Example from DunsterpublishedPosted Nov 7, 2026

Pharmacy back room: receive, pick, count and pack, label, final check

Retail pharmacyPharmacy fulfilment (pick, count, pack, label)Picking, packing and placingMeasurement, inspection and testingSeveral sitesWithin 12 months

Example post. Dunster conceived this use case as a builder-side idea it hopes to build out for potential end users; it is not a real end-user post. Examples are excluded from counts and cannot become priced RFQs.

The need, in one paragraph

A retail pharmacy chain wants the repetitive back-room work of filling prescriptions done by a robot cell: receive stock, pick the right product, count and pack, print and apply the label, and present each order for a pharmacist's final check. Technicians stand for most of the shift and the chain cannot fill open technician roles.

Dossier

Goal

Fill routine prescriptions with zero counting or labeling errors and take the standing, repetitive work off technicians, while the pharmacist keeps the final check.

What hurts today

Across the industry there were about 44,700 pharmacy-technician openings and the roles stay open for months. Technicians spend roughly 74 percent of a shift standing at the counting and packing stations. The measured error rate in manual fill is about 1.6 percent; every error is a patient-safety event and a pharmacist intervention. The chain wants the design goal to be zero errors on the automated steps, not a slightly better percentage.

The process, step by step

Receive: tote arrives from the wholesaler; items scanned in and shelved.
Pick: the right product and strength for the prescription is pulled from the shelf or carousel.
Count and pack: tablets or units are counted into the vial or carton; bottles and boxes are handled as units.
Label: the prescription label is printed and applied square to the container.
Final check: the filled order is presented, with the source package, for the pharmacist's verification.

Objects: Stock bottles, blister cartons, unit-of-use boxes, loose tablets and capsules of many shapes, prescription vials and caps, paper labels.
Variability: High. Thousands of SKUs, frequent packaging changes by manufacturers, partial counts, mixed order sizes.
Presentation: racked shelves
Required outcome: Correct product, correct count, legible label on every order, with a traceable record per step and a pharmacist check before release.
Rate: 150 to 400 prescriptions per store per day; a hub could see 10,000 or more.
Environment: pharmacy
People nearby: Shared: people within reach, no contact as part of the task
Sites: 50
Shifts per day: 1
Units per day: 300
People on the task: 3

Comments and proposals

Comments are public. Builders can post a proposal: how they would break the need into parts and who would lead. Prices never go here; a priced RFQ collects sealed bids.

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