Voice Communication Technology in the Warehouse improves bottom line of Enterprises.
Importance of warehousing is growing in India rapidly as retail sector is bound to see a major growth. The success stories of Big Bazar /Food Bazaar, Shoppers Stop, Pantaloon and Reliance Digital are covered widely in the media and Retailers are once again bullish after the global recession. Multinationals like Wal-Mart and Carrefour are eager and have either collaborated or shown interest in collaborating with the Indian partners, Bharti and Future Group. Manufacturing sector is touching the growth of 15 per cent this month of February, 2010. This is a healthy sign for a bright future of the retail sector and manufacturing industry showing signs of quick recovery.
Market presence required by retail Stores and tough competition have re-emphasized the need of improving efficiency in Warehousing and implementing innovative solutions ensuring timely supply while maintaining sufficient inventory so as to avoid ‘lost sale’ and keep up with the pace of satisfying demand and supply of merchandize.
Enter Voice communication Technology
This technology has a major potential to increase efficiency of workers in the ware house resulting in overall reduction in supply time, offering a crucial competitive advantage to Retailers in the fiercely competitive and dynamic market place. And why not? It offers a hands-free and eyes-free operation of order picking to workers making the whole operation lot easier, faster and error free. The solution is open and represents the adaptable solution of future for the warehousing service providers and third party logistics companies instead of conventional methods which were closed and tightly-coupled systems of the past. Since its emergence in the 1940s, voice technology has
Impacted a variety of industries. Today, automobile Manufacturers employ voice technology in vehicle navigation and safety systems to guide motorists to their destinations. More companies are using voice systems to Automate customer service, order placements, banking Transactions and information dissemination used in service industry.At the same time, voice technology has made significant In-roads into the more labor-intensive, industrialFunctions such as manufacturing and distribution, where the ability to be voice-directed is literally freeing up Workers to be safer in the workplace, more accurate in Their functions and more focused on the job at hand. For the distribution industry, voice technology provides an alternative to the labor-intensive multi-tasking that is Typical of ‘order picking’ . Voice’s immediate contribution to more accurate, efficient, and effective order picking has led many of the major grocery distributors to be some of the first adopters of this technology. Consistent pressures within this industry to improve productivity over the competition and to “do more with less” led to the search for technology that could go beyond traditional methods of order picking to improve the bottom line. Voice systems allow operators to communicate
directly with the WMS(Warehouse management system) to pick orders quickly and efficiently without using any hand held devices or paper to record picks.
Order Picking: The Core of Warehousing
Order picking is the function that warehouse professionals consider to be one of the most critical in their distribution operations. As the point where receiving, put-away,
storage , packing, shipping, order processing andcustomer requirements converge, order picking requires the most resources, and is the most customer-sensitive
of the warehousing functions. Order picking can account for nearly 40 to 60% of the direct labor budget in a warehouse. To keep accuracy and productivity high while keeping the costs of labor down, companies have started focusing on voice technology over conventional methods of order picking like scanning, pick-to-light technology to reduce costs from the order picking process. The Evolution of Order Picking: Scanning
. In a scanning scenario, a host system generates a “pick list” of items to be pulled from the warehouse shelves. That list is displayed on the screen of a handheld or truck-mounted terminal with location information and directions for picking.To pick a product from the shelf or slot location, an operator is directed to a designated location by viewing
the prompt on the handheld device. Next, the operator points the handheld device at the correct target, product bar code, attached case ID bar code, or a location bar
code as confirmation that the selector is picking the correct product from the correct location. The operator then picks the listed item(s), and confirms the number of items being picked by entering the quantity into the keypad of the handheld device. Once this is completed, the operator places the items onto a pallet or into a carton.Bar code scanning often produces data accuracy rates of up to 99%. However, scanning is not the ultimate solution. Bar code read rates can be affected by environmental conditions, lighting, dirt/smudges and print quality. For scanning to be effective, all labels must have bar codes that comply with standard size and format specifications, and the label must be in a good, readable condition. To read codes, a direct line of sight within a specified read range is also required for successful reads.
Because of All these inherent problems, Voice technology being hands free and eyes free and not prone to above has an edge over such solutions.
Hoe does the Voice technology help?
Voice technology as used in the warehouse, involves the use of a wearable computer with a headset and microphone so that warehouse operatives receive instructions by voice and verbally confirm their actions back to the system. The wearable computer communicates with the Warehouse Management System (WMS) via a radio frequency (RF) local area network (LAN).
The system uses speech recognition and speech synthesis to allow workers to communicate verbally with the system. In voice directed picking, for example, the order picker is instructed by voice, via the headset, what to pick and where to pick it. He then verbally confirms his actions back to the system through the microphone.
Through direct communication with the WMS, labor management system (LMS) or host system, voice technology solutions facilitate simple, natural communication between order pickers and the system to speed the process and accuracy of order fulfillment, Companies are finding that voice-directed warehouse solutions can improve operations and drive costs from the supply chain. Once in place, voice technology order picking solutions Offer many advantages over scanning and traditional methods:
Active, real-time labor direction. The voice advantage is seen in its capability to actively
direct the workforce. Paper-based or bar coding methods employ self-directed picking, allowing the operator to set his or her own pace. Voice raises productivity levels by establishing the speed for the operator. As part of daily operations, the workload assigned to an operator is downloaded into voice technology terminals from the WMS(warehouse management system) via the facility’s RF wireless network in form of local area network in the warehouse. WMS systems provide the capability to prioritize the order picking process by grouping orders into waves for efficient picking. Wave management allows warehouse supervisors to dynamically manage large groups of
orders to be picked efficiently. Voice technology systems work in concert with the WMS capturing this waving information in a mode that can be acted on by the order picker. The sending of this wave information can either be dynamically downloaded to the operator in real-time as dictated by the supervisor or it can take place in a batch mode.
Precision accuracy and faster picking. To ensure accuracy, the system employs a convention of ”check digits.” After logging on to their individual voice computers via a spoken password, the system directs operators to the first pick location.Operators verify that they are at the correct location by reading aloud a unique numeric identifier called a ”check digit”posted at each pick slot. Upon hearing the correct check digit for the assigned pick slot, the system will then direct the operator to make the number of picks for that location. When a worker speaks check digits that do not correctly correspond
with what the back-office system indicates should be stored at that shelf location, the system tells the operator that they are in the wrong location.The pick quantity is not provided to theoperator until the system hears the correct check digit. Optionally, as part of the installation configuration,the operator may be required to repeat the quantity picked, verifying this quantity. The system then directs them to the next location.The resulting smoother workflow is clearly a voice advantage. Operators stay focused as they are continually directed by the system’s voice command, allowing them to pick with greater accuracy and productivity.
Savings made by Voice Directed Warehouses.
Voice-directed warehouse order selection has thus been found to be more accurate and more productive than both handheld scanning and paper/label based methods. One company achieved a reduction of 50% in product returns from customers after implementing voice, which resulted in nearly $1.3 million in savings in the first year. The same company noted that additional physical moves required by scanning led to inaccuracies in picking orders. After converting to voice, shortages dropped by 11% and mis-picks decreased by over 25%.
Other benefits
• Lesser efforts in areas of Labor and training resulting into savings from voice technology solutions.
• By applying voice solutions to perform a range of other
Assignments other than order picking across their warehouse, companies can further extend the economic and business benefits.
• Voice-directed warehouse solutions enable companies to achieve efficiencies that translate into measurable operational gains over traditional picking solutions.
• Users report increases in productivity and accuracy, as well as a direct payback to the bottom line—all significant benefits that cannot be ignored—proving the value of the voice implementation. Whether the goal is reduced labor costs or greater operational efficiency, or both, voice technology has the ability to rapidly deliver a positive operational contribution to warehousing and distribution operations.
Clients benefit with slashed pick errors
When analyzing the order picking process, most errors occur due to mis-picks, creating a significant cost through returns. Cumbersome handheld equipment or paper labels associated with traditional picking methods require more time to fill orders. As competition hardens, the importance of service quality reaches entirely new levels. The ability to provide rapid and error-free deliveries becomes a key decision-making factor along with product selection and price. With the new voice-picking and warehouse system picking error rate can drastically decrease. The majority of pick errors consists of false volumes of goods, which are not as big a problem as picking the wrong products.
Reduction in delivery time
Hands free and eyes free operation helps in increasing efficiency of workers in order picking and has a major impact on delivery of items like edible and perishable goods which have tight delivery schedules. And the deliveries are prompt and error free , a much desired feature in cold chain management.
Real-Time Inventory feedback.
The voice technology system permits the operator to request detailed information about each product or location,including product description and Unique product code (UPC) in the event that operators need to verify items at a location. Stock-outs and shorts are also easily Handled by voice . In the event that an operator reaches a location that is empty or that lacks the appropriate number of items for the pick, the operator is able to alert the system, which will issue a prompt for that location to be replenished. The operator then has the option of adding the pick to the end of their assignment, or routing
it back to the system to be assigned to another operator for picking. Voice technology offers clear inventory management advantages.
Increase in overall operational efficiencies and productivity
Warehouse professionals in particular are constantly challenged to reduce labor costs, improve productivity and increase order accuracy while stream lining overall operational costs. As one of the Ware-house’s most labor-intensive functions, order picking
is a key area that companies focus on for automating processes with new technologies and the demand for even greater levels of service continue to raise expectations for even greater efficiencies and improvements , Voice technology speech recognition and speech synthesis combined on a wearable wire-less computer connected real-time to the warehouse Management system (WMS) is as such a real boon to the Enterprises and Retail Industry.
Summary
Establishing the best order picking practices for your Ware-house or distribution center operation is a significant task For companies who need to improve order accuracy, increase productivity and reduce labor costs, voice technology solutions present a viable alternative for reaching these goals. Companies who have invested in voice systems are successfully utilizing the technology to achieve accuracy rates of up to 99.9% and above, productivity increases of over 25% and are pleased with the reduced turnover and training time required for their labor force. Perhaps most important is the fact that voice solutions demonstrate direct payback to the bottom line—typically in less than one year. While voice systems were initially considered by some to be a novelty, they have proven themselves to be a beneficial and rugged tool in the warehouse environment. Significant increases in productivity and accuracy, reductions in picking errors in addition to minimal training time makes this technology one that should definitely be considered when searching for methods to lower overall operational costs.
Written by
Professor Akhil Chandra
Institute Of Logistics and Aviation Management
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