Environmental Achievement of the Year award in 2013 for the new Americas Technical Center in the USA. 

Emilio Tiberio, Head of R&D, Bridgestone EMEA receives the “Tire Manufacturing Innovation of the Year” award on behalf of the company.