Reshaping pharmaceutical distribution by combining smart automation with team member expertise

A new wave of innovation in Cencora distribution centers around the world is showcasing how smart automation systems can improve efficiency, increase order accuracy, and expand access to medicines while leveraging the essential role of human expertise.

In Viladecans, Spain, recent hardware upgrades and new ways of humans and machines working together are already yielding exceptional results.

Cencora’s automation efforts solved a practical challenge in Spain, where pharmaceutical distributors must manage a broad product catalog of nearly 30,000 SKUs while helping customers access medicines quickly and reliably. That requires storage capacity, speed, precision, and the flexibility to handle complex operations without disrupting daily service.

To meet that need, we tapped into our local expertise and introduced a mobile robotics solution tailored to fit the specific operational requirements of the Viladecans facility. The result is more than a warehouse upgrade; it marks a shift in how the site operates, how inventory is managed across the network, and how technology can support people in high-stakes supply chain environments.

Pharmaceutical distribution is about protecting product integrity, supporting compliance, and helping pharmacies, hospitals, and other providers get patients the medicines they need when they need them. In markets with large product catalogs, distribution becomes even more complex.

“Two of the biggest challenges in Spanish pharmaceutical distribution are the breadth of the product catalog and our customers’ need to have a wide range of references readily available,” said Francisco Funes, Engineering Manager, Cencora.

In addition to wholesaling operations at Viladecans, the facility’s third-party logistics services provide comprehensive logistics solutions tailored to the unique needs of pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers. Our strong local presence and access to Cencora’s global network delivers seamless supply chain solutions for safe, efficient, and compliant delivery of products to patients across Spain and beyond.

“Through this project, we significantly increased the storage capacity and SKU coverage of our Spanish distribution operations while also increasing service efficiency at our Viladecans facility. The installation has become a strategic hub, allowing us to centralize slow-moving products and supply other branches across most of the country. It is a customer-centric project at its core, but with a strong focus on operational efficiency and supply chain optimization,” said Funes.

One of the most striking results of the project is the increase in storage density. At Viladecans, the facility moved from conventional shelving with an effective picking height of about 1.7 meters to a system that reaches roughly 12 meters high.

That delivered more than a fourfold improvement in storage density, which has direct implications for service. Higher-density storage means more inventory can be held in picking locations within the same footprint. That reduces the need for constant replenishment and makes better use of both floor space and overall warehouse volume.

For providers, the importance is even clearer. Better storage density can help distributors carry a wider catalog, including slower-moving products that are still clinically important. It can also improve network design by concentrating inventory where it can be managed more effectively.

In Spain, that expanded capacity supports a broader product range, which is exactly what customers were asking for in this region.

Introducing a new automation system into a live pharmaceutical operation isn’t easy. Doing it without interrupting service is even harder. Prepared with intricate plans and dedicated to thoughtful execution, our teams were up to the challenge.

We implemented this automation project into an existing operational site rather than a new facility built from scratch. That meant we needed to balance project execution with maintaining essential customer service levels throughout the rollout.

From the start of physical installation to shipping the first order line through the system, only two and a half months passed. The team then spent roughly two more months migrating inventory from conventional storage into the new system and reaching full operational stabilization without disrupting service to customers.

For providers, that timeline is notable. In highly regulated, service-sensitive environments, transformation projects can easily drag on or create operational risk if not managed carefully. The Viladecans initiative demonstrates that with the right sponsorship, planning, and cross-functional coordination, advancing operations with state-of-the-art technology and automation can happen faster than many organizations expect or experience.

Efficiency often gets the headlines in automation stories, but accuracy may be the more important outcome in pharmaceutical distribution. In healthcare supply chains, an order error can create delays, disrupt workflows, and have a negative impact on patients, so reducing those errors is essential.

Improving upon Cencora’s already low customer claims rates, this project contributed to a significant reduction in service errors.

“Based on internal data, we’ve reduced customer claims related to order accuracy by approximately 50%, which represents a substantial improvement in service quality and a meaningful benefit for our customers,” said Funes.

Leveraging its purpose-built technology, the system reduces manual movement and unnecessary handling. It guides picking activities using light-based technologies that help operators place and confirm items correctly. To improve traceability and visibility throughout the process, it digitally records inventory movements.

While the advanced capabilities gained from this new tech are impressive, humans are still essential to the process. Among their other duties, team members continue to perform verification and quality control checks before orders are dispatched, and they now have more time to devote to that critical step in the process.

Automation may literally do much of the heavy lifting in a distribution center, but humans are still the ones creating the automation strategy, making critical decisions, and providing value that automation can't. Human ingenuity is the engine that drives automation forward, and our knowledge and adaptability enable us to make the most of new systems and situations.

Even with the rise of artificial intelligence, successful automation is rarely just a matter of installation. It depends on change management, planning, training, and alignment across departments. People must understand the purpose of the system, trust the process, and know how to work with the new tools.

“The automation technology was provided by an external partner, but the project itself was driven and delivered by our internal teams.
From warehouse adaptations and systems integration to training, testing, commissioning, and ramp-up, every phase of the implementation was led and executed by our own people, working closely with the technology provider."

The most effective automation deployments are the ones that elevate the workforce by reducing physically repetitive tasks, improving ergonomics, and allowing team members to focus on work that requires concentration and human accountability, both for team members and automation output.

In Viladecans, operators now pick products at dedicated ergonomic workstations rather than walking long distances through aisles. Inventory management has become easier to monitor. Because every SKU is equally accessible to the robots, traditional inventory assumptions based on human abilities and limitations are being reevaluated.

Cencora’s system doesn’t eliminate the human element; it changes where human effort adds the most value.

As the demands on the Viladecans site continue to increase, more robots can be added in days rather than months.

That flexibility stands out in a pharmaceutical market where demand patterns can change quickly. Traditional automation can be highly effective, but it’s often more rigid. Mobile robotics can adapt more readily as business needs evolve.

That doesn’t mean every site should look identical. Distribution networks vary by country, product mix, regulatory landscape, and customer needs. But the underlying principle is timeless: Use technology that’s flexible, scalable, and closely integrated with human workflows to improve performance and team satisfaction.

While Cencora has been using automated systems in our distribution centers in the United States and around the world for years, we’re constantly evaluating our processes and technologies for areas that can be improved to evolve a more agile, efficient, and resilient network. 

To that end, Cencora has three new distribution center projects underway in the United States. Since each facility has different needs, we’re designing and implementing automation systems individually to support our expansion and local distribution model.

For example, Cencora’s national distribution center (NDC) in Columbus is a critical facet of the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, and it will soon have a new counterpart near Cincinnati. 

“Because our NDC is a cross-dock operation and it's a national distribution center, all the vendors send to that location. It's a single point of failure. If the NDC were to experience a disruption, what do we do? How do we run our business?” said Hareesh Gunti, Sr. Director, Warehouse Automation, Cencora. “That's why we’re building a second national distribution center. We built the first NDC in 2014, and we were beginning to run out of capacity,” said Gunti.

Given the type of cross-dock shipping and high volume that will pass through NDC2, the mobile robots used in the Viladecans site wouldn’t have been the ideal choice for this facility. Flexibility is key for the facility in Spain, but Cencora’s operations in the U.S. require greater raw throughput.

NDC2’s automation system uses machines dedicated to moving vertically in storage racks while others move horizontally on the floor. Picked items are quickly handed off from one machine to another, achieving superior throughput.

In another distribution center under construction in California, automation design must take the threat of earthquakes into account.

“We need to fortify some of the equipment in California to guard against earthquake-related damage,” said Gunti. “Depending on the conveyor, you need to fortify the floor or the ceiling and make sure that equipment can handle all the weight and the throughput that we need.”

In the end, each facility is carefully planned, built, and equipped with the best tools and staff to meet that location’s unique needs.

The common narrative in the media around automation tends to pit humans against machines. In pharmaceutical distribution, that framing misses the point.

The most promising systems are not about removing people from the process. They’re about people redesigning the process so people and machines can both do what they do best.

People excel at judgment, coordination, quality control, and adapting when conditions change. Machines excel at repetitive motion, dense storage retrieval, and digitally documented handling.

At Viladecans, that partnership has helped create a facility that’s more efficient, more accurate, and more responsive to customer needs in Spain. It’s also shown that innovation can strengthen the role of frontline teams when it’s implemented with training, collaboration, and a clear operational purpose. For an industry under constant pressure to improve service, manage complexity, and protect patients, that’s an encouraging model we’re working hard to tailor for all our facilities on a global scale.

Technology will continue to evolve. Warehouses will become smarter. Data will become more connected. Robotics will become more capable.

But the real progress will come from something more balanced: human expertise amplified by well-designed machines and finely tuned systems.