JP2014092729A - Consumables management device and consumables management program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To decide a delivery time when to deliver consumables to a place where an image forming apparatus is installed, accurately.SOLUTION: A communication part 21 acquires a value indicating a toner consumption degree and a value indicating operation conditions of an image forming apparatus 3 from the image forming apparatus 3. An estimated consumption specification part 22 specifies an estimated current toner consumption on the basis of the value indicating toner consumption and the value indicating the operation condition acquired from the image forming apparatus. A prediction part 23 calculates an estimated toner replacement date on the basis of the estimated toner consumption. A delivery instruction part 24 sets a toner arrival date by dating back to satisfy the same toner NG quantity as before from the estimated toner replacement date, and decides a toner delivery date by dating back by the number of toner delivery days from the toner arrival date, to issue a toner delivery instruction.

Description

  The present invention relates to a consumable management apparatus and a consumable management program.

As an image forming apparatus having a function of forming an image on a recording material such as paper, a copying machine, a printer apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, and a multifunction machine having these functions are known.
In such an image forming apparatus, various consumables such as toner consumed in forming an image, a photosensitive drum and a light source LED (Light Emitting Diode) that are worn and deteriorated in forming the image are used. . If these consumables are not properly replenished or replaced, it may cause a malfunction or the like in the operation of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, as a part of the maintenance service of the image forming apparatus, it is necessary to deliver the consumables to the installation place of the image forming apparatus before the work to replenish or replace the consumables is required. There is a need to be able to replenish or replace consumables as soon as possible.

Here, various inventions have been proposed regarding techniques related to maintenance of the image forming apparatus.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses information relating to toner conveyance time in a toner conveyance mechanism of an image forming apparatus, information relating to characteristic amounts relating to fluctuations in toner consumption in a developing device, and characteristics representing the environment in the image forming apparatus. Information on the amount of toner, and a prediction value for the remaining amount of toner in the toner container is calculated by the prediction unit based on the acquired information on the transport time of the toner. Acquire the correspondence relationship with the measured value of the remaining amount of toner in the toner container, correct the acquired correspondence relationship with the characteristic amount related to the fluctuation of toner consumption and the characteristic amount representing the environment, and use the corrected correspondence relationship. An invention for correcting the predicted value is described.

JP 2011-65003 A

  An object of the present invention is to make it possible to accurately determine the delivery time of consumables to an installation place of an image forming apparatus.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a predicting unit that predicts a replacement time of consumables of the image forming apparatus, and the image formation before the predicted replacement time with respect to the replacement time predicted by the prediction unit. The degree of urgent delivery that requires consumables to arrive at the installation location of the apparatus, or the degree of inventory that is deposited at the image forming apparatus installation location until the replacement of consumables is carried out after the predicted replacement time And determining means for setting the arrival time of the consumables so that the expected value is reached, and determining the time when the expendable supplies are delivered from the arrival time as the toner delivery time. This is a consumable management device.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the predicting unit indicates a value indicating a consumption level of the consumables and an operating condition of the image forming apparatus provided from the image forming apparatus. The consumables management apparatus predicts the replacement time of consumables based on the value.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the present invention according to the first or second aspect, the scheduled value is prepared for each image forming apparatus group in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are classified according to use conditions. The determining means sets the arrival time of the consumables using the scheduled value of the image forming apparatus group to which the image forming apparatus to which the toner delivery time is determined belongs, and from the arrival time to the delivery of the consumables A consumable management apparatus characterized in that a time that goes back a required period is determined as a toner delivery time.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer having a prediction function for predicting a replacement time of consumables of the image forming apparatus, and a replacement time predicted by the prediction function before the replacement time of the prediction. Entrusted to the installation location of the image forming apparatus until the consumables are exchanged after the degree of emergency delivery required for arrival of the consumables to the installation location of the image forming apparatus or after the predicted replacement time To set the arrival time of consumables so that the inventory level becomes the planned value, and to realize the determination function for determining the toner delivery time after the period required for delivery of consumables from the arrival time Is a consumables management program.

  According to the first and fourth aspects of the present invention, the delivery time of the consumables to the installation place of the image forming apparatus can be optimized as compared with the case where the present invention is not applied.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to predict the replacement timing of consumables with higher accuracy than in the case where the present invention is not applied, and to realize further optimization of the delivery timing of the consumables. .

