Innovative strategies for maintaining optimal stock levels

What a stockout is and how it affects the business

In the pharmaceutical sector, the availability of a medicine is not only a question of logistics: it is a question of care. A stockout, meaning the temporary absence of a product, has a direct impact on service quality, operating costs and customer trust.

When a product is missing, the pharmacy suffers a loss in sales, reputation and continuity of treatment. The patient may go elsewhere, choose a less effective substitute or even stop treatment altogether. Reducing stockouts has therefore become a strategic objective for many organisations in the sector.

In a hospital setting, the consequences are amplified: a lack of availability can compromise the delivery of services, cause delays in treatment or increase the operational burden on clinical staff. Every stockout is not simply a management problem but a critical point affecting the quality of the health system as a whole.

Techniques for reducing stockouts

In recent years, the adoption of intelligent technology has transformed pharmaceutical inventory management. This is no longer just about ERP systems or automatic reordering: it means working with predictive algorithms, with artificial intelligence that learns from data and proposes concrete actions to improve stockroom performance.

A proactive approach makes it possible to anticipate stockouts, turning reactive logic — reorder when something runs out — into preventive logic. At the heart of this shift is stock optimisation: the ability to hold the right level of product, at the right time, in the right place.

The work draws on historical demand, combining internal and external data, on seasonality, and on trends linked to promotions, health campaigns or regulatory change. The objective is twofold: to reduce unnecessary stock that ties up space and capital, while avoiding shortages of the most important lines.

Alongside this sit increasingly vertical, specialised warehouse management systems, capable of integrating with commercial logic, sales processes and the day-to-day running of pharmacies.

Read also: e-prescription, a driver of innovation in global healthcare.

Case studies in hospitals and pharmacies

A concrete example of this transformation comes from Area Vasta Emilia Nord (AVEN), which brings together six healthcare organisations in Emilia-Romagna. Managing more than 15,000 products across a logistics network covering hospitals and care homes, AVEN embarked on a logistics and digital innovation project in partnership with Profiter.

The work focused on adopting an advanced demand forecasting system based on AI models. Starting from 84 high-turnover products, and subsequently expanding the number of lines considerably, the project analysed five years of historical data to build predictive, adaptive models. The result was a direct impact on key logistics KPIs:

• 12% fewer stockouts

• 17% lower average stock held

• unscheduled orders reduced to zero

The most significant benefit, however, is not only in the numbers. The new system improved planning, reduced operational pressure on teams and increased the availability of medicines on a continuous basis. It is a strong example of stockout reduction technology applied at scale.

Similar projects are being trialled in chain and independent pharmacies, where integrating sell-out data, commercial offers and logistics data makes it possible to tailor reorder thresholds for each individual outlet. Here too the aim is a bespoke stock management strategy, built around real patient needs and the efficiency of the system.

Conclusions and practical suggestions

Preventing drug shortages is a concrete and solvable challenge today. But it takes method, technology and vision.

Pharmacies that want to reduce stockouts should start from their data. Information on consumption, orders, sales and anomalies needs to be collected, stored, cleaned and made usable. The next step is choosing tools capable of turning that data into insight, and that insight into concrete operational action.

Advanced pharmaceutical inventory management makes it possible not only to react sooner but also to build forecasting models that are increasingly precise, adaptive and reliable. The real cultural shift is here: stop managing the emergency, start designing the norm.

Ultimately, reducing stockouts is not just a technical achievement: it is a competitive advantage, a process of continuous improvement, and an investment that pays back in service, efficiency and customer satisfaction.