Granuband Tire Machine

Situation

Granuband processes around 60 million tires per year for resale and recycling. To prepare for a future shortage of highly specialised inspectors, they invested in an advanced inspection machine. The machine combined German-built hardware with third-party software. It was originally designed for tire storage classification, not for Granuband’s more complex use case, which involves mostly worn-out tires.

Challenge

• Machine classifications didn’t match operational reality
• Frequent and unexplained machine failures
• No insight into why tires were rejected
• Strong dependency on a small group of highly trained specialists
• Misaligned expectations between Granuband, hardware, and software suppliers

What we did

We acted as Granuband’s technical partner and bridge between management, operations, and suppliers.

• Aligned strategy with management and operational reality on the floor
• Analysed how the machine, software, and classification filters actually worked
• Aligned suppliers and Granuband around realistic technical capabilities
• Improved and extended filter mechanisms using real inspection data
• Built an override interface for inspectors when visual nuance mattered
• Designed a guided inspection flow for faster onboarding of new staff
• Implemented a central data layer and management dashboard

Result

• Resolved frequent read issues, resulting in a high rate of successful machine reads
• Faster and easier onboarding of new personnel
• Reduced dependency on retiring specialists
• Clear insight into machine performance and return on investment
• A system that supports daily operations and aligns with Granuband’s growth strategy