Speech technology boosts the business case for a voice-directed WMS
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 7/1/2005 6:00:00 AM
Voice-enabled computer applications are no longer strictly the stuff of science fiction. Still, the latest in speech technology—specifically, speech recognition and synthesis combined on a wearable, wireless computer connected to a warehouse management system (WMS)—just may leave you in awe.
Speech technology suppliers on hand at DC Expo—held in Chicago in May—say such solutions can lead to greater picking accuracy (and hence substantial productivity improvements); improved worker safety; simplified and accelerated training, and ROI in less than one year.
Raleigh, N.C.-based supply chain consultancy Tompkins Associates concurs, saying its research indicates that companies can achieve accuracy rates of nearly 100 percent and productivity increases of more than 25 percent using voice technology in the warehouse. User companies surveyed by Tompkins also report reduced employee turnover and training time.
For example, operators using voice-recognition computers communicate directly with a WMS to get instructions on what orders to pick. Because they need wear only a lightweight headset/microphone and a battery-powered voice computer on a waist belt, their hands are free to actually pick product, and their attention is focused on the job at hand. Instructions are received via a wireless network that sends the information in either real time or batch mode, and operators can verbally verify the order details. And there's no time lost scanning or manually checking lists.
At DC Expo, Softeon announced what it calls the market's first fully voice-enabled WMS. In the ELITE series, voice technology is integrated directly with the WMS, rather than depending on interfaces to connect the two. The system allows users to choose between voice-directed and nondirected work, such as with RFID scanning. It also expands the use of voice to any distribution center (DC) process—including picking, replenishment, put-away, cycle counting, and loading.
Jim LaRose, president of the House of LaRose, an Anheuser-Busch distributor in Cleveland, says that ELITE, now running in a new 400,000-sq.-ft. DC, has "improved every aspect of our warehousing and distribution operation."
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