Pirelli SpA was awarded the 2001 Frost & Sullivan Market Engineering Technology Innovation Award for its Modular Integrated Robitized System (MIRS).
MIRS is software-based tire manufacturing technology that controls the manufacturing process from order inception to delivery. It reduces the average tire production cycle from 14 steps to three automated steps, and can economically accommodate small runs.
Last year, Pirelli chose Rome, Ga., as the site for its first MIRS tire-building plant in North America.
"Bringing MIRS to North America will encourage other tiremakers to follow Pirelli's manufacturing leadership," says Alfred Ortiz, industry research analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "As the sole owner of MIRS technology, Pirelli has demonstrated they are on the forefront of tire manufacturing worldwide."
