Voice Picking in the Warehouse
In less than a decade, voice picking has evolved from an experimental technology pioneered by a few to an industry best practice used by many. At the same time, voice directed picking technology has evolved from closed systems to open flexibility – although not everyone has noticed.
Voice picking gained a foothold in the warehouse because it enabled workers to do their jobs hands-free and heads-up. While traditional picking solutions such as RF scanning, labels, and pick-to-light are all successful, voice has driven even more cost from the supply chain and improved quality at the same time.
Voice was pioneered in grocery warehouses, where many products are not bar-coded and special handling requirements such as catch-weight recording are necessary. Other industries saw the benefits gotten by grocery and then foodservice companies, and now voice is widespread among all industries where manual handling of products is done. (Click here to see the anatomy of a voice pick.)
As adoption spread, voice picking began to grow up. Today we are at the crossroads between proprietary and open hardware – between the custom-programmed applications of the past and the configurable, adaptive voice software products of the future.
Voxware has introduced the major innovations in the market for voice in the warehouse. We were the first to embrace open standards, the first to achieve hardware independence, and the first to deliver a configurable software product (Click here to see how selectable options voice-enable the business process).
Our customers won big. Beyond immediate operational savings, we’ve added the long-term benefits of portability, scalability, and adaptability. And we’ve proven that our software works in hundreds of warehouses.
But the industry is at the crossroads. There are still many custom-programmed solutions for sale, as well as proprietary hardware for voice. Both are a lock-in that isn’t often perceived at the time. In fact, there are still three major mistakes in voice picking deployments that many companies make, but you can avoid. We'll show you how.
At Voxware, we focus on voice software. Our product is Voxware Voice Management Suite. Contact Us for a free analysis of the impact Voxware VMS software can have in your world.