VMI ready for more U.S. tire production

STOW, Ohio—It doesn't seem that long ago that the outlook for tire manufacturing in the U.S. and North America was not bright.

There had been no tire factories to speak of constructed in the U.S. for more than 15 years, and closings and consolidation had become the norm. Imports were taking up an ever growing share of the U.S. tire market.

But Arie Kroeze, president of VMI Americas Inc., forecast back in 2007 that things were about to change.

Mike Slone, area sales manager of tire and rubber machinery for the U.S. subsidiary of Holland's VMI Group, recalls Kroeze during a company planning session saying that Asian tire companies would begin building plants in the U.S. Slone said the room erupted in laughter.

But in the ensuing years that is just what has been occurring. Kroeze has been with VMI for more than 30 years and working in the U.S. since 1995.

"Since I've been here all I had seen were plant closures," he said in a recent interview. "All the people who were over here closed plants and opened up overseas. And all of the sudden what we see is modernization of plants going on, but there also have been new plants coming in."

That obviously has shifted somewhat with the tariffs scare in Asia, mainly for China. "All of the sudden you see a shift of our business significantly from Asia to North America. And there's also European companies coming here or expanding," he said.

For the tire machinery maker, that meant it had to change its organization. Being a global company, not all of VMI sales for North America are done from this region. But once the machinery is in place, service and support are critical, Kroeze said.

"That's why VMI Americas has been growing," he said. "Since the crisis we have doubled our size in VMI Americas."

At the worst of the recession, staffing for the Stow-based subsidiary bottomed out at 11, but now exceeds 20, and Kroeze said the firm needs to double that number again. At the top of his recruiting list are service and commission engineers to help install and maintain machines.

"With all the machines coming here, installing them is one thing," he said. "Now we have to maintain them and focus on service."

Roy te Boome, project manager for VMI Holland B.V., said training also is crucial. The initial training is only to operate the machine, but with the advanced technology VMI offers with its VMI Maxx and other lines, the teaching has to go much further. Further instruction focuses on such topics as hardware and software training, and how to create recipes.

Because tire manufacturers are staffed as lean as possible, that means suppliers need to take on more of the responsibility. With Industry 4.0, the suppliers can provide remote assistance and guide the technician to solutions to problems that may arise.

"We have a training program to teach customers how to maintain a machine," te Boome said. "We are in the lead at first, but after three to four years the customer should be able to maintain a machine at the same level as we can."

Kroeze said with service support such an integral part of the industry these days, it now is part of the beginning of sales negotiations, rather than coming up as an afterthought, as had been the case in the past.

While there has been much activity in the states, te Boome said there continues to be new projects elsewhere in the world, including China, India and Eastern Europe. The Middle East also is an area of activity, with projects in Saudi Arabia ongoing, and talk of potential facilities to be built in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

VMI itself opened a new plant in Poland in 2017 to make parts to be shipped to VMI's Holland operations for final assembly, and the firm just announced plans Jan. 24 to double the size of the facility.

Kroeze said the overall business forecast for VMI remains strong, and the machinery maker is concentrating on a continual upgrade in technology, a strategy that is crucial for VMI's future success. He said what customers are looking for continues to evolve, and that rolling resistance will become even more important as electric vehicles keep growing.

"We have to be ready for what the new trends are in the market," he said.

Customers also are looking for more flexible machines with increased automation, te Boome said. With smaller lot sizes, that means tire makers are looking for equipment with quicker changeovers, along with more vision systems for quality.

"Ten years ago a tire machine could run 24 hours a day making the same tire," Slone said. "Now you can see six to eight changeovers in a day. The quicker we can change over the more productivity is coming out of the machine."

Slone has been in the tire industry since 1973, witnessing the revolutionary change from bias to radial tire technology. But after that upgrades were more evolutionary in nature, he said, until VMI's Maxx machine made increased automation in tire production viable.

"Everybody had the idea of eyes-off, hands-off tire building," Slone said. "But nobody really pulled it off successfully with machines like this until the Maxx machine. It was a revolutionary step, and a lot of that was because technology had changed that much, but it also was because we have great engineers and we left them alone to develop it."

VMI employs about 1,500 globally, with the engineering group having a staff of more than 350, 140 of those in research and development, according to te Boome. "We work on the latest technology with some core suppliers," he said. "To be ahead of the competition—and things that are new cannot be copied—that's why engineering is so important. On average we still spend 8-10 percent of sales in R&D, so that shows we take R&D very seriously."