Pharmacists on shift when the street is busiest

Nouf runs operations for a chain of forty pharmacies across Riyadh. She plans the staff for every branch. Every branch gets the same shifts, from morning to midnight. Some have queues out the door late in the evening, while two pharmacists wait for customers at ten in the morning. Complaints come from the busy branches. Costs come from the quiet ones. With xMap Flows, Nouf built Pulse. Every Saturday evening, Pulse takes her forty pharmacies, measures how busy it gets around each one, hour by hour and day by day, drafts a shift plan for each branch, waits for Nouf to approve it, writes it into the rota, and emails each branch manager the week ahead. This Saturday, Pulse finds twelve branches busiest after nine at night, and nine quiet until noon. Nouf moves eighteen pharmacists into the evenings. A month later, waits at the busiest branches are down by half, with no new hires. Nouf used to staff for an average day. Now every branch gets its own.

The story in words