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How you can join Michelin's Community of Innovation

At InnoVenture 2006, Ralph Hulseman made a presentation of Michelin's Community of Innovation hilighting opportunities for which Michelin is seeking partners. Below is a bullet point outline of presentation. You can also see an online video archive in two parts: Part I and Part II. As a result of Michelin's InnoVenture presentation, Dolph Bell reported in the Greenville News that "Michelin open to sharing ideas to speed innovation." Let us know if you are interested in receiving additional information about how you might collaborate with Michelin.

Michelin Community of Innovation
Outline of Presentation at InnoVenture 2006
March 28, 2006

Our Vision of Future Excellence

• Move from closed technology innovation practices to more open technology innovation practices
• • Develop evangelism of Michelin’s needs
  • Encourage others to develop products and services that are complementary to Michelin’s innovations
  • Make the best use of internal and external ideas
  • Future major Michelin inventions will come from external partners

• Communities of Innovation
• • Encourage growth of regional partners
  • Develop neutral forums where partners can innovate together
  • Develop diversity of thought, culture, creativity and action
  • Create an environment where partners love to work with us and pro-actively come to us

• Securing Our Future
• • Attracting, retaining and developing the full potential of a diverse, culturally aware, workforce
  • Relishing the diversity of the marketplace
  • Growing a diverse network of business partners
  • Building smart, innovative, talented leaders

• Michelin is hiring and has immediate needs for:
• • Lead project engineers
  • Product and manufacturing process research engineers
  • Michelin Red Guide Inspector for NYC
  • Materials Research Engineers
  • Sales and Marketing professionals
  • Field service support technicians

More information can be found at careers.michelin-us.com

Research and Innovation

• Truck tire recapping
• • Room temperature adhesive for bonding tread to carcass
  • In-process treatments to improve longevity of the carcass
  • Non destructive examination methods
  • Complementary products and services

• Michelin TWEEL
• • Advanced materials for shear band and spokes
  • High speed, low cost manufacturing processes
  • Advanced vehicle designs
  • Vehicle dynamics models
  • Complementary products and services

Suppliers of Products and Services

• Michelin seeks
• • Increased diversity of the supplier base
  • Enhanced productivity, cost competitiveness and innovation capacity
  • We have and are enhancing flexible procedures to help small businesses succeed

Complementary Products and Services

• Advanced energy efficient vehicles:
• • Develop energy efficient vehicles using Michelin tire, suspension, and design capabilities combined with regional automotive expertise.

• Enhance customer enjoyment of our travel assistance services
• • Complementary products for the car
  • Enhanced functionality in a PDA or computer
  • Linkage to complementary web services

• Enable Michelin’s facilities to achieve zero use of landfill
• • A service to manage all of Michelin’s waste streams and to identify value added uses for them.
  • Develop recycling & landfill avoidance for before-cure materials
  • Products that consume or recycle scrap rubber, textile or metallic tissue
  • Tire and tire scrap derived fuel to power your industrial facility

• Vehicles that can benefit from Michelin Active Wheel technology of combined active suspension and electric motor in the wheel or of our OCP suspension technology
• • Energy efficient urban vehicle
  • Hybrid luxury vehicle
  • Recreational sport vehicle
  • Urban bus
  • Urban delivery vehicle

• Catia 5 CAD System module support business
• • Michelin is converting several thousand engineers world-wide to use the Catia 5 CAD System.
  • Custom modules are being developed at universities and companies to provide enhancements.
  • Michelin is interested in finding a partner to provide commercial support of these modules:
  • Upgrades and programming enhancements
  • External licensing (while respecting proprietary requirements)
  • French and English language support
  • Training support world-wide

• Brokerage business for regional automotive R&D services
• • A service to federate regional automotive R&D services to meet OEM and racing team needs
  • Michelin Laurens Proving Grounds and Kinematic and Compliance Testing
  • Clemson and CU-ICAR research capabilities
  • UNCC Automotive Engineering research capabilities
  • Numerous automotive suppliers, universities, national laboratories and service providers in the region
  • Perhaps an offer with three levels of service:
  • Testing facility rental.
  • Provide test data using established methods and technical support.
  • R&D problem solving projects.

• Dollar per mile mobility provider
• • Need: Lower the operating cost of highway patrol, police, ambulance, taxi, courier and other passenger fleets
  • Idea: Use RFID technology, advanced software tools, training and fleet service (tires, fuel, maintenance) to lower operating costs.

Worldwide Consumer Products Licensing Business

• Michelin Lifestyle Limited: Michelin Group’s worldwide brand extension business
• • Mission: To develop a worldwide business whose products extend and enhance the Michelin brand appeal to consumers

• Michelin Brand Extension Progress
• • Auto Accessories
  • Work wear
  • Footwear

• Brand Extension – The Next Phase
• • Partners are sought who can add value to Michelin’s consumer licensing program, the emphasis now being on finding partners with an expertise relevant for sports and leisure products
  • These could be design agencies, individual inventors, manufacturers, technology laboratories…..the key is being able to propose unique and value added products, components or technologies