Planning Optimization of Cylinder Distribution via IoT

The internet of things has led to innovation in cylinder distribution. In Japan, as smart meters are developed, suppliers now obtain the customer’s inventory every day. Then, in this study, we propose a method based on three steps to determine and evaluate the labor savings achieved by IoT installations. We formulate and solve an optimization problem under the assumption that a distributor can visit each customer only during specified weeks. After presenting a heuristic algorithm to obtain values close to the optimal values obtained by the optimization problem, we apply the algorithm under the assumption that distributors can visit their customers once each week. As a result, we found that installing IoT would result in a labor savings of approximately 30%. In addition, our heuristic algorithm performed well in evaluating the resultant labor savings. Furthermore, we found that applying our algorithm before the peak season did not contribute substantially to saving additional labor.