Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) has introduced a significant growth and modernization of its Warren County, Tennessee, Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) Tire Plant situated in Morrison. The $550 million funding will add 380 new jobs and increase the plant’s present footprint by 850,000 sq. ft to help elevated capability and to speed up using superior applied sciences that help cleaner, safer and extra environment friendly industrial truck and bus fleets.
Bridgestone says the addition of those new jobs reinforces the corporate’s dedication to American manufacturing, bringing the whole variety of the corporate’s manufacturing workforce within the U.S. to just about 10,000. The funding additionally will permit for all tires made in Warren to be geared up with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that allow extra environment friendly asset administration and optimization of fleets’ investments in tires, together with retreading. The plant will incorporate expertise for digital readiness in tires, together with the combination of tire-mounted sensors that help superior, data-driven insights for extra environment friendly fleet administration. Bridgestone additionally will put money into AI management expertise that will increase productiveness and the appliance of data and knowledge in a digital manufacturing atmosphere. These applied sciences mixed will assist speed up the corporate’s progress towards its sustainability targets, together with carbon neutrality by 2050.
The growth of the 32-year-old facility is anticipated to start earlier than the top of this 12 months, with building anticipated to be considerably accomplished by Might 2024. Employment will develop from 1,100 to greater than 1,400 teammates and the plant’s footprint will develop from 1.97 million to greater than 2.8 million sq. ft.
“With new funding and new jobs, we’re transferring our Warren County Plant ahead, pushed by rising demand for our merchandise, our dedication to investing in U.S. manufacturing, and our Warren workforce’s dedication to innovation, effectivity and high quality for our prospects. We admire the state of Tennessee and Warren County’s dedicated partnership, which we have fun immediately as an important ingredient of this plant’s continued success,” mentioned Paolo Ferrari, president and CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “Our Warren County Plant workforce performs an important function in supporting our firm’s dedication to offering protected and sustainable mobility options.”
The Warren County Tire Plant is likely one of the firm’s most efficient operations globally. The plant has an extended historical past of excellent efficiency and finest practices in manufacturing. The power shipped its one millionth tire in 1993, solely three years after it opened. That very same 12 months, the plant produced almost 2,500 tires per day. The plant produced its 70 millionth tire in October 2021.