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to determine the delivery time of the consumables in consideration of the usage status of the image forming apparatus, and it is possible to further optimize the delivery time of the consumables.

It is a figure which shows the outline of the whole structure of a consumables management system. It is a figure which shows the example of the functional block of a consumables management apparatus. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of distribution of differences between a toner replacement prediction date and a toner replacement implementation date. It is a figure which shows the flow of the data in a clustering process. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a distribution example of a difference between a predicted toner replacement date and a toner replacement implementation date for each cluster.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an outline of the overall configuration of a consumable management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The consumables management system 1 of this example has a configuration in which a plurality of (six in this example) image forming apparatuses 3A to 3F (hereinafter, image forming apparatus 3) are connected to a consumables management apparatus 2 via a network 4. It has become.
Here, in the following description, the process of determining the delivery time of the consumables by predicting the time when the supply or replacement of the consumables is necessary, using toner as a kind of consumables by the image forming apparatus 3 as an example. As will be described, the present invention can also be applied to other consumables such as a photosensitive drum and a light source LED.

As the image forming apparatus 3, various apparatuses having a function of forming an image with a toner on a recording material such as paper can be used. For example, a copier, a printer apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, and these functions are combined. A multifunction machine or the like is used.
As the network 4, various communication paths can be used. For example, a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), the Internet, or the like is used.

The consumables management apparatus 2 is installed, for example, in a management center that manages the consumables delivery service, and remotely monitors the image forming apparatuses 3 installed in various places such as offices by communication via the network 4.
As shown in FIG. 2, the consumables management apparatus 2 includes a communication unit 21, an assumed consumption specifying unit 22, a prediction unit 23, and a delivery instruction unit 24.

The communication unit 21 acquires a value indicating the degree of toner consumption and a value indicating the operating condition of the image forming apparatus 3 from each image forming apparatus 3 via the network 4. These values are used in processing by a subsequent processing unit (such as the assumed consumption specifying unit 23 and the prediction unit 24).
The image forming apparatus 3 is provided with a detection unit for detecting these values in order to provide a value indicating the degree of toner consumption and a value indicating the operating condition of the image forming apparatus 3. The detected value is transmitted to the consumables management apparatus 2 periodically (in this example, every day).

Here, in this example, as a value indicating the degree of toner consumption of the image forming apparatus 3, the energization integration time of the dispense motor for supplying toner is used. This utilizes the fact that the toner consumption (an index indicating the degree of toner consumption) is proportional to the cumulative energization time of the dispense motor.
Other values may be used as values indicating the degree of toner consumption, and any value that can grasp the degree of toner consumption may be used.
Also, when consumables other than toner are to be processed by the assumed consumption specifying unit 23 and the predicting unit 24 in the subsequent stage, a value corresponding to the type of the consumables may be acquired. Any value can be used as long as the degree of wear can be grasped. Specifically, for example, when the photosensitive drum is a processing target, a counter value for counting the number of images formed by the image forming apparatus 3 is acquired as a value indicating the degree of consumption of the photosensitive drum. For example, when the light source LED is a processing target, the operation integration time of the image forming apparatus 3 is acquired as a value indicating the degree of wear of the light source LED.

  In this example, as a value indicating the operating condition of the image forming apparatus 3, a value indicating an environmental factor such as temperature and humidity and a value indicating a use situation such as an image forming density on the recording material are used. In other words, even if the cumulative energization time of the dispense motor is the same, the degree of toner consumption varies due to differences in operating conditions such as temperature, humidity, and image formation density. Get the value of. These are merely examples, and values of various elements that can affect the degree of toner consumption can be used.

The assumed consumption specifying unit 22 is assumed for each image forming apparatus 3 at the present time based on a value indicating the degree of toner consumption and a value indicating operating conditions acquired from each image forming apparatus 3 by the communication unit 21 ( An expected consumption that is an expected toner consumption (an index indicating the degree of toner consumption) is specified (calculated).
Here, it is possible to calculate the estimated toner consumption even with simple regression using only the value indicating the degree of toner consumption (in this example, the accumulated time of energization of the dispense motor), but the accuracy is not sufficient. Then, the assumed toner consumption is calculated by multiple regression taking into account the value indicating the operating condition. In addition, since there are various values indicating the operating conditions and it is not preferable to use all the values from the viewpoint of the processing burden, in this example, not all of the various values indicating the operating conditions, but the degree of toner consumption. Some values that are estimated to have a high degree of contribution to the influence are selected by a predetermined algorithm and used for multiple regression. Examples of the predetermined algorithm include an algorithm employing AIC (Akaike's Information Criterion).

