Patent ID: 6715514
Filing Date: 2004-04-06
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A method for efficiently maintaining an adequate supply of a plurality of different fluids at customer sites by controlling the periodic delivery of needed amounts of such fluids to such sites from one or more bulk suppliers of such fluids, comprising the steps of:(a) periodically delivering amounts of such fluids from said one or more bulk suppliers to mini-bulk containers at customer sites for being dispensed to end users from said mini-bulk containers, the delivery employing a vehicle including a separate bulk tank for each of the fluids being delivered to the customer sites during a delivery run of said vehicle, each customer site including a separate mini-bulk container for each of the fluids being delivered to such customer site; (b) electronically receiving information transmitted from each such customer site concerning the amount of each of the fluids in the mini-bulk containers at the customer site, said information having been generated by the automatic monitoring of the amounts of each of such fluids in such mini-bulk containers; (c) determining the amount of each of such fluids to be delivered to each customer site by said vehicle during a delivery run to replenish the stock of each of such fluids at each such customer site based on said information received from each customer site; and (d) loading said tanks in said vehicle with a sufficient amount of each of the fluids to be delivered to customer sites during said delivery run to permit the delivery to each such customer site of the amounts of each of said fluids determined in step (c).