Windsor Road Pharmacy, Red Hill, QLD

Rombic is the most space efficient stock storage system for dispensary products. This fact was demonstrated in Ranald Luxton's Queensland pharmacy.

Ranald purchased the Enoggera Terrace Pharmacy, Red Hill in January 2006. The pharmacy was located opposite a medical centre with 3 doctors. In June 2007 the doctors opposite relocated out of the area, which adversely impacted Ranald's business.

Within 1 km there was another medical centre with 14 doctors. However the only site available for a pharmacy near this medical centre was opposite and only 48m² in size. In such a small space how do you fit all the dispensary products let alone operate efficiently?

Pharmacist Ranald Luxton at the Rombic unit in his very compact dispensary

These challenges were overcome through the use of sloping shelf Rombic and StockFlow. StockFlow 400 mm deep was used for the 210 high volume products. These products cover over 80% of the items dispensed. Rombic was used for the 740 low volume products.

The design that incorporated Rombic and StockFlow is shown in the photo above and the diagram below.

Both the Rombic and StockFlow are within 2 steps of the dispensary bench. Item selection times are less than 4 seconds for StockFlow and 5 seconds for Rombic. The photograph of Ranald accessing the sloping shelf Rombic, highlights the advantages of sloping shelves.

DIAGRAM 1 Layout of the dispensary with StockFlow close to the dispensary bench and Rombic at the back

Sloping shelves or sloping drawers, via gravity, feed the oldest product to the front. This means that the oldest item is always the first item selected. Sloping shelves thus automatically date rotate stock.

Selecting the oldest item is simply a matter of taking the item at the front of the shelf. In a flat drawer if there are two or more items of a product in stock it is not easy to determine which is the oldest product, without checking the dating on all products.

With sloping shelves, via gravity, items feed to the front of the shelves and are easier to see and select. With flat shelves, the next item to be selected is progressively further to the back of the shelf and is harder to see and select. The article in AJP Vol 90 Sep 2009 details this.

When putting items away with back filling sloping shelves, 4.6 seconds per item is saved compared to flat shelves. In a pharmacy dispensing 300 prescriptions per day back filling sloping shelves saves 23 minutes per day.

The Rombic provides 56 linear metres of shelf space in 1.2 linear metres of wall space. To obtain 56 linear metres of shelf space with flat shelves would require 7 metres of wall space.

The combination of Rombic and StockFlow saves 10.7m² of floor space. This 10.7m² saved in 48m² of space available allowed front of shop space to be increased by the 10.7m² which is 50%.

Ranald Luxton said he was pleased not only to fit the dispensary stock in the 48m² but also to achieve these operational efficiencies. Ranald concluded by saying he could not be happier with his situation.

The above information was published in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy, Vol 91, May 2010, p53