The prediction unit 23 predicts the time when the remaining amount of toner becomes zero for each image forming apparatus 3 based on the assumed toner consumption amount for each image forming apparatus 3 specified by the assumed consumption amount specifying unit 22 (that is, , Calculate the expected toner replacement date).
This prediction can be performed by various methods. For example, a regression line (or regression curve) representing a trend of toner consumption (temporal change) based on the transition of the estimated consumption of toner so far is obtained. There is a method of predicting the time when the remaining amount of toner becomes zero from the regression line (or regression curve).

  The delivery instruction unit 24 gives an instruction to deliver toner to the installation location of the image forming apparatus 3 based on the time predicted by the prediction unit 23 (predicted toner replacement date). Output to the display. The delivery instruction can be output by any method, for example, by e-mail addressed to the department in charge.

The delivery instruction by the consumable management device 2 of this example will be described in comparison with the conventional method.
FIG. 3 shows a distribution example of the difference between the predicted toner replacement date and the toner replacement date.
The graph of FIG. 3A is a distribution example according to the conventional method, and the graph of FIG. 3B is a distribution example according to the present embodiment. In these graphs, the horizontal axis represents the difference (the number of days of deviation) between the predicted toner replacement date and the toner replacement date, and the vertical axis represents the frequency of occurrence of each difference (the number of toner cartridges in this example).

First, a delivery instruction according to the conventional method will be described with reference to FIG.
In the conventional method to be compared in this example, the day when the remaining amount of toner becomes zero is predicted by simple regression using only the energization integration time (a value indicating the degree of toner consumption) of the dispense motor for supplying toner. Toner delivery is the date that is the estimated toner replacement date, and the toner delivery date (the number of days expected to be required for toner delivery) is traced back from the expected toner replacement date so that the toner arrives on the expected toner replacement date. The date is determined (the date when the toner is sent from the delivery center). In the conventional method, based on past data, the average remaining amount of toner (for example, 15%) at the time (for example, 10 days) on the date (for example, 10 days) back from the estimated toner replacement date is expressed as PN ( Pre Pre). That is, in the conventional method, a toner delivery instruction is issued when the remaining amount of toner becomes less than PN.

  When the remaining amount of toner becomes zero within 10 days from the time when the remaining amount of toner becomes less than PN (toner delivery date), the corresponding image forming apparatus 3 runs out of toner and cannot operate. Therefore, the emergency delivery of toner is requested from the user side of the image forming apparatus 3. On the other hand, if the remaining amount of toner becomes zero after the predicted toner replacement date, consumables are consigned to the user of the image forming apparatus 3.

  Here, the graph of FIG. 3A shows the predicted toner replacement date D1 and the toner delivery date D2, and the number of days d between D1 and D2 is the toner delivery date. Further, the hatched area (area smaller than D1) in the graph represents emergency delivery, and the remaining area (area larger than D1) represents consignment stock.

Next, a delivery instruction by the consumable management device 2 of this example will be described with reference to FIG.
In the consumable item management apparatus 2 of this example, prediction by simple regression using only a value indicating the degree of toner consumption, and multiple regression using a value indicating the degree of toner consumption and a value indicating the operating condition of the image forming apparatus 3 are used. Is used in combination with high-precision prediction. Specifically, the expected consumption of toner is specified by a single regression similar to the conventional method until a predetermined time (for example, 20%) when the remaining amount of toner is equal to or greater than PN, and thereafter the toner is determined by multiple regression. The estimated consumption amount is specified with high accuracy, and the predicted date for toner replacement is calculated. In this high-precision prediction by multiple regression, values such as temperature, humidity, and image formation density (the operating conditions of the image forming apparatus 3 are shown) in order to consider the operating conditions of the image forming apparatus 3 that may affect the degree of toner consumption. By importing various values (selected by AIC, etc.) and performing data processing such as statistical processing and data analysis, it is possible to specify the expected toner consumption with higher accuracy than the conventional method, and to accurately predict the expected toner replacement date. It can be calculated well.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 3B, the difference (days of deviation) between the predicted toner replacement date and the toner replacement date is reduced, and the variation in deviation days is reduced. It can be seen that the prediction accuracy is greatly improved as compared with a)).

