Articles About Voice Picking and Voxware
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The Warehouse Manager’s Handbook
Lara Sowinski - October, 2011
Although other voice picking systems were considered, Voxware’s customer service was a huge selling point, says Abbott, noting that his experience with voice picking vendors earlier in his career helped him appreciate the value of a vendor who was there throughout the process, not to mention for post-installation support.
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Logistics News: Voxware Inc., a Leading Supplier of Software For Voice Picking and Other Warehouse Operations, announced that it is the first warehouse voice vendor to support Android
Cliff Holste - October, 2011
Voice-driven software products provider, Voxware, Inc. recently announced that it has become the first independent voice software company serving the supply chain market to provide support for Google’s Android operation system.
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Voice recognition: Enabling diversity in the warehouse
Bob Trebilcock - September, 2011
Anyone who has walked through a warehouse or DC in recent years knows that diversity is an opportunity and a challenge for warehouse managers trying to maintain a stable workforce in their facilities. So I was intrigued when Steve Gerrard, vice president of marketing for Voxware, proposed a conversation about voice recognition technology as an enabler of diversity.
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Other Voices: Conquering the Curse of the Warehouse
Steve Gerrard - May, 2011
Many enterprises operate in markets that reward agility in distribution logistics, yet they struggle with warehouse technologies that are rigid and expensive to change. The paradox is that the very technologies which boosted performance when first implemented can become a boat anchor preventing the operation from evolving to the next level.
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Supply Chain Comment: Voice Picking And The Cost Of Change
Scott Yetter - April, 2011
In an industry that values nimbleness and the ability to quickly change one’s operation for the better, it is ironic that so few companies are actually prepared to do so. Advanced technologies such as voice picking can bring this paradox into bold relief, and it can be instructive to dig into the underlying reasons.
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Portable voice from Voxware
Modern Materials Handling Staff - March, 2011
If you use Microsoft Office on a Dell laptop, the same software will work on a Windows machine from HP, Acer or Sony without rewriting a line of code. In other words, the software is portable from one device to another.
Voxware (Booth 3672) is promoting portability for voice recognition solutions as well. “We believe there is a difference between supporting various device platforms from hardware vendors like LXE and Motorola and a truly portable platform,” said Stephen Gerrard, VP of marketing and strategic planning at a booth visit on Wednesday. “With a truly portable voice solution, you can work on a Motorola device today and switch to a new device from LXE tomorrow, all without rewriting a line of code.” -
Supply Chain Comment: The Velocity-Centric Warehouse
Scott Yetter - March, 2011
Today's Warehouse Relies On A Growing Array Of High Technology Solutions To Achieve Optimal Results.
The distribution center is an increasingly important arena for business and competitive strategy. Top flight enterprises know that companies who better manage warehousing operations enjoy a number of crucial advantages. Every dollar saved in the warehouse either goes to the bottom line, improving margins, or can be reinvested in key business initiatives to strengthen the company’s position. -
Voice Picking Grows Up Plan Now for Long Term Cost Control
Gareth Giles Knopp - October, 2010
Voice picking solutions have been actively used in the UK for about a decade, from the time that pioneering organisations first