Anyline team at Tire Cologne 2022

The Auto Tech Show: Takeaways from Tire Cologne 2022

From June 4th-6th we were at the Tire Cologne 2022 trade fair in Germany. After two years of pandemic, this event was highly anticipated! Over 12,000 visitors from 100 different countries participated, and we took the chance to discuss the challenges and innovations of the automotive aftermarket with some of the leading companies and experts in the tire industry.

Our key takeaway? More than new products, what we witnessed at the Tire Cologne 2022 is that many leading manufacturers and providers are focusing more than ever on their solutions and services to improve processes around tires, and that’s what we will talk about in this blog.

This blog is based on an episode of the Auto Tech Show, our podcast dedicated to the automotive aftermarket and the tire industry.

Supply chain visibility is more important than ever for tire businesses

The supply chain has been hit hard in the last couple of years, and not only in the tire industry. Delays are longer and many products or raw materials aren’t available.

Manuel Felix, Managing Director of EuroMais told us:

“Today, you need to be very careful with your stocks and in the supply chain, instead of having a stock for two months, you need to have stuck for four months because you never know what will happen in the near future.”

In the tire industry, we can identify two main problems that result from these supply chain issues:

  • Customers aren’t always ready to change their habits or expectations – they will still need to change their tires when a problem occurs, or swap to winter tires in the cold season. Purchasing new tires cannot be postponed in most cases, or it will result in security hazards.
  • Tires take a lot of storage space, and that need to be stored in good conditions to retain their inner quality and value. This means overstocking isn’t always an option for tire retailers.

In these conditions, a lot of companies are looking for a solution to find a way to maximize the supply that they have. One way to do that is to improve inventory traceability. That means capturing the right data and using it to manage inventories, and orders, more efficiently. Tracking DOT codes and tire sizes in the inventory is a first step they can take.

Digitizing tire data remains a major challenge

Tracking tires is a perennial problem, even in the age of digitization.

Ben Santos, Business Development Manager at Nitto Inc told us:

“The digital transition has accelerated this past year. The tire is the last component of the car that’s purely analog. And ironically, there’s lots of information in there. [Digitizing tires] is difficult, and [tires are running in] a very harsh environment. You can put sensors in it, but they have to be very robust to withstand that environment.”

Tires are indeed the last piece to be digitized. While cars are becoming autonomous, digital in every aspect, the industry has been struggling with the digitization of the interface between the car and the road. It might be because tire data is hard to capture:

  • Everything is molded on tire sidewalls, with black on black, hard-to-read characters.
  • Characters can be upside down.
  • The conditions to read tire sidewalls aren’t always optimal – low lighting, bad weather, etc.
  • The data can be facing inward, making it difficult to access.

Having a proper solution and a single tool that is easy to use becomes critical for retailers and service providers to capture and digitize tire data. If RFID has been explored as a solution, it’s far from standard and we cannot rely on it to gather DOT codes or tire size codes for the moment – and nothing indicates that RFID chips will become standard in the upcoming years.

Mobile data capture and OCR technology comes in as a powerful solution and ready to use by the industry. We have been working with Discount Tire over the past couple of years to develop a mobile tire scanner that can be used on smartphones and ruggedized devices to efficiently gather tire data.

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The tire industry needs better online selling processes

The selling process of tires is still very much motivated by the demand: customers will engage with retailers only when they are in need of new tires. However, tire retailers could play a bigger role in the process with the proper data available.

Michael Tempel, IT Expert at Gettygo told us:

“I think [the tire industry] needs a lot more experience to think of the automation of the selling process of tires to customers. [Anyline’s] solution is a piece of a complete solution [to do that].”

With proper data, tire retailers are able to be a step ahead in the selling process:

  • Having their customers’ tire DOT codes give them the age of their tires, thus a better understanding of when they will need to change them.
  • Tire size codes allow them to send targeted offers, with tire models that are right for their vehicle.

The issue for tire retailers is to get that data. With a mobile data capture solution, it’s possible to record this information when tires are sold, or during tire inspections. That way, retailers are able to better engage with their customers and send well-timed, targeted offers.

Data is key for the future of the industry

From what we saw on exhibitionners’ booths and what we discussed with visitors, the digitization of tire data is key for the future of the industry. Without proper data, manufacturers and retailers are condemned to navigate in dark waters.

If you want to learn more about our mobile tire scanning solution, you can download our demo app and try it yourself, or you can contact our team!

You can also watch the full episode of our podcast, the Auto Tech Show.