Linking prescription refills to fulfilment
Overview
Airodevs integrated a Canadian online pharmacy's prescription-refill reminders directly with its order-fulfilment and inventory system, so a customer approving a refill triggers an immediate pick-and-pack order against live stock. A refill no longer waits behind the general order queue or risks being promised against an item that is actually out of stock.
Client
A Canadian online pharmacy and health and wellness retailer, under 200 employees, filling prescriptions alongside general wellness products through one storefront and fulfilment centre. Refills follow a different cycle from a one-off purchase, triggered by a reminder rather than browsing, and a delay matters more for a maintenance medication than a general wellness item.
Challenge
Refill reminders were generated by the pharmacy system on their own schedule, separate from the fulfilment centre's inventory and order queue, so a customer approving a refill could be promised a delivery date without the system checking whether that medication was actually in stock. Refill orders were queued the same way as general merchandise, so a time-sensitive medication refill had no priority over a routine wellness order placed the same hour.
Solution
We connected the pharmacy's refill-approval event directly to the fulfilment centre's inventory and picking queue, so a refill checks live stock the moment it is approved and, if available, is flagged for priority picking ahead of standard orders. If a medication is low in stock, the system now alerts the pharmacy team immediately instead of only being discovered when the order fails to pick.
Areas of Impact
Refill-order priority and pick-queue sequencing at the fulfilment centre, stock-out detection for prescription medications, delivery-date accuracy shown to the customer at refill approval, and the pharmacy team's visibility into upcoming refill demand against current stock levels.
Results
refill stock-out surprises caught after approval down from 4.2% -> 0.5% of refills
average time from refill approval to shipment down from 2.4 -> 1.3 days
support contacts about a delayed or stocked-out refill down from 180 -> 128 a month
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Toronto, Ontario
Canada