  The delivery instructing unit 24 sets a date that is traced back to the same number of toner NG as in the conventional method with respect to the predicted toner replacement date calculated by the predicting unit 23, and starts from the toner arrival date. Further, a date that is back by the number of toner delivery days is determined as a toner delivery date, and a toner delivery instruction is issued. The number of toner NGs means the number of toner cartridges that have been urgently delivered (the toner that has not arrived when the remaining amount of toner is zero). According to FIG. 3B, the arrival date of the toner is set 8 days before the expected toner replacement date.

Here, the graph of FIG. 3B shows the toner replacement prediction date D1, the toner delivery date D2, and the toner arrival date D3, and the number of days d between D2 and D3 is the toner delivery date. Further, the hatched area (area smaller than D2) in the graph represents emergency delivery, and the remaining area (area larger than D2) represents consignment stock.
That is, the delivery instruction unit 24 sets the arrival date of the toner so that the area of the hatched hatch area in FIG. 3B matches the area of the hatched hatch area in FIG.

  As described above, the consumables management apparatus 2 of this example switches to high-precision prediction at a point where the remaining amount of toner is greater than PN (in this example, 20%), calculates the toner replacement prediction date, and calculates the toner The toner arrival date is set so that the expected number of toner NGs will be the planned value (in this example, the same number of toner NGs as in the conventional method), and the toner delivery date is traced back from the toner arrival date. The delivery date of the toner is determined.

  Here, when the average number of inventory days per toner cartridge (= Σ (t × n) / Σ (n)) is calculated based on the number of toner cartridges (n) for each deviation day (t), FIG. ) Is 29 days, whereas in the example of FIG. 3B, it is 14 days. That is, according to the consumables management apparatus 2 of this example, the average number of inventory days is greatly reduced while the number of toner NG is the same as that in the conventional method, and the delivery time of consumables is optimized compared to the conventional method. I understand that

  The graphs of FIGS. 3A and 3B are the values collected for each image forming apparatus 3 indicating the consumption level of consumables, the values indicating the operating conditions of the image forming apparatus, and the date of toner replacement. Can be created by simulating conventional prediction and high-precision prediction for each image forming apparatus 3 using these. Then, based on the data of each graph created in this way, the planned value of the number of toner NG can be set to the same value as in the conventional method. The toner replacement date may be detected by each image forming apparatus 3 or may be input by a user operation.

As described above, in the consumable item management apparatus 2 of this example, the communication unit 21 acquires a value indicating the degree of toner consumption and a value indicating the operating condition of the image forming apparatus 3 from the image forming apparatus 3, and an assumed consumption amount. Based on the value indicating the toner consumption level and the value indicating the operating condition acquired from the image forming apparatus 3 by the specifying unit 22, the specifying unit 22 specifies the assumed toner consumption at the current time, and the prediction unit 23 sets the assumed toner consumption. Based on the above, the toner replacement prediction date is calculated, and the delivery instruction unit 24 sets the date of the toner replacement to the toner arrival date as the number of toners NG that is the same as the conventional method. Then, the toner delivery date is determined by determining a date that is a further number of toner delivery days from the arrival date of the toner, and determining the toner delivery date.
Thereby, it is possible to determine the delivery date of the toner that can reduce the emergency delivery or the consignment stock, and it is possible to realize the optimization of the delivery time of the toner.

  Here, in the above description, the planned value for the number of toner NGs is set to the same value as in the conventional method so that the difference from the conventional method can be easily understood, but the planned value for the number of toner NGs is arbitrarily set. be able to. That is, what is necessary is just to determine suitably according to which of emergency delivery or consignment stock has priority, for example, the scheduled value for every customer can be set so that each customer's request may be met.

  In the above description, the planned value is set for the number of toner NGs, that is, the amount of emergency delivery, but other indicators such as the rate of occurrence of emergency delivery (= number of toners NG / total number of toner delivery) are set. Scheduled values may be set, and scheduled values can be set for various indicators representing the degree of emergency delivery.

