Voice Picking Provides Productivity and Quality as Reported in Quality Digest

Aug. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Lucas Systems, Inc., (www.lucasware.com), the largest provider of voice-directed warehouse applications, was recently profiled by Manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler, for Quality Digest; the feature article is titled, Voice-Picking Technology Helps Improve Quality in Order Fulfillment.  Cutler details how voice-picking combined with RFID, bar-code, and other technologies helps reduce errors and improve productivity.

Process requirements for catalog and online fulfillment centers are quite distinguishable from brick-and-mortar retailers. Even catalog companies such as Oriental Trading Co., Cornerstone Brands, and Augusta Sportswear face unique challenges, and each of them has turned to voice-picking technology to address logistical challenges.

The very nature of products sold, defines the requirement of voice systems needed to achieve fulfillment objectives. Oriental Trading sells party supplies, toys, and novelties; Augusta sells apparel; and Cornerstone sells housewares, including indoor and patio furniture.

“Standard order profiles, warehouse systems, and fulfillment processes vary from company to company,” says Jeff Slevin, chief operating officer of Lucas Systems, provider of voice-directed logistics applications for warehouses and fulfillment centers. “At Cornerstone, order fillers use turret trucks to pick large items from high-bay racks, while staff at Augusta walk among shelves in pick modules.”

Voice picking is a method of picking customer orders in warehouses and distribution centers using software applications that combine voice direction with speech recognition. The voice-picking applications use information from warehouse management systems (WMS) to create two-way conversations with warehouse workers, instructing them what to do and verifying and responding to the information associates speak back. Voice-picking software has been in use since the late 1990s as a means to improve productivity, accuracy, and safety in grocery, food and beverage, retail, consumer product goods, and other distribution operations.

In voice picking, a warehouse worker wears a headset connected to a small wearable computer, which tells the worker where to go and what to do using verbal prompts. Workers confirm their tasks by speaking pre-defined commands and reading confirmation codes printed on locations or products throughout the warehouse. The speech recognition software running on the wearable computer understands the workers’ responses. The voice-picking software communicates with WMS or inventory systems via a wireless network.


About Lucas Systems, Inc.

More than 50 distribution centers in North America Use Jennifer VoicePlus for Pick-and-Pass Style Order Fulfillment, Including Advanced Multi-Order Picking. Since 1998, Lucas Systems has delivered more voice-directed warehouse applications on a wider variety of mobile computers than any other company. Customers like Cardinal Health, C&S Wholesale Grocers, CVS/pharmacy, Do it Best Corp., Kraft Nabisco, and OfficeMax trust Lucas to deliver solutions that greatly improve worker productivity and accuracy because Lucas truly understands warehouse operations.  Jennifer VoicePlus, the Lucas voice solution, creates a conversation with warehouse workers that frees their hands and eyes to focus on the job at hand. Jennifer also provides managers and supervisors with real-time reporting and management tools that help them better manage their operations. Tens of thousands of associates at hundreds of distribution centers work with Jennifer every day.

Lucas Systems, Inc.
www.lucasware.com
John H. Schriefer
PR@lucasware.com
724-940-7000