Case studies
Grounded Innovation at Bridgestone Aircraft Tire
Taking On-Premises Data Automation to New Heights
The need for data automation
Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Europe, a key division of the Bridgestone Corporation, a global leader in tyres and sustainable mobility solutions, specialises in providing high-quality aircraft tyres and retreading services. Operating from Belgium, it serves over 160 airlines and wheel shops across the EMEA region, leveraging its state-of-the-art facilities and Japanese-manufactured tyres to ensure safety and reliability in commercial aviation.
Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Europe generates and utilises vast amounts of data across various technological platforms, facing the challenge of ensuring seamless data flow throughout the organisation.
Vincent Sourin, Head of IT Operations and Technologies, facing an ever-increasing business pressure to deliver value to the business through data, quickly realised that pushing data automation to the max was becoming a necessity.
“My interest in streaming technologies like Apache Kafka is that once properly configured, they just run, they are intrinsically low-maintenance. Setting them up without specialised resources with the right governance and on-premises was just not realistic for us though”, Vincent said.
Enters Digazu, low-code stream-based data automation solution
The need for Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Europe was clear: a simplified, effective way to manage data streams that would integrate smoothly with their existing infrastructure, enhancing operational efficiency without adding undue complexity. Bridgestone prioritised finding a solution that would not only meet these technical requirements but also be deployable on-premises, in line with their data governance and security policies.
Vincent commented: “What I immediately liked about Digazu was that it packaged for us all the technologies I wanted for automating data flows without the technical hassle. We could be productive with it almost immediately with our current setup.”
“We wanted an on-premises installation of the technology but it is nice that Digazu could equally be run on any cloud if we decide to move in that direction”.
Digazu packages for us all the technologies I wanted for automating data flows without the technical hassle.
Vincent Sourin
Once they run, they run, this is really what you want to see when you automate.
Vincent Sourin
Delivering business value quickly: rolling out a web application for tyre traceability
Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Europe is committed to delivering superior customer service and putting in the hands of their customers a user-friendly web application providing full end-to-end traceability for the tyres was part of that commitment. Making this project a reality required significant new data automation between the legacy ERP and that web application.
Vincent and his team quickly defined the required data flows between the ERP and the web application using Digazu’s simple user interface and once tested deployed the data flows in production in a few clicks.
“I was glad to see my intuition confirmed once we put these data flows in production”, Vincent said.
A bright future, above the clouds
After this initial success, Vincent and his team are now applying the same recipe to other data automation requirements across a variety of topics from HR to supply chain management and automated reporting.
“One of my medium term goals is to move my current ERP to a micro-services architecture and I feel confident that Digazu will help us down that road”, Vincent concludes.