Walgreens Boots Alliance Leverages Robots

Walgreens Boots Alliance, primarily based within the U.Ok., is leveraging robots to fill orders at micro-fulfillment facilities throughout the U.S. as pharmacists at retail shops are pressured to pivot in altering roles, CNBC reported on Wednesday (March 30).

The worldwide drugstore chain plans to open 22 Walgreens Boots Alliance amenities throughout the U.S., in keeping with the report. The Walgreens Boot Alliance in Dallas, for instance, fills about the identical variety of prescriptions for typical medicines that the common Walgreens pharmacy fulfills with only a “handful of workers” on any given day.

In line with CNBC, Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening “automated, centralized hubs to maintain up within the fast-changing pharmacy business.”

Roz Brewer, the brand new CEO of Walgreens, mentioned she needs to make healthcare the focus of the retailer’s “development engine” and in addition make pharmacists’ jobs simpler. 

“We’re doing all of this work, in order that the pharmacist has a better job, in order that they will get again to being entrance and middle, constructing a relationship with that affected person and interacting the way in which they had been skilled — the work that they like to do,” Brewer mentioned.

Associated: Sale of Walgreen’s Boots in Flux in UK With Much less Bidders, Market Upset

The corporate just lately acquired a majority stake within the main care startup VillageMD in addition to healthcare automation know-how agency iA. Walgreens can also be contemplating promoting off its U.Ok.-based Boots enterprise.

In line with CNBC, about 50% of prescription quantity from Walgreens could possibly be crammed on the automated facilities by 2025, mentioned Rex Swords, Walgreens group president of centralized companies, operations and planning.

At the same time as the corporate expands its use of robots, pharmacists will proceed to fill time-sensitive medicines and managed substances at native shops, per the report.

Walgreens has its plans centered on rising 22 amenities that serve over 8,500 of the corporate’s practically 9,000 shops over the following three years. 

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