Visualizing Inventory Internally and at Subcontractors to Eliminate Individual Dependency. Reducing Purchase Costs by Approx. 30 Million Yen in the First Year of Implementation
Smat Inc.'s IoT inventory management system 'SmartMat Cloud' has solved Tokyo Denki's inventory dependency issues. By visualizing inventory in real-time, they achieved a 30 million yen reduction in purchase costs in the first year.
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- 📰 Published: April 2, 2026 at 19:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 2, 2026 at 14:30
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Smat Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representative Directors: Takayuki Shiga / Hidetoshi Hayashi), operator of the IoT inventory management system 'SmartMat Cloud', has published a case study on its use by Tokyo Denki Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki; Representative Director: Tomohiko Shiotani).
This case study introduces an initiative that solved several challenges: the generation of excess inventory and risk of operational stagnation due to materials operations depending on the experience and intuition of personnel (individual dependency), and the increased confirmation work caused by the difficulty of grasping the inventory of supplied parts, including those at subcontractors. By visualizing inventory with SmartMat Cloud, they achieved a reduction of approximately 30 million yen in purchase costs in the first year of implementation.
■ Background of Implementation
At Tokyo Denki, materials such as electronic components required for manufacturing emergency power generators were managed by individual personnel. The 'individual dependency', where inventory status and ordering decisions relied on the experience and intuition of the person in charge, had become a challenge. While you could understand the situation by asking the person in charge, if they were absent, ordering and receiving operations would stagnate, posing a risk to business continuity.
Furthermore, during physical inventories, discrepancies were seen between the system's inventory count and the actual inventory count, and cases where more parts were received than necessary were scattered, making it difficult to optimize inventory. The criteria for optimal inventory also varied by personnel, creating a structure prone to excess inventory.
Additionally, the company partly employs a system where they supply parts to subcontractors for processing and assembly. However, they could not grasp the subcontractor's inventory status in real-time, resulting in near-daily communications such as 'we are short on supplied parts.' A lot of man-hours were spent on inventory checks and physical inventories both internally and at subcontractors, creating issues in terms of operational efficiency.
Against this background, the company decided to implement 'SmartMat Cloud', an inventory management system utilizing IoT weight scales, aiming to visualize inventory status with data, build a materials management system independent of specific personnel, and optimize inventory.
■ Results after Implementation
With the implementation of SmartMat Cloud, the company can now grasp the status of parts inventory internally and at subcontractors in real-time. Ordering decisions, which previously relied on the experience and intuition of personnel, have shifted to operations based on inventory data, creating an environment where even non-personnel can grasp the inventory status. As a result, the risk of operational stagnation during the absence of the person in charge has been reduced, and the standardization of inventory management operations is progressing.
Also, by being able to check inventory trends as data, the review of appropriate reorder points has progressed, realizing a purchase cost reduction of approximately 30 million yen in the first year of implementation. By suppressing the outflow of funds that had previously accumulated as excess inventory, room for utilizing funds has also been created.
Furthermore, the SmartMats installed at the subcontractors allow for the precise grasping of supplied parts inventory.
This case study introduces an initiative that solved several challenges: the generation of excess inventory and risk of operational stagnation due to materials operations depending on the experience and intuition of personnel (individual dependency), and the increased confirmation work caused by the difficulty of grasping the inventory of supplied parts, including those at subcontractors. By visualizing inventory with SmartMat Cloud, they achieved a reduction of approximately 30 million yen in purchase costs in the first year of implementation.
■ Background of Implementation
At Tokyo Denki, materials such as electronic components required for manufacturing emergency power generators were managed by individual personnel. The 'individual dependency', where inventory status and ordering decisions relied on the experience and intuition of the person in charge, had become a challenge. While you could understand the situation by asking the person in charge, if they were absent, ordering and receiving operations would stagnate, posing a risk to business continuity.
Furthermore, during physical inventories, discrepancies were seen between the system's inventory count and the actual inventory count, and cases where more parts were received than necessary were scattered, making it difficult to optimize inventory. The criteria for optimal inventory also varied by personnel, creating a structure prone to excess inventory.
Additionally, the company partly employs a system where they supply parts to subcontractors for processing and assembly. However, they could not grasp the subcontractor's inventory status in real-time, resulting in near-daily communications such as 'we are short on supplied parts.' A lot of man-hours were spent on inventory checks and physical inventories both internally and at subcontractors, creating issues in terms of operational efficiency.
Against this background, the company decided to implement 'SmartMat Cloud', an inventory management system utilizing IoT weight scales, aiming to visualize inventory status with data, build a materials management system independent of specific personnel, and optimize inventory.
■ Results after Implementation
With the implementation of SmartMat Cloud, the company can now grasp the status of parts inventory internally and at subcontractors in real-time. Ordering decisions, which previously relied on the experience and intuition of personnel, have shifted to operations based on inventory data, creating an environment where even non-personnel can grasp the inventory status. As a result, the risk of operational stagnation during the absence of the person in charge has been reduced, and the standardization of inventory management operations is progressing.
Also, by being able to check inventory trends as data, the review of appropriate reorder points has progressed, realizing a purchase cost reduction of approximately 30 million yen in the first year of implementation. By suppressing the outflow of funds that had previously accumulated as excess inventory, room for utilizing funds has also been created.
Furthermore, the SmartMats installed at the subcontractors allow for the precise grasping of supplied parts inventory.