Silent TLMS - Tyre Lifecycle Management System

Published April 2018
Sharon Boyes-Schiller

Tyre Lifecycle Management starts with a unique identity for the tyre that lets people track and trace its physical location at a given moment in time throughout the supply chain, from manufacture to distribution, warehousing, usage, repair, retread and recycle at the end of its usable life – not for its performance (for that you need to pair it with a sensor) but as an asset.

The way this is done historically is to imprint a Tyre ID on the tyre itself, either during the manufacture process or afterwards by the end user, with location data written down in a log, which may or not be a single log as it passes from hand to hand. RFID Tags with readers is an electronic system designed to replace the manual process of recording time, location, reporter.

Digital traceability provides a low cost route to track a tyre throughout its life. This improves supplier efficiencies, reduces errors in recording data, reduces the risk of loss, keeps inventories balanced, integrates with a whole ecosystem of management systems and serves as a Certificate of Provenance for the eventual recycling of the tyre at the end of its life. 

What is driving demand?

  •  The connectability of tags, sensors and controls (Internet of Things)
  • Falling cost of tags and sensors, rise of the smartphone, ubiquity of big data
  • Manage tyres properly to increase service life by up to 30%
  • Reduce legal liabilities (20% of truck accidents caused by bad tyres)
  • Reduce premature damage (€90 per tyre according to one leading manufacturer’s research)
  • Squeeze value out of the tyre through its life to recycling (the Circular Economy)
  • The transformation of tyre makers, OEMs and distributors into service companies
  • Public policy regarding health, safety, fuel economy, emissions, climate change
  • Autonomous driving, especially for truck fleets.
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Who is interested in Tyre Lifecycle Management?

  • Tyre Makers
  • OEM Truck & Car Makers
  • Fleet Owners
  • Re-moulders & Re-treaders
  • Recyclers
  • Fleet Management System providers
  • Government Agencies

What do they gain?

  • More competitive offering
  • Lower operational costs
  • Greater productivity
  • Reduced loss/risk/liability
  • Higher value at end of life
  • Higher margins
  • Improved public health
  • More control over climate change