A-Star Quantum, a portfolio company of Abies Ventures Fund I, L.P., announced the joint development of “OptyLiner,” a delivery route creation service utilizing quantum computing and mathematical optimization technologies, with ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation and TriValue Corporation. (TriValue, Inc.), a logistics company.

In a demonstration test with TriValue, a logistics company, A-Star Quantum confirmed that OptyLiner can reduce by about 95% the time required to create delivery plans, which used to take three hours manually by skilled staff with a thorough knowledge of shipper characteristics and regional information, and can create delivery plans in less than 10 minutes that are equal to or better than those created by skilled staff. The system contributes to the efficiency of delivery plan creation, which is an issue in the logistics industry, and to the reduction of CO2 emissions. The system will be deployed mainly to companies that handle furniture, building materials, home appliances, and other products that require work at the delivery destination, and will support the formulation of sophisticated delivery plans that include worker schedules.

In the logistics industry, the formulation of efficient delivery plans is becoming increasingly important as companies face issues such as driver shortages, working hour restrictions due to reforms in work styles, and reductions in CO2 emissions. Planning highly accurate vehicle dispatches and routes is a trial-and-error process in which skilled staff members take into account the burden and characteristics of drivers. In addition, the formulation of highly accurate delivery routes is time-consuming, and orders must be closed early, which can result in empty vehicles.

OptyLiner is a service that calculates at high speed the optimal delivery route that minimizes travel distance, number of vehicles in operation, and CO2 emissions, taking into account multiple conditions such as vehicle loading capacity, number of vehicles, and driver working hours. In the demonstration test, OptyLiner completed the route calculation in 5 seconds, whereas it took several minutes to 20 minutes or more for a single calculation with conventional systems. The significant increase in calculation speed facilitates fine-tuning of conditions and repeated simulations, eliminating the need to accelerate order deadlines and reducing empty cars.

For more information, please click here.

This case was also published in Nikkei XTECH. Please click here to read the article.