  In the above description, the planned value is set by paying attention to the degree of emergency delivery, but the planned value may be set by paying attention to the degree of consignment stock. In other words, the toner arrival date is set so that the toner consignment stock level is the expected value with respect to the toner replacement predicted date, and the date that is backed by the number of toner delivery days from the toner arrival date is the toner delivery date. To decide. Even with such a configuration, the toner delivery time can be optimized as compared with the conventional method, and the emergency delivery and the consignment stock can be reduced.

  Further, in the above description, the characteristics of the single regression with a low calculation load but a low prediction accuracy and the multiple regression with a high calculation load but a high prediction accuracy are utilized to make a certain stage (for example, the remaining amount of toner is low). Up to 20%), the degree of wear of consumables is specified with relatively coarse accuracy by single regression, and after that, the degree of wear is specified with high accuracy by multiple regression, but only single regression is used. Alternatively, a configuration using only multiple regression may be used.

Next, clustering of the image forming apparatus will be described.
In this example, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 3 are classified into clusters (groups of image forming apparatuses) according to the toner consumption speed, toner replacement dates are predicted for each cluster in consideration of the characteristics, and toner delivery dates are determined. decide.

FIG. 4 shows a data flow in the clustering process.
The clustering process is performed by each block unit of the data mining tool unit 41, the data management system unit 42, and the logistics unit 43. Here, the data management system unit 42 corresponds to the assumed consumption specifying unit 22 and the prediction unit 23, and the physical distribution unit 43 corresponds to the delivery instruction unit 24.

  The data mining tool unit 41 acquires data for prediction from the database of the data management system 42 and generates a prediction model. At the time of generating the prediction model, a threshold for cluster classification, an explanatory variable employed in each cluster, and a correction coefficient thereof are determined. The threshold for cluster classification is a value that serves as a reference for classifying a plurality of image forming apparatuses 3 into each cluster according to the usage situation (for example, a value that defines an upper limit or a lower limit of a toner consumption rate that each cluster can take). , REPtree, etc. The explanatory variables for each cluster and the correction coefficient thereof are values of operating conditions that have a high contribution to the influence on toner consumption in the cluster and correction coefficients related thereto, and are determined by AIC multiple regression or the like.

  Further, the data mining tool unit 41 selects a balance point between emergency delivery and consignment stock for each cluster using the prediction model, and sets the balance point as the number of offset days with respect to the toner replacement prediction date (the toner replacement prediction date and the toner replacement date). Set the number of days between the arrival date That is, scheduled values for emergency delivery and consignment stock are set for each cluster, and the offset days for each cluster are determined.

  The data management system unit 42 serially (individual image forming apparatus 3) using the threshold for cluster classification provided by the data mining tool unit 42, the explanatory variable employed in each cluster, and its correction coefficient. For each serial, a predicted toner replacement date is calculated, and a cluster attribute (information identifying the cluster to which the serial belongs) is added for each serial.

  The distribution unit 43 uses the predicted date and cluster attribute of toner replacement for each serial provided by the data management system unit 42 and the offset days for each cluster provided by the data mining tool unit 42. The toner order date (delivery date) is determined for the cereal. In other words, the date that dates back the offset days corresponding to the serial cluster attribute from the predicted toner replacement date for each serial is set as the toner arrival date, and the date that goes back the toner delivery days is determined as the toner delivery date. .

  FIG. 5 shows a distribution example of the difference between the predicted toner replacement date and the toner replacement date for each cluster in the case of classification into four clusters according to the usage status of the image forming apparatus 3. In each graph of FIG. 5, the horizontal axis represents the difference (the number of days of deviation) between the predicted toner replacement date and the date of toner replacement, and the vertical axis represents the frequency of occurrence of each difference (the number of toner cartridges in this example). Represent.

In this example, classification is performed according to the average number of days for toner replacement (average number of days from replacement of toner to replacement of the next toner), that is, the toner consumption rate.
FIG. 5A is a graph for the cluster 1 that is an image forming apparatus group in which the average number of days for toner replacement is less than 6 days, and FIG. 5B is a graph for the average number of days for toner replacement being 6 days or more and less than 10 days. FIG. 5C is a graph for cluster 3 which is an image forming apparatus group in which the average number of days for toner replacement is 10 days or more and less than 20 days. FIG. 5D is a graph for cluster 4, which is an image forming apparatus group in which the average number of days for toner replacement is 20 days or more and less than 50 days.
In cluster 1, the number of offset days (the number of days set between toner replacement date D1 and toner arrival date D3) is 8 days. In cluster 2, the offset days are 16 days. In cluster 3, the offset days are 24 days. In cluster 4, the offset days are offset. The number of days is 48 days. Note that the shaded area in each graph represents emergency delivery.

As described above, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 3 are classified into clusters according to usage conditions (for example, toner consumption speed), and the number of offset days is determined by setting scheduled values for emergency delivery and consignment stock for each cluster. The toner delivery date based on the predicted toner replacement date calculated for each image forming apparatus 3, the offset days for the cluster to which the image forming apparatus 3 belongs, and the common toner delivery days for each cluster. To decide.
As a result, the toner delivery date can be determined in consideration of the usage status of the image forming apparatus 3, and the toner delivery time can be further optimized (emergency delivery or reduction in consignment stock).
The image forming apparatus 3 may be classified using a value other than the toner consumption speed, or may be classified using various values that characterize the usage status of the image forming apparatus 3.

  Here, the consumables management apparatus 2 of this example has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that performs various arithmetic processes, a RAM (Random Access Memory) that is a work area of the CPU, a ROM (Read) that records a basic control program, and the like. Main memory such as Only Memory), auxiliary storage such as HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores various programs and data, display device for displaying and outputting various information, and operations used for input operations by the operator Realized by a computer equipped with hardware resources such as an input / output I / F that is an interface with an input device such as a button or a touch panel, and a communication I / F that is an interface for performing wired or wireless communication with other devices. Has been.

That is, the function of the consumable management device according to the present invention is realized on a computer by reading the program according to the present invention from an auxiliary storage device or the like, developing the program in a RAM, and causing the CPU to execute the program.
In this example, the function of the prediction unit according to the present invention is realized by the assumed consumption specifying unit 22 and the prediction unit 23, and the function of the determination unit according to the present invention is realized by the delivery instruction unit 24.

Here, the program according to the present invention is stored in the computer of the consumables management device 2 in a format that is read from an external storage medium such as a CD-ROM that stores the program or a format that is received via a communication network or the like. Is set.
Note that the present invention is not limited to a mode in which each functional unit is realized by a software configuration as in this example, and each functional unit may be realized by a dedicated hardware module.

1: Consumables management system 2: Consumables management device 3 (3A to 3F): Image forming device 4: Network
21: Communication unit 22: Assumed consumption specifying unit 23: Prediction unit 24: Delivery instruction unit
41: Data mining tool department, 42: Data management system department, 43: Logistics department,
D1: Expected toner replacement date, D2: Toner delivery date, D3: Toner arrival date

Claims (4)

A prediction means for predicting the replacement time of consumables of the image forming apparatus;
With respect to the replacement time predicted by the prediction means, the degree of urgent delivery in which consumables are required to arrive at the installation location of the image forming apparatus before the predicted replacement time, or the predicted replacement time The expiry time of consumables is set so that the degree of inventory deposited at the image forming apparatus installation site becomes a planned value until the consumables are replaced later, and the consumables are required to be delivered from the arrival time. A determination means for determining the time when the toner goes back as the toner delivery time;
Consumables management device characterized by comprising: The predicting unit predicts a replacement time of the consumables based on a value indicating a degree of consumption of the consumables and a value indicating an operation condition of the image forming apparatus provided from the image forming apparatus;
The consumable item management apparatus according to claim 1. The planned value is prepared for each group of image forming apparatuses in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are classified according to usage conditions.
The determining means sets the arrival time of the consumables using the scheduled value of the image forming apparatus group to which the image forming apparatus that is the target for determining the toner delivery time belongs, and sets a period required for delivery of the consumables from the arrival time. To determine the time to go back to the toner delivery time,
The consumable item management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the consumable item management apparatus is provided. On the computer,
A prediction function for predicting the replacement time of consumables of the image forming apparatus;
With respect to the replacement time predicted by the prediction function, the degree of urgent delivery in which consumables are required to arrive at the installation location of the image forming apparatus prior to the predicted replacement time, or the predicted replacement time The expiry time of consumables is set so that the degree of inventory deposited at the image forming apparatus installation site becomes a planned value until the consumables are replaced later, and the consumables are required to be delivered from the arrival time. A decision function to determine the time when the toner goes back as the toner delivery time;
Consumables management program for realizing

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