Supply chain excellence in pharmaceutical distribution: How United Drug Wholesale raised productivity across its three Irish depots

The company and its role in Ireland’s healthcare supply chain

United Drug Wholesale (UDW) is Ireland’s leading pharmaceutical distributor and part of the PHOENIX group. From three depots in Dublin, Limerick and Ballina, it serves more than 2,000 pharmacies, hospitals and healthcare providers across Ireland and distributes 85 million units every year.

With €1.7 billion in revenue and a 53% market share, UDW is a critical link in Ireland’s national healthcare supply chain, connecting manufacturers, hospitals and community pharmacies.

The challenge: Processes that had not kept pace with growth

UDW had grown significantly over the years, but some of its processes had not grown with it. The business saw room to work smarter, remove inefficiencies, and make daily work easier for its teams across all three depots.

Waste hiding in plain sight

Once processes were mapped end to end, the teams could see where time was being lost: unnecessary movement, waiting, and duplicated effort. The biggest surprise was the sheer number of small issues across the operation. None seemed significant on its own, but together they had a real impact on performance.

“We started seeing inefficiencies that, frankly, we hadn’t seen before, and some of them were hiding in plain sight.” – Rajesh Purcell, Head of Operations

Three sites, one standard

With three depots working in different ways, any improvement had to be standardized and scalable. A gain made in one depot needed to be repeatable in the other two and to last after the project teams moved on.

The approach: From the warehouse floor to the Mission Control room

From November 2024, working with Kaizen Institute, UDW rolled out a KAIZEN™ continuous improvement program across all three depots, focused on standardization, flow, and efficiency.

Value Stream Analysis workshops

Value Stream Analysis (VSA) workshops mapped end-to-end processes at each site, exposed inefficiencies, and set priorities for the improvement initiatives that followed.

Mission Control and Daily KAIZEN™ routines

Daily KAIZEN™ and weekly Mission Control meetings became fixed routines at every site. In the weekly meetings, teams track KPIs and benefits, remove blockers, and hold themselves accountable. The meetings also give frontline ideas a clear path: an idea raised on the floor is taken to Mission Control, given an owner and a date, and comes back the following week with an answer. Beyond this weekly cycle, monthly steering group reviews keep the work aligned with the company’s strategic goals, while workload assessment and shift planning ensure labor matches demand.

“Once people saw the suggestions move, the flow of ideas didn’t stop.” – Smit Jain, Data Analyst

Improvement led from the floor

The teams found they did not need major system changes or large investments to make things work better. Improvement leads went to the workstations and used KAIZEN™ tools such as spider diagrams and muda hunting with the colleagues who work there. Together, they made the waste in each process visible and redesigned the work based on the knowledge and feedback of the people who do it every day, insight that cannot be gained from behind a desk.

We didn’t need to make big system changes or spend loads and loads of money to make things better.” – Kris Finlay, Continuous Improvement Lead

Site-specific improvements

Each depot targeted its own priorities:

• Dublin: redesigned decant and dispatch workstations, optimized the A-Frame, improved the controlled drug room and fridge layouts, and optimized stock control and mezzanine storage.
• Ballina: optimized the A-Frame, redesigned the receiving and returns layout, standardized the cold chain, and improved product allocation using picking heat maps.
• Limerick: improved the receiving layout, replenishment and returns handling, eliminated repacking and optimized picking through heat map analysis.

Standardizing and scaling across the network

Every improvement was standardized and rolled out across Dublin, Limerick and Ballina, so that results stay consistent from one depot to the next.

“When the solution is yours, you don’t need to be persuaded to stick with it.” – Smit Jain, Data Analyst

Results achieved

Quantitative results

With improvements standardized across Dublin, Limerick and Ballina, the program delivered measurable gains in productivity, cost and service quality.

Productivity:

• Lines per hour rose from 67 to 82 across the three depots, a 22% productivity improvement.

Financial savings:

• FTE savings reached approximately €990K year to date.

Quality and service:

• Errors fell and picking accuracy improved, strengthening OTIF (on time in full) performance.

Qualitative results

The benefits reached beyond the warehouse. Collaboration improved upstream with purchasing and suppliers and downstream with customers, who now give positive feedback on service reliability. On the floor, colleagues are more willing to question how things have always been done.

“People that are close to the process often have the best ideas and solutions.” – Bruno Carrapiço, Stock Control Manager

UDW’s leadership acknowledges that culture change across three sites takes time and that not every colleague is fully on board yet. Even so, more people are engaging with continuous improvement, and the team is committed to building on that momentum every day.

“Start with your people. The tools and processes matter, but if your teams don’t believe in the change, it won’t last.” – Rajesh Purcell, Head of Operations

United Drug Wholesale’s journey shows what is possible when a structured continuous improvement program is built with the people who run the operation. At Kaizen Institute, we support pharmaceutical companies across the value chain, from manufacturing to distribution, helping them improve efficiency, quality, and service reliability. Our warehouse and distribution solutions combine process redesign, standard work, and daily management routines to boost productivity and deliver lasting results.