Well matured Smart special tires! The secret Continental stars in the port area

Continental aims to assist terminal operators on their journey towards a fully digitized and sustainable port with a concept of "intelligent" ports. Tires play a major role.

Federico Jiménez has been part of the Continental family for 22 years. He is one of the minds behind the strategic orientation of Continental's port tire business and leads the business, as it is said. And colleague Teck Seng Chew strengthens the team as product manager and in implementing the strategy. Together, they share the vision of an efficient and sustainable port. "Continuous challenges lead to constant further development," says Jiménez. His time as project manager at Continental now benefits him. He traveled a lot and got to know many customers personally. These experiences accompany him to this day. They played a crucial role in his strategy. Central to his actions are always the individual terminal operators, their problems, and of course how to solve them. Ports and their equipment are very similar worldwide, he said. What makes the difference, however, are the people behind it. Therefore, it is important to understand the diversity of an international environment like those in ports in order to adapt the systems to the needs. Teck Seng Chew, on the other hand, is responsible for developing product strategies, making them transparent, and implementing them together with an international team from various specialist areas such as research and development, production, technical customer service, logistics, as well as marketing and sales. His goal is to create value beyond tires, which is also reflected in Continental's self-proclaimed mission for the port tire business "Smart Port. Better Flow.".

Continental's Smart Port mission with intelligent tires

Current megatrends such as digitalization and sustainability are changing the international ports and thus also have a major influence on Continental's product world. The way ports are managed has an impact on both economic development and the environment. Jiménez and Chew regularly discuss these megatrends among themselves, at port trade fairs and with customers. Continental meets this transformation process with their mission "Smart Port. Better Flow.". The ports are therefore in a process of transformation. Continental supports this with digital solutions, products and individual consulting. And factors such as a lack of labor, geopolitical uncertainties, busy trade routes and pressure on container capacities increase the need for smart ports. Then it's about meeting the sustainability goals set by the terminal operators themselves. Chew: "For terminal operators, it's a challenge to increase productivity and at the same time organize operations safely and sustainably. Tires are the secret stars here". Because with modern sensors and telematics, they become an essential part of an "intelligent" port. These tires could help reduce unplanned downtime and optimize total operating costs through efficient fleet management, according to the Continental specialist.

If you keep an eye on the tires, you save in many places

Important data such as tire pressure, temperature and vehicle motion data can be measured via sensors in the tire. The technical experts at Continental are thus examining movement and loading behavior and the corresponding effects on the tires. Chew notes, "Based on this data, we can make individual recommendations that go beyond mere tire usage. For example, by optimizing routes and improving maintenance cycles." This helps terminal operators optimize costs and discover blind spots in operational processes. Continental, it continues, offers various scalable, digital possibilities for the corresponding monitoring and fleet management. This way, emissions and fuel wastage can be counteracted. Last but not least, in an ideal case, tires can be used around 20 percent longer.