More Than Numbers
The best way to manage your tire inventory depends on your needs, the size of of your fleet and your budget.
Evan Lockridge
Contributing Editor
Managing your fleet's tire inventory involves much more than just knowing how many tires you have available to mount. It also involves things such as how much you're spending on tires, how many tires you have in service, and how well you care for those tires while they're sitting around in your inventory.
No matter how well you treat your tires on the road, improper storage beforehand can result in sudden tire failure when they go into service.
Moisture, in particular, is a major enemy of unmounted tires. Keeping them in a cool and dry place is vital, because even a slight amount of moisture inside the tire can lead to damage. When that tire is pressurized, the liquid can pass into the casing plies, making them and the belt package break down prematurely.
Storing tires correctly also means keeping them out of direct sunlight and away from electric motors and generators, which produce ozone. Like moisture, ozone is a tire's enemy, causing cracking and weakening of the rubber.
Tires are more easily stored and accessed in horizontal racks, but piling them up is fine, provided they are not stacked higher than 5 feet. Make sure storage surfaces are free of grease, fuel or other petroleum products or solvents, which can deteriorate the rubber.
OK, you say, storage is the easy part – it's inventory that gives me fits. But inventory doesn't have to be difficult. The problem is, many fleets get bogged down in too many details.
"We hear all the time, tires are moving all over the place and there's no way to get your arms around all of them," says Bob Fogal Jr., president of International Marketing Inc., which offers the Audit Professional Tire Management System.
Maintenance consultant Darry Stuart has found that simple tire inventory tag and spreadsheet system works for many fleets.
|
Computer software offers a way to do that. You can use truck tire maintenance software, which tracks tire use from cradle to grave, including all of the maintenance, air pressure checks and tread-depth measurements performed on a tire. Or, you can use fleet maintenance software, or software that tracks tire inventory as part of a larger truck parts inventory program.
There are many tire management systems available, including ones from nearly every truck tire maker as well as independent systems.
As an example, we'll look at the Audit system. It begins by allowing the user to assign each tire a unique ID, whether it's a bar code, label or branding.
"When a tire is purchased, it's entered into the system, and it records the value and location of the tire, whether it's in the tire bank or on a vehicle, when it comes off, and along the way tracks tread-depth measurements," Fogal says. "As the tire comes off and goes back to the retreader, [the system] knows the retreader has it, knows it's getting the case back from the retreader rather than somebody else's. Then it goes back into the inventory or back on the vehicle and repeats the life cycle system until it's ready for the scrap yard. The computer system tracks it all along the way."
The Audit system produces reports to let users know what they have in their tire inventory as well as on vehicles. For instance, Fogal says, "Let's say you have a pull point of 5/32 on your tires and you see that 20 percent of your fleet is at 8/32. That is a real key piece of information for the fleet manager to be able to anticipate they are going to be due for some purchases soon." These reports also can help identify trends in tire purchasing and premature tire wear.
The Audit system uses a handheld device to check tire pressure and take tread-depth measurements that are automatically entered into the system. It also can be linked with TMT Software's Transman Fleet Maintenance System, which is part of an overall vehicle maintenance software package that can be used for ordering tires as they are needed.
If you're really looking for a system that can track inventory, Fogal says, it's important to be aware that some programs focus more on tire inspections and have limited inventory capabilities.
At the other end of the scale, you can use an inventory parts software system. However, one drawback to this approach is that such programs typically don't allow you to enter in a lot of the information about tires through their life cycle.
Sophisticated software may not be the right choice for everyone. But that doesn't mean you can't track your tire inventory. Many trucking companies are well served by a simpler and less expensive approach to tire inventory. That's been the experience of Darry Stuart, president of DWS Fleet Management Services, a carrier consulting firm.
Stuart's recipe for managing inventory begins with what he calls a tag program that identifies each tire individually to help manage the physical tire count.
He also recommends setting up a tire charge system. This involves knowing your total amount of tires in terms of 32nds. For example, if you have 100 tires in inventory and each has 20/32 of tread, then you have a total of 2000/32 of tread. Each time you take a tire out of inventory and put it on a vehicle, that amount is deducted from the total 32nds in inventory. If you take a tire off a vehicle that still has some life in it and it's put back on the rack, you add those remaining 32nds back into the inventory total.
To determine costs, Stuart determines an average cost per 32nd for each type of tire (steer, drive, drive recap, trailer, trailer recap). This not only allows a carrier to get a snapshot of their total tire inventory, he says, but also allows for a true accounting of tire cost per mile. The benefit of this system, is that it combines tire inventory management with tire maintenance management. It tells you what's in stock and records the most important information, such as tire pressure and tread checks, when the tire is retreaded and other work is done on the tire along with its cost. This, he says, can be done by using a simple computer spreadsheet.
This kind of system, Stuart says, requires less effort than more sophisticated programs, and doesn't result in fleets having too much information that they don't do anything with. If you're actually going to use that information, great. If you're not going to use it, Stuart says, why waste a lot of time and money to track it?
"I don't think people should be taking all the time and energy tracking something I am not sure will reduce the operating costs any different than a good PM, checking air pressure and running straight down the road," he says. Stuart predicts that in the future, the advent of affordable RF chips in all tires will make tire inventory and management easier.
The best way to manage your tire inventory depends on factors such as your needs, the size of your fleet and your budget. No matter what size the fleet, Stuart says, "the ultimate thing that needs to be asked is, what are you trying to get out of your tire inventory system and what are you trying to manage?"
Regardless of which route you take, tire inventory is important, Fogal says. "Because tires are the second-highest operating cost for fleets, it makes it important. Tire costs have increased along with fuel, and there is a direct connection between fuel mileage and tire care. Because tires can be viewed as an asset, they can be controlled."
