Doctor Russo, what led you to decide to robotize your pharmacy?
We have decided to robotize our pharmacy to reduce the difficulties of warehouse management. As our pharmacy is quite large and located near hospitals, we handle a very large number of recipes and requests. This entails the need to have a very large warehouse with major inconveniences related to the management of deadlines, stocks and also the order inside the drawers.
Installing a robotic warehouse allowed us to solve all these problems.
What led you to choose to entrust Pharmathek with pharmacy automation?
Pharmathek was the first supplier I turned to because I was positively impressed by the fact that the company was Italian and that the entire process of development and production of the robots took place in Italy.
Then I contacted other suppliers to compare the automation solutions but the comparison was favourable for Pharmathek since, in addition to having extremely advanced technology, it was also the only company that offered me the possibility to replace the glass of the shelves of the robotic warehouse with a much lighter material. This allowed me to respect the weight limits of the robot due to its collocation on a slab.
Doctor Russo, what are the main advantages you have notice from installing the robot?
Even if it has been a short time since we installed the robot, I can say that there is no comparison with warehouse management via drawer units: it is a completely different way of working starting from the fact that everything is now under control: from the expiry dates to the number of stocks, from the certainty of having a product in stock or not to the management of incoming and outgoing products.
The robot is very fast and allows us to stay at the counter with the customer, to dialogue with him and to build customer loyalty.
The choice of having installed a Euclid3D mechanical manipulator capable of delivering numerous products at once contributes to speeding up the delivery phase.
The Pharmaload automatic loader is also very useful since it allows us to load numerous orders quickly: we just have to pour the baskets of products into the loading hopper and we can immediately return to the counter to offer our professionalism and our advice to our customers-patients.
Do you find the Pharmathek robot easy to use even for less tech-savvy people?
Yes, it is easy to use. Of course, initially all my collaborators and I were a bit intimidated but we quickly learned how to make the most of it.
How did customers react to the pharmacy automation?
Since the installation of the robot took place during the renovation of the pharmacy, we certainly found an appreciation for the change in the pharmacy as a whole.
Specifically for the robot, customers have been fascinated by the technology and marvel at the boxes coming down the slides and arriving at the counter!
Also, unlike other pharmacies in the area that have installed the robot before, we have decided to showcase it. The fact that passers-by can observe the mechanical gripper from the street is helping us to spread the news of automation quickly, to the point that some people mistakenly believe that ours is the first automated pharmacy in the area.
It is also undeniable that the fact that we have inserted a robotic warehouse has allowed us to be perceived as an extremely advanced and technological pharmacy.
From your experience would you recommend Pharmathek?
Certainly!
Not only for the technological solutions proposed, but also for the people who work for the company
I had to deal with with various figures within the company and they all proved to be very helpful. The CEO, Mr. Paolo Sacco, made himself available to resolve the aspects of the project that required more attention. On the other hand, we are talking about a system equipped with five conveyor belts that have to deliver the products to five different locations: it is natural that the preliminary design has a certain level of complexity.
Would you like to add something?
I advise all my colleagues to carefully consider the opportunity to install a robotic warehouse.
I am sure that over time the robot will become an increasingly popular tool in pharmacies to such an extent that it will be impossible to think of working without it and to give up all the benefits that derive from it.
Of course it is an investment but the robot represents an opportunity not to be missed.
