How a tire manufacturer leveraged a modular data center to transform its server room, improving resiliency and sustainability

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The industrial sector is in the midst of digital transformation. As a result, manufacturers are striving to boost efficiencies, productivity, and sustainability by converging IT and OT technologies, automating processes and leveraging connected systems. The latter is especially relevant as governments push companies to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change.

In the Eurozone, the drive for more sustainable operations is very strong. The European Union has aligned its sustainability objectives with those of the United Nations, which has set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. Among them are responsible consumption and production as well as affordable and clean energy.

Sustainability isn’t just an aspiration at a tire manufacturing plant in Dilsen-Stokkem, Belgium. Thanks to the recent modernization of the plant’s server room, the plant is well on its way to reaching sustainability goals while reducing energy costs through more efficient power and cooling.

Bandag, a subsidiary of Bridgestone, owns the plant. As it happens, Bandag’s tire manufacturing process was already contributing to sustainability goals even before the server room upgrade. The company retreads truck tires, so it uses fewer raw materials and emits less CO2 than if it were making tires from scratch.

Download the Bandag customer story to learn how they bolstered safety and operational resilience while also improving sustainability efforts.

Server room overhaul

As part of its digital transformation strategy, Bandag decided to invest in a new, state-of-the-art server room to deliver resilience and energy efficiency. For help, the manufacturer turned to its long-term IT solution provider Bechtle. With its presence across Europe, Bechtle has ample experience delivering high-value solutions to meet customer efficiency and sustainability requirements.

In the case of Bandag, there were some unique requirements. The new server room could not be built in the same location as the existing one. Instead, it would have to be moved outside the plant. Bandag wanted to ensure a smooth crossover to the new server room, avoiding disruption to the manufacturing process. The company turned to a prefabricated modular data solution to make that happen.

Why a prefabricated modular data center?

Prefabricated modular data centers (PMDC) are pre-engineered, pre-built, and pre-tested data centers, arriving at a customer location ready to be commissioned. As a result, they offer a significant advantage of rapid deployment, allowing organizations to accelerate their digital transformation efforts with minimal disruption to their operations.

Bechtle, most recently announced as the first European Elite partner of the Schneider Electric Partner Program, reviewed Bandag’s specific project requirements. From this review, it was clear a tailor-made solution was necessary. That’s when they turned to Schneider Electric, a proven leader in the PMDC market, with over 20 years of experience and nearly 2,000 modules deployed more than 58 countries.

The team decided to go with a self-contained modular data center, which is built to sit outside, solving space constraints that often arise when manufacturers launch modernization projects. This modular approach is highly sustainable in several ways: It is built at a Schneider factory, limiting the number of experts dispatched to the construction site. These Schneider Electric PMDC modules are built, tested, and validated for quality assurance in a factory environment, so the amount of single-use materials is reduced significantly compared to a traditional server room construction project. In addition, the module was transported as a single packaged good instead of shipping materials separately. Lastly, the PMDC comes with Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure^TM IT software, allowing Bandag to track, monitor, evaluate, and address critical issues in real time. The greater level of control provided by the software helps validate the power and cooling consumption metrics, which ultimately are key to reducing CO2 emissions.

Explore Bandag’s digital transformation story

The Bandag project illustrates the importance of setting a new technology standard to achieve sustainability goals and the relevance of strong partnerships. Bechtle built trust with Bandag over the years of working together, which led to the implementation of the solution, and the collaboration with Schneider Electric meant that Bandag would get a purpose-built solution to fit its specific needs. Learn more about Bandag’s answer to improving operational efficiencies and boosting safety and sustainability efforts. To further evaluate PMDC options for your own organization, reach out to your Schneider Electric representative or preferred partner.