How Apollo Hospitals released $400,000 in working capital while raising service to the bedside.

An 850-bed Apollo Hospitals facility rolled out Planytics across four pharmacy stores and broke the trade-off that usually forces hospitals to choose between lean inventory and reliable supply. Capital came off the shelf and service levels went up, at the same time.

The client

Apollo Hospitals is one of India's leading multi-speciality hospital groups. The facility in this case study runs 850 beds and four pharmacy stores, each responsible for keeping critical medicines available at the bedside while managing crores worth of stock.

The challenge

Hospital pharmacy inventory is a balancing act. Hold too little and a missing drug stalls care at the bedside. Hold too much and significant working capital sits frozen on the shelf, with a slice of it expiring before it is ever dispensed.

Across its four stores, the hospital was carrying roughly $1.5 million of pharmacy stock on average, about 24 days of inventory, yet still filling only 68% of internal indents on time. Capital was tied up, expiries were a recurring write-off, and clinical teams could not fully rely on the store.

The solution

Planytics was deployed across all four pharmacy stores and integrated with the hospital's HIS (Hospital Information System) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. The platform forecasts consumption at the item and store level, then sets dynamic reorder points and review levels graded by VED (Vital, Essential, Desirable) and ABC criticality.

• Item-level forecasting: Consumption is forecast at the item and store level rather than as a single hospital-wide average.
• VED and ABC governance: Reorder points and review levels are graded by clinical criticality and spend, so vital items get tighter protection than low-value slow-movers.
• Auto-indenting: Signals convert straight into auto-generated indents and replenishment recommendations, so buyers stop guessing and start confirming.
• HIS and ERP integration: The system continuously right-sizes stock to actual demand and supplier lead time, without replacing either existing system.

The impact

Roughly $400,000 of working capital was released from the storeroom and days of inventory fell by a third, while indent fill rates climbed to 86%. Most importantly for patient care, the time to get a prescribed medicine to administration dropped from three hours to under one, so clinical teams could rely on the store instead of working around it.

The numbers in detail

• Working capital released: Average pharmacy inventory value fell from roughly $1.5 million to $1.1 million, releasing about $400,000 in working capital.
• Leaner stock: Days of inventory across the four stores fell from 24 to 16 days, a 33% reduction.
• Higher fill rates: Indent fill rate rose from 68% to 86%, an 18-point improvement in on-time fulfillment.
• Faster to the bedside: Time to administer prescribed medicines dropped from 3 hours to under 1 hour, a 68% reduction.
• Beyond the flagship site: Across the wider deployment base, Planytics has supported a 20% reduction in inventory.

Key takeaways

• Lean and reliable, together: Demand-driven forecasting and VED and ABC-graded reorder points let the hospital cut stock and improve service at the same time, instead of trading one for the other.
• Real working capital impact: Roughly $400,000 was released from the storeroom without compromising availability of critical medicines.
• Faster care at the bedside: Cutting time to administer medicines from 3 hours to under 1 hour is a direct clinical benefit, not just a finance metric.
• No rip and replace: Planytics integrated with the hospital's existing HIS and ERP systems rather than requiring either to be replaced.