Pirelli Mexico, the third most important plant for the tire company

Due to their productivity and the type of tires they manufacture for the Premium vehicles market, the Pirelli plant located in Guanajuato Inland Port, stands out as the third most important plant of the Italian group.

Currently the tire company generates about 70 million tires on its 19 factories, from which 6 million are produced in Mexico, it is only exceeded by the sister plants in Romania and Brazil.

Marco Crola, CEO of Pirelli NAFTA, said that the Guanajuato plant highlights by manufacturing high level tires and for making their products roll in more than 40 countries in four continents.

“This plant stands out for their productivity, it supplies big assemblers worldwide and that allows having an important growth in the industry, making the Silao plant the third most productive of the company,” he said.

After seven years of arriving in Mexican land, the Italian tire company reached a record figure of production of 20 million tires, achieving being a referent for technology and innovation implementation in manufacturing processes in the European company.

“It is an important moment for the group because this translates in continuing strengthening the presence of Pirelli worldwide and, reaching this production volume is a constant training test and the commitment associates have to continue offering it,” he said.

PIRELLI arrives in Silao

For ten years, Grupo Pirelli had the vision of arriving to Mexico before the existing perception of the country due to the increase in foreign investment from the automotive sector.

Although in that time, the world was on an economic crisis, the tire copany was analyzing their long term projects in the Mexican country.

One of the aspects that caught the attention of Guanajuato was the connection the State has with Maritime Ports, roads and railroads.

Reason why they choose to settle in Guanajuato Inland Port, where they invested more than 400 million dollars for the construction of their plant in which they manufacture High Performance and Ultra High Performance tires.

“We were the first ones in believing that this place is ideal to grow, has qualified workforce and its strategic position in the country,” he noted.

In November 11th, 2011 Pirelli Mexico manufactured their first tire with the support of 28 collaborators.  They slowly were increasing their production and workforce, since for 2013 they were planning in reaching 1,000 members.

With the accelerated growth of the tire company, in middle 2016 they placed the foundation stone for their second plant in Silao, which had an investment of 200 million dollars.

Currently, the second factory is at 90 % of its capability, it is expected that for the second trimester of 2019, it is completed.

SUPPORTING ASSOCIATES

As of today, Pirelly has more than 2,500 associates, 95 % of them are from Guanajuato.

And as they are interested that their workers could increase their knowledge on this activity, in 2015 they chose contributing in the development of their skills creating the Instituto Piero Pirelli in the facilities of the State of Guanajuato Training Institute (IECA, by its Spanish initials) of Silao.

This facility has an area of 800 m² and had an investment of approximately 47 million pesos, where they offer training in metrology, automation, tire, refrigeration, electricity, virtual and hydraulic simulators.

On it, those trained acquired skills in technical formation, increasing their skills to access more opportunities of Guanajuato industrial sector.

In addition, they have the support of the program Capacitacion sin Fronteras (Training without Borders,) with which they have sent ore than 30 associates abroad, mainly to their plants located in Italy, Romania, Germany and Brazil.

“At the beginning we brought people from other countries and we have send a great amount of collaborators from Mexico to other plants for them to learn the process.  The growth of the human factor is the hardest part of a business, situation why we are interested in their training,” he explained.

VISION OF GROWTH

By the end of 2018 with more than 20 million Premium tires manufactured in Silao, the tire company keeps its vision of continue growing in production.

With their two plants in Silao, Pirelli Mexico produces more than 500,000 tires per month and they are willing to increase in more than one million tires per year.

Tom Gravalos, CEO of Pirelli Mexico, said that they have projected growing the distribution network of their Premium tires in the region by adding more stores on strategic places.

He underlined that for some time the factory has been directed towards Industry 4.0, strengthening technological innovation with machinery and processes, in addition of being committed with environmental care, implementing international standards that promote electricity and water savings, as well as the use of wastes from the plant.

Information

First tire: November 11th, 2011

From 28 to 2,500 collaborators in two years

95 % of their employees are from Guanajuato

Investment: more than 600 million dollars

Market: Mexico, United States and Canada

Export: more than 40 countries

Production: more than 500,000 tires per month

Almost 6 million tires per year

Customers: Ford, Fiat, Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW