In the early days at Echo (now part of Pharmacy2U), my co-founder Tom and I noticed a problem: we kept missing the Royal Mail cut off because of sticky tape.

Using a taping gun to seal tiny boxes of medicine securely was a nightmare. Our 2 parcel packers were deeply frustrated.

But we love to problem solve. 

Our solution was a nifty invention we called ”Planko”.

Planko was literally a plank of wood!

We put tape with the sticky side face up along the plank. And we drilled holes in the plank with computer fans underneath to keep the tape in place through suction! Oh and we added a razor blade (!) for cutting the tape.

Now our packers could just roll their little box of medicine along Planko and cut the tape with one movement. It sped up wrapping by 10X.

This was the first time in the company that tech had worked with Ops to solve an Ops process challenge. Even though the solution was hardware (in this case literally, a hard plank!), it showed how simple, practical solutions can be better than an over-engineered solution from one side or the other.

Of course, when serious Ops leaders joined us they quickly relegated Planko (and its associated Health & Safety issues!) to a silly story / legend in our company history. But Planko remained an iconic symbol of the value of collaboration between tech and Ops.

That’s why, when we founded Keel, we named our limited company “Planko”.

We’re building Keel from the same premise of Ops and tech working together, as we believe there are thousands of stories like this, where working together has created the best solutions. And the good news is that now everything we build passes Health & Safety AND saves time and effort.