How RoboTire Is Revolutionizing Vehicle Maintenance

RoboTire is a Michigan-based robotics company, using automation and AI technology to bring about a new age in vehicle maintenance. Their tire-changing system helps maintenance shops significantly decrease the time required to change tires, enabling workers to redirect their attention to other important tasks while the robots do labor-intensive work.

Meet RoboTire

RoboTire launched in 2019 with an important goal in mind: to make automotive service safer for technicians, faster for customers, and better for businesses. Their first-generation automated tire-changing system was successfully deployed in 2020 and designed for automotive shops of all shapes and sizes.

Their third launch in 2022 with Creamery Tire led to a significant reduction in required tire-change time, from an hour to less than 25 minutes. This process improvement enabled Creamery, among other RoboTire customers, to serve more cars in a safer and more efficient environment for auto shop workers.

The challenge

In 2021, RoboTire launched its first tire-changing system in collaboration with Discount Tire- a key partner, committed business contributor, and investor. Since the first prototype system was launched, Robotire has installed two systems in shops in Arizona and Texas and is rolling out an additional five systems in Q1 2024.

With their projected growth, they needed a dependable data platform that could support further expansion and solve issues as quickly as possible. Auto shops have to move quickly, and can’t afford to be tied up when an error occurs. This is where Formant’s remote operations features come into play.

Needed consistent observation

RoboTire systems are distributed across the country, so they need consistent, reliable observation of every robot. To stay on top of system performance, they needed a way to monitor system health and detect any potential errors or irregularities. Remote observation was also needed for maintenance purposes, to ensure any wear and tear on a robot could be quickly identified and addressed.

Give customers a view into performance

However, the need for data extends beyond observation and troubleshooting- their customers wanted visibility into the new systems throughout deployment. The team needed a way to customize dashboards sharing only business-relevant data that would help them compare performance metrics against traditional labor methods and allow anyone to log in and access all necessary data.

Data prioritization and analytics

Plenty of data is streamed off their devices every day, and the RoboTire team needed a way to prioritize and analyze the right data. To continue to prove the value of their systems to current and prospective customers, collecting and reporting the right data to prove ROI, and performance as well as keeping a close eye on maintenance, was crucial.

The solution

Observation Views and custom dashboards help RoboTire and its customers transform the tire-changing process, together.

Using Formant’s remote operations capabilities to turn data into actionable insights ensures RoboTire is consistently improving its systems to deliver consistent results and reduce overall tire-changing time, helping auto shops service more cars efficiently and safer than ever.

Reliable Remote Observability

With tire-changing systems deployed in different parts of the country, the RoboTire team needed a reliable solution for remote monitoring. To keep a close on eye on each system, the team uses Formant’s “Observe” view to monitor the fleet, identify errors, and view real-time and historical performance data. This data is also applied to activities including troubleshooting and further internal development of their systems.

System observability is crucial to us. With Formant, we are able to significantly decrease the amount of time from when an issue is identified to when a resolution is implemented.

Fin Elliot — Head of Product at RoboTire
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Give Customers A View

Providing their customers with a view into their robot operations was a top priority for the team. By utilizing our custom views, RoboTire created data dashboards that provide customers with metrics relevant to their business to build a better understanding of robot performance. Our custom views feature allows anyone with log in access to view their designated dashboard with Observe Views.
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See the Difference of Automation

For RoboTire, a crucial aspect of the customer experience is the ability to compare the performance of their tire-changing systems to traditional human labor. With the use of our custom views, RoboTire’s customers can view visual representations of weekly metrics such as the number of successful jobs, aborted jobs, frequency of cycle-stops, and average runtime. This allows customers to comprehend how robots enhance the tire-changing process, and how it’s proven through Formant.

The outcome

Bringing observability and data together to forever change how tire-changing is achieved.

RoboTire utilizes Formant’s remote support features to streamline and automate a typically lengthy process in an industry that experiences plenty of turnover due to the laborious nature of tire-changing. The observation view provides them with a window into each of their locations, giving them the opportunity to tackle issues as soon as they arise, as well as stay on top of maintenance. With Formant’s custom views, proving the ROI of their robots to customers and stakeholders is seamless thanks to the ability to review performance and compare week-over-week results.

See it in action

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