Design and Build a Real-Time Based 3 Kg LPG Distribution Information System Using the Laravel Framework at PT. Tasya Gasindo

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FORMOSA NEWS - Medan - Real-Time Laravel System Reduces LPG Distribution Losses and Fines for Indonesian Energy Agents. A real-time digital tracking system developed by researchers at the Universitas Sumatera Utara significantly optimizes subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply chains, preventing costly operational waste and institutional penalties. The engineering study, authored by Yasmin Neylanda Pulungan, Meilita Tryana Sembiring, and Juliza Hidayati from the Universitas Sumatera Utara, was published in the Formosa Journal of Computer and Information Science in March 2026. By replacing manual logging with a responsive web platform, the research demonstrates how small-scale commodity distributors can achieve major efficiency gains without investing in expensive hardware tracking infrastructure.

The Economic Burden of Manual Commodity Distribution
Efficient energy distribution remains a critical infrastructure challenge across developing nations, particularly where subsidized commodities like 3 kg LPG cylinders serve millions of low-income households. In Indonesia, the state energy corporation PT Pertamina enforces strict daily delivery targets for licensed distribution agents. Agents face substantial financial penalties amounting to IDR 30,000 for every single cylinder that fails to reach local retail bases by the end of the month. The Universitas Sumatera Utara researchers focused their fieldwork on PT Tasya Gasindo, an official LPG agent managing 69 distribution bases throughout Medan City. Under its contractual obligations, the company must distribute six daily Delivery Orders equivalent to 3,360 cylinders using a fleet of five homogeneous trucks. Prior to the digital intervention, the company relied entirely on manual coordination via basic spreadsheets and logbooks. This total lack of real-time supply chain visibility created severe operational bottlenecking:

• Blind Logistics: Dispatchers sent fully loaded trucks to local bases without knowing their actual remaining stock or storage capacity.
  
• Depot Congestion: Unsold cylinders were only discovered at the end of the day, forcing delivery trucks to return to the central filling depot and wait in lines for 2 to 3 hours daily to process returns.
  
• Compounding Financial Fines: Historical data from 2022 to 2024 revealed a chronic accumulation of leftover stock, causing an average of 744 cylinders to remain undistributed every month. In 2023 alone, these distribution failures exposed the agent to an estimated IDR 344.52 million in compliance fines.
  

Building a Lightweight, High-Performance Web Solution
To resolve this information gap, the engineering team at the Universitas Sumatera Utara designed a web-based distribution information system utilizing the Laravel PHP framework. The system uses a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, Bootstrap 5 frontend styling, and a centralized MySQL database. This open-source framework was specifically selected to provide a structured, highly secure, and easily scalable platform that operates efficiently within the limited technical and financial resources of a local business. The applied software engineering project spanned from July 2024 to April 2025, combining field observations, semi-structured interviews with truck drivers and base operators, and a comprehensive review of three years of legacy distribution documents. The system architecture features customized interfaces for two distinct user groups:

• Admin Dashboard (Agent Management): Provides PT Tasya Gasindo managers with aggregated data on total active requests, pending deliveries, vehicle utilization, and real-time stock balances across all 69 bases.
  
• User Dashboard (Base Operators): Allows individual neighborhood bases to instantly submit inventory counts and log automated gas requests through simple dropdown menus to eliminate manual entry errors.
  

A built-in data sync routine refreshes inventory metrics every 5 minutes, giving dispatchers an instantaneous overview of city-wide demand. To verify system stability, the researchers executed a rigorous Black Box Testing protocol across 16 distinct technical scenarios including role-based access restrictions and negative-value input validation with all functions achieving a 100% compliance pass rate.

Key Findings: Immediate Drop in Waste and Overhead Costs

Following the full deployment of the Laravel system during March and April 2025, the researchers recorded dramatic improvements in all corporate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• 70.4% Reduction in Residual Inventory: The average volume of leftover, undistributed cylinders plummeted from 744 units per month down to just 220 units.
  
• Elevated Fulfillment Rate: The agent's overall delivery fulfillment rate rose from a historical baseline of 99.20% to an optimal 99.74%.
  
• Significant Fine Mitigation: By successfully matching daily truck dispatches to the exact absorption capacity of the bases, the system cut estimated monthly Pertamina fines from IDR 22.32 million down to IDR 6.60 million.
  
• Substantial Annual Savings: On an annualized basis, the system is projected to protect IDR 188.64 million in corporate revenue that would have otherwise been lost to regulatory penalties.
  

Real-World Strategic Impact and Industry Recommendations
The operational results achieved by the Universitas Sumatera Utara engineering project have wide implications for national energy logistics. Previous industrial studies often argue that supply chain optimization requires complex Internet of Things (IoT) hardware or automated sensor networks. However, this deployment proves that severe distribution inefficiencies are frequently caused by simple information gaps that can be completely resolved through accessible, lightweight web applications. For public policymakers and energy regulators, the system guarantees higher transparency in the subsidized fuel sector, ensuring that vital resources reach low-income communities reliably without artificial shortages caused by poor distribution scheduling. Based on the accumulated data patterns, the Universitas Sumatera Utara research team outlined several data-driven policies to further streamline logistics:

• Seasonal Demand Adaptation: Automatically lowering Delivery Order allocations by 10% to 20% to low-absorption bases during historically slow months, specifically April, May, June, and September.
  
• Automated Reorder Thresholds: Introducing system alerts that flag management immediately when a local base's stock falls below 30% of its contracted quota.
  
• Continuous Performance Tracking: Marking any distribution base that falls below a 70% contract compliance rate for three consecutive months for management review.
  

Author Profiles
Yasmin Neylanda Pulungan, S.T. is a researcher affiliated with the Universitas Sumatera Utara specializing in industrial systems engineering, database design, and corporate web application development.
Prof. Dr. Ir. Meilita Tryana Sembiring, S.T., M.T. is a professor at the Universitas Sumatera Utara. Her research focuses on supply chain optimization, operational risk management, and digital business transformation.
Ir. Juliza Hidayati, M.T. is an industrial engineering expert and faculty member at the Universitas Sumatera Utara, specializing in logistics management, manufacturing systems, and performance metric modeling.

Sumber Penelitian

Yasmin Neylanda Pulungan, Meilita Tryana Sembiring, Juliza Hidayati. Design and Build a Real-Time Based 3 Kg LPG Distribution Information System Using the Laravel Framework at PT. Tasya Gasindo. Formosa Journal of Computer and Information Science (FJCIS). Vol 5. No.1 2026. Halaman 177-186.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/fjcis.v5i1.16637
URL: https://journal.formosapublisher.org/index.php/fjcis