In this digital data-driven world, going hands-free and paperless is the in thing. This is the future that organizations will eventually get to. Indeed, some businesses have adopted digitization and automated systems that have decreased material and labor costs. Warehouses are not late to the party. They have started to employ digital systems and paperless processes for the sake of efficiency and well-accounted logistics. One rather popular method used by warehouses is voice picking.
A voice picking system is primarily defined by its use of radio frequency identification (RFID) or Wi-Fi. This is so that it can pass on comprehensible spoken instructions to direct operators to pick locations and relay picking tasks. You can also call them speech-based picking or if you want to get a little more technical, voice-directed warehousing (VDW). A voice picking system is entirely automated. It is speech-based, paperless, and hands-free. Plus, it is eyes-free. This means that you will not need to glance at minor tasks like pushing buttons.
For the curious, below is a rough outline explaining how voice picking works:
To summarize, pickers equipped with the right gear communicate with a system. This system tells them by voice what to do, where to go, and how they should perform the task on hand. Meanwhile, the warehouse manager supervises the work and makes sure that the work is delivered.
Voice picking systems improve the workflow of the picking operations in a warehouse. Below are some of its most significant advantages:
Voice picking increases work speed by 10% to 25% higher than paper-based or RF-scanning-based picking. The gain depends on the picking process used in your warehouse. Furthermore, the hands-free and eyes-free approach in voice picking means that the operators work in a smooth and uninterrupted flow. This allows them to complete their tasks on schedule without any distractions getting in the way.
Warehouses that use voice picking are known to have an accuracy rate of 99.99% higher than those that employ other picking systems. This means fewer shipments are misplaced in the warehouse and that each item is labeled correctly.
As voice directs the pickers, they have minimal distractions from mundane activities such as scanning RFID tags, pressing buttons, or logging activities on paper. As such, they end up having increased situational awareness. This gives them a better chance at avoiding injury during accidents, or even being able to prevent mishaps.
Employees will not need to memorize the floor plan of the warehouse and the flow of their work when directed by voice. They need to follow what they are told and will not require long, rigorous training sessions to become effective warehouse operators. Most of the time, all they need to know is how to interact with the system and interface with the voice picking platform.
The accuracy and productivity of the distribution center create satisfied customers who want to keep your business in their logistical chain. On the other hand, the reduced training and increased safety in the workplace make employees happy and motivated to do their work productively.
Zebra has partnered with the AccuSpeechMobile voice automation platform to help warehouses and/or distribution centers achieve high accuracy and productivity in some of the most intense working environments.
Contact our team of industry experts at AccuSpeechMobile to get voice-picking solutions that’ll optimize your warehouse fulfillment quickly.
