June/July 2003

ATS Euromaster has combined a variety of mobile data technologies to deliver information from its tyre fitters direct to its customers' desktops. Peter Rowlands reports

What are the tyres in your vehicle fleet costing you? Wouldn't it be useful if you could be alerted immediately to the results of every repair, replacement and inspection?

ATS Euromaster, which is believed to be the UK's leading tyre supplier and fitter, decided there was wide-ranging potential for a mobile data system ­ not just in order to manage its fitters' activities, but also to capture information about their work, and feed this into a complete customer service package.

The result is an impressive mobile data system that taps into a whole range of communication technologies to gather field data and feed it to the people who need to take action on it. According to ATS, in pilot trials with a national fleet operator, the improvement tyre management capability has already yielded savings of around 15 per cent.

 

The technology starts at the "pick face" of the business ­ where the fitters are checking tyres in the field. Their tread depth gauges and pressure gauges have been fitted with tiny radio-frequency transmitters, so that the data they collect can be transmitted automatically to PDAs issued to each fitter. Mitutoyo technology has been used here.

Dale Robinson, the development consultant on the project, says RF was found to be more robust and simpler to implement than Bluetooth, which in any case was still in its embryonic stages when the ATS system was being created. It has a range of about 25 metres ­ more than Bluetooth, and ample to reach from the vehicle under inspection to a nearby fitter's van, Robinson says.

The iPAQ Pocket PC-based PDAs use Microsoft embedded tools to process the data, and are equipped with infra-red transmitters to communicate with the Nokia mobile phones carried by the fitters. The PDA simply has to be held in close proximity to the phone. This allows the data to be transmitted back by GSM network to a control centre in Birmingham. The fitter can also print off a report of the work done from a dashboard-mounted HP Deskjet 350 printer in the van.

ATS-hosted servers download the information by file transport protocol (FTP) link, which means about 300 connections can be handled concurrently; so there should never be any delay in the transmission. This is benefit is not insignificant, since the company carries out 50,000 inspections a month, and each fitter can do up to 1,500; so the data traffic can be substantial.

Once received, the data is converted into a PDF-format text file, which is sent directly to the customer in question by ordinary SMTP email. Up to 10 staff at the recipient company can be nominated as recipients for these reports. ATS claims that the report can arrive in the recipient's mailbox within just 40 seconds of completion of the job.

Dale Robinson says the Adobe Acrobat PDF format was chosen because it produces relatively small download files, and allows the formatting to be preserved across computer platforms. The conversion is handled by Creative Technology software.

Interestingly, the ATS system is built round a Microsoft Access database, even though this product is sometimes regarded as lacking capacity to handle very large databases effectively. "We've found it can handle a database of ten million vehicles without any problem," Dale Robinson says. "It's just a question of knowing how to use it optimally."

Backing up the data flow system is a new PC-based customer software suite called Euromaster Reporter, which allows customers to analyse monthly tyre reports sent by ATS Euromaster on disk or by email. The software itself is supplied on CD, and allows customers to read in data and produce detailed histories of tyre expenditure and replacement cycles. This provides features such as detailed cost analysis and monitoring of performance against KPIs.

Initially 100 field units have been established, but the intention is to roll the system out progressively across the whole country. Meanwhile, it is still under development. One idea Dale Robinson would like to progress is the use of the digital imaging capabilities built into modern mobile phones. Trials have already been run on a prototype system using a Nokia phone, but he would like to see the feature fully integrated with the management system. "Trailer rental systems would love this facility, since it would allow them to recharge customers immediately for tyre damage."

ATS Euromaster is ultimately owned by the Michelin group. Euromaster operates in ten European countries, and has 10,000 employees and 1,200 tyre centres. In the UK it has 540 centres and 4,500 staff.