The Coats Company is a large, full-line wheel service equipment manufacturer with over 70 years of industry expertise. The company needed high-uptime automation to keep up with its manufacturing lines, and it chose to deploy DriveMod Tuggers from Cyngn Inc.
“I wish we would have found it sooner,” said Steven Finley, vice president of operations at Coats. “The DriveMod Tugger is a normal part of our operation. The people here enjoy working with it — it provides a consistency to material delivery that they’ve grown accustomed to.”
“It’s safe, it’s secure, it’s efficient, and it really is an easy implementation,” he added. “Everyone works with it like it’s been an employee here forever.”
Coats produces wheel balancers, aligners, lifts, and tire changers for the automotive service industry. By automating the delivery of wheel service components from its production lines, the company wanted to enhance efficiency and further its innovation goals at its 150,000 sq. ft. (13,935.4 sq. m) facility in La Vergne, Tenn.
DriveMod Tugger carries more weight
Earlier this year, Coats decided to invest in automating material handling tasks on the factory floor. The company’s deployment of Cyngn’s autonomous tuggers at is now live at its facility.
Cyngn’s next-generation DriveMod Tugger has an increased towing capacity from 6,000 to 12,000 lb. (2,721.5 to 5,443.1 kg). It can also travel indoors and outdoors, said Cyngn.
“We look for opportunities to do things better, faster, safer — all part of becoming fast and flexible manufacturing,” Finley said. “Cyngn’s Tugger was a great example of that. It does what you want it to do over and over again, and that consistency helps people plan and execute their work more effectively.”
Cyngn delivers results for Coats
Coats said the DriveMod Tugger has already freed up more than 500 hours of labor by reducing manual hauling and enabling team members to focus on higher-value tasks. Cyngn said the implementation illustrates how its DriveMod vehicles can integrate into real-world environments and provide immediate labor and efficiency gains.
The automotive sector ranked among the top adopters of industrial robotics in 2023, highlighting the growing demand for intelligent automation, particularly in moving heavy parts across manufacturing floors.
Founded in 2013, Cyngn said its DriveMod Tugger targets a typical payback period of less than two years. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also offers the DriveMod Forklift, which can lift nonstandard pallets.
“With this successful deployment, Cyngn continues to deliver scalable autonomous solutions tailored to the evolving demands of the industry,” it said.