Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone Corporation has entered into a collaboration with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure to accelerate development and go-to-market strategies in support of Bridgestone’s digital transformation and develop advanced and predictive maintenance analytics for tyres.
Advanced and predictive maintenance analytics deliver greater productivity and efficiency for customers. Using Azure will enable Bridgestone to create value for its global fleet and OEM customers, by integrating advanced tyre analytics to better understand tyre wear and casing health to maximise tyre retreading and inform when tyre maintenance may be needed. Both companies will continue to use the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform to capture and analyse tyre data in real-time as part of a fully integrated vehicle ecosystem.
“Since our first collaboration announcement in 2020, Microsoft has been a valuable partner in both our European and Americas markets,” said Paolo Ferrari, Joint Global CEO, Bridgestone Corporation, and President/CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “We are excited to build on this collaboration with enhanced and expanded offerings that allow Bridgestone globally to develop new innovations and quickly deliver them to our customers aligned with the Bridgestone E8 Commitment.”
“We know that uptime, driver safety, and total cost of ownership are paramount for Fleets, for example,” said Ferrari. “The Connected Vehicle Platform allows us to provide insights through each of these lenses, as well as others, using data directly from the tire to unlock value that otherwise remains trapped.”
Bridgestone will also build new cloud capabilities using Azure that further streamline and modernise the company’s core tyre business and IT operations, including workplace productivity. Bridgestone will use Microsoft solutions to strengthen operational effectiveness and deliver increased flexibility and scalability across enterprise tools and platforms. Improved agility across core infrastructure will result in quicker expansion of tyre-centric solutions to the customer, improved efficiencies and collaboration across the enterprise, more robust governance and security, and overall operational cost savings.
“As the world around us becomes more digital and data driven, it’s exciting to see how Bridgestone is working to provide new solutions and data analytics to their customers,” said Sanjay Ravi, General Manager, Automotive Mobility and Transportation for Microsoft. “Our long-standing relationship with Bridgestone has led to many successes and we look forward to supporting their journey in delivering new solutions that result in improvements, fleet management and overall business efficiencies.”