True warehouse innovation directly solves systemic logistics, supply chain and order fulfillment pain points for the customer while creating innumerable benefits for their end consumers. When operating in the pharmaceutical and healthcare space, warehouse automation innovation that provides medicine to consumers quickly – enhancing fulfillment productivity and efficiency while reducing costs -- and with no errors is even more important. That's why Dr. Max teamed up with Geekplus to bring warehouse automation to pharmaceutical order fulfillment.
Exponential e-commerce pharma sales call for warehouse automation
The Dr. Max Group is one of Europe’s leading pharmaceutical chains, with around 3,000 pharmacies, an online platform with more than 1 million customers per month and more than 2 million items sold per day. Dr. Max not only sells medication, but also has a wide portfolio of health and cosmetics products, medical devices, food supplements, dermato-cosmetics, mother & baby products, diet and nutritional products, and natural remedies. This extensive range alone poses major challenges for logistics. But that’s not all: Demand is increasing rapidly in the online shop. In 2023, Dr. Max achieved a remarkable 55% year-over-year increase in e-commerce revenue.
With the aim to ensure the fastest possible & costumer centric delivery to end customers throughout Italy – either via home delivery or via click-and-collect pickup – and in order to meet the diverse requirements, Dr. Max decided to build a warehouse in Italy specializing in pharmaceutical and cosmetics e-commerce fulfillment. This should not only ensure efficient processes and a seamless supply chain, but also pave the way for future growth: With the acquisition of Neo Apotek SpA, the number of pharmacies that Dr. Max supplies in Italy has grown to over 210 branches. and the new warehouse is already handling pharmacy deliveries in addition to e-commerce orders. And the possibility to easily expand the system will support the continuous growth of pharmacy business too.
Flexible order fulfillment benefits e-commerce pharma sales
Dr. Max came to Geekplus for a scalable, flexible and innovative warehouse automation system that could help the company handle increasing online orders and quickly scale up to meet pharmaceutical sales growth in the Italian market.
In the most recent deployment, Geekplus implemented its Tote-to-Person RoboShuttle solution in the company’s Telgate, Italy, facility. The solution, part of the Geekplus Goods-to-Person solution suite, combines an 8-meter-high shuttle robot for vertical storage with a fulfillment robot for fast picking. With the solution, items with different order patterns for multiple channels can be stored, picked and dispatched smoothly. The shortest lead times guarantee fast delivery, sometimes even on the same day.
“Geekplus’ mobile robots ensure quick and efficient replenishment of our broad product portfolio and thus optimize our order processing. Furthermore, the ergonomic workstations and intuitive software take a noticeable load off our employees – thus benefiting us twice over,” Dr. Max’s Miguel Martins da Silva, group chief supply chain officer, said at the time.
Easily reproduce Geekplus automation across multiple facilities
Dr. Max has replicated Geekplus innovations throughout Europe. In one of its first projects, Geekplus brought automation to Dr. Max’s e-commerce warehouse in Bucharest, which handles more than 25,000 SKUs monthly. The Goods-to-Person robots have vastly increased Dr. Max’s efficiency and storage capacity, while delivering order fulfillment accuracy of over 99%.
With the help of nearly one hundred Geekplus autonomous mobile robots that can process orders 24/7, Dr. Max increased the order processing capacity, efficiently responding to the needs of online patients, especially in peak e-commerce order seasons. The flexibility to add more robots to keep up with Dr. Max's growing e-commerce business was a key factor in the decision to automate with Geekplus's solutions.
In that first project, Goods-to-Person robots brought entire shelves of products from storage locations to picking stations, where operators package the goods and send them to Dr. Max's patients. The algorithms and software place as many orders in each batch moved from storage as possible, keeping special orders to a minimum, also taking into account the expiration date of goods, a key step in reducing waste. “Overload” periods were a particular pain point for the Dr. Max Bucharest team; during these periods, picking efficiency needed to increase by 200 percent.
With a seamless network of pharmacies, Dr. Max aims to reliably supply their customers with a wide range of medicines and cosmetic products, both online and in stores. The logistics solution implemented in Italy provides the perfect foundation for this and has already been successfully established at several Dr. Max sites in Europe. The cooperation will also continue in the newly opened Italian warehouse: Shortly after the system went live, additional automation steps and future expansions were being planned.
Dr. Max is expecting rapid growth to continue over the coming years, and Geekplus will continue to support their progress with further applications of advanced AMR technology. Geekplus's robots are just beginning to assist in the provision of critical medicines and supplies to people around the world.
Schedule a conversation to learn more about the suite of Geekplus order fulfillment solutions, spanning Shelf-to-Person, Tote-to-Person and Pallet-to-Person robots.
