Alloy wheel maker accelerates its production agility from the strength and security of its global network

RONAL GROUP is a critical component of the automotive supply chain. The Switzerland-based business manufactures 18 million alloy wheels a year and works with almost all of the biggest brands in the world.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” says Dirk Wacker, Head of IT Infrastructure, RONAL GROUP. “Cars can’t run without us, and we can’t run without cars.”

Optimising a Global Supply Chain

In a tightly linked global supply chain, RONAL GROUP must juggle the responsiveness of just-in-time delivery with the security of its industrial IP. The company supplies competing brands and must eliminate operational overlap across 14 production sites.

“As you can imagine, we’re producing a tremendous amount of data. There are now many more digital aspects to manufacturing,” Wacker explains. “From the perspective of operational efficiency, we want to access this data and act on it. Our objective is less production downtime and improved quality.”

With RONAL GROUP needing to collect and send real-time production data around the world, Wacker’s priority was to ensure a reliable network infrastructure. He wanted consistency, simplified management and visibility.

“I had to make sure we secured our network perimeters,” he says, “and that downtime in our office network could not impact our production network. Those two environments needed to be clearly segmented. Above all, we needed clearly defined network access control.”

Strengthening Network Access Control

RONAL GROUP’s network access control is built around Aruba ClearPass. This enables the company to identify who and what is connecting to its network, with consistent policy across the wired and wireless environments.

“We looked at three or four different solutions and made some reference calls to consult implementers. Most network access control solutions lead back to the vendor’s own hardware,” says Wacker. “With us already working with Aruba infrastructure, everything pointed to ClearPass, with the comfort of it being an open and multivendor platform.”

RONAL GROUP’s use of Dynamic Segmentation is a key step towards a Zero Trust approach to NAC. Through this architecture, role-based policy decisions and access rights are orchestrated based on the device type, applications used or location, and are automated throughout the network and across all locations in a unified manner.

“This means our ports are secure and that access to company resources is governed by policy,” says Wacker. “There is a consistent approval workflow behind network access now.”

The adoption of ClearPass is the latest move in a strengthening relationship between RONAL GROUP and Aruba. The wheel manufacturer switched to Aruba 8000 Series CX switches for its core network in 2019, along with Aruba 2930M access switches for the branch. These were closely followed by Aruba UXI sensors to continuously monitor and optimise network and application performance.

Streamlining the Management of a Global Network

The result is more effective and efficient network management. The RONAL GROUP has a single platform from which to manage network access and performance. Wacker’s team has moved from a reactive, break-fix dynamic to a service-oriented outlook.
“We’re adding more and more connected devices in our environment. Aruba provides the visibility into network performance. If there is a dip in network quality we can see it and address it proactively,” explains Wacker. “We can keep the network quality and reduce service interruption.”

The network supports an expanding head office, up from 80 to 300 employees over the last 10 years. It has an increasingly cloud-first workstyle, supporting remote working and collaboration between teams.

“Currently we’re focused on Microsoft Azure but we want our cloud strategy to be open,” says Wacker. “We value the flexibility and scale of cloud. We want to integrate other cloud services with the network, and those integrations need to be secure.”

Applying Consistent Security Policy

In a connected supply chain, with symbiotic commercial relations with different car brands and external consultants often working onsite, the Aruba architecture strengthens RONAL GROUP’s security posture. ClearPass means Wacker knows exactly who and what connects to the network.

This transparency and control is significant in achieving industry certification. Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange (TISAX) is an assessment and exchange mechanism for information security in the automotive industry. Certification confirms that a company’s information security management system complies with defined security levels. TISAX is essential when working with the automotive heavyweights.

“Protecting our network access is a big part of the TISAX assessment,” Wacker explains. “We have a much clearer view of activity on our network and external threats. Greater visibility leads to less risk of infection.”

Enabling Experiments Around Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is the future. The reality today is that factories rely on production hardware that is likely to be of different ages. RONAL GROUP’s ability to transform its production will be informed by meaningful metrics. ‘Smart’ won’t happen overnight. The more data the wheel manufacturer can gather, the better its decision-making.

“Factory hardware may differ but we have now established a consistent process for connecting devices to the network,” says Wacker.

The business is already experimenting with new production ideas. In 2021, RONAL GROUP produced aluminium wheels for Audi’s new e-tron GT model, manufactured with 75% less carbon emissions than standard. The wheels were made in Germany, reducing travel distances using 100% green energy. This is part of RONAL GROUP’s PLANBLUE sustainability strategy.

Increasingly, the company expects automotive brands and consumers to demand this level of traceability. The Aruba network will simplify the integration and management of new data points, at scale.

“We can work on data in the fastest possible way and in the most efficient manner,” says Wacker. “Our network architecture provides us with the necessary elasticity and scale to cope with peaks.”

Towards an As-a-Service Network Model

The network, Wacker emphasises, must serve the business: “Our focus is on operational excellence, the best possible quality and cost. We are conscious that this is a competitive market and there are many entrants competing on price.”

RONAL GROUP currently uses HPE GreenLake to deliver a cloud-like experience across its edges, colocations, and data centres. Wacker says this reflects RONAL GROUP’s IT strategy to support business flexibility: “We don’t exactly know how much our data will grow over the next five years but we do know it will grow. HPE GreenLake allows us to grow step-by-step without committing to too much over-capacity.

“This consumption, as-a-service model is interesting to us on storage. This could be a possible evolution for our network in the future based on HPE GreenLake for Aruba. We’re not cloud-averse and are now using Aruba Central at our plant in Portugal, and we’re looking at how to expand its use.”