Cooper Tire

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, headquartered in Findlay, Ohio, faced the challenge of modernizing manufacturing operations built over a century of tire production. Operating across multiple facilities, the company lacked a unified digital infrastructure to manage production data, quality control, and workforce performance consistently. Without a standardized Manufacturing Execution System (MES), plant managers relied on fragmented, often manual processes to maintain productivity and cost efficiency — a significant liability in the highly competitive automotive supply chain where margin pressure and quality standards are unrelenting. The absence of real-time operational visibility made it difficult to respond quickly to production variability or yield losses.

Cooper Tire partnered with Rockwell Automation to deploy a standardized, global MES as the foundation for its digital transformation. Central to the implementation was Rockwell's Emulate3D Digital Twin technology, which allowed Cooper Tire's engineering teams to model, simulate, and validate production processes virtually before committing to physical changes on the plant floor. This digital twin capability enabled rapid testing of process configurations, reducing the risk and cost of operational changes. The MES was integrated with existing plant control systems to provide a unified data layer across facilities, connecting equipment, workforce, and quality systems into a single operational view. The deployment prioritized scalability so the same architecture could be extended across global sites.

The MES deployment gave Cooper Tire a consistent digital foundation across its manufacturing operations, enabling more agile responses to production challenges. Key outcomes from the implementation include:

• Standardized operations across multiple plants, replacing fragmented manual processes with a unified system
• Improved process visibility through real-time data capture at the equipment level
• Reduced change-over risk using digital twin simulation to validate process changes before physical implementation
• Accelerated workforce decision-making by surfacing production data directly to floor operators and managers

While specific throughput or cost metrics were not disclosed, the shift from reactive to data-driven operations represents a structural improvement in manufacturing performance.

• Digital twin simulation de-risks process changes before they reach the physical plant — valuable in high-mix tire manufacturing where compound formulations and tooling changes are frequent.
• A global MES rollout succeeds when built on a standardized architecture; resist customizing per-site unless operationally necessary.
• Digitizing operations is a prerequisite for AI — clean, structured MES data enables future analytics and optimization investments.
• Automotive suppliers face compounding pressure from OEM quality requirements and cost targets; a unified MES directly addresses both by closing visibility gaps.
• Phased deployment starting with a digital foundation (MES + digital twin) allows teams to build capability before layering advanced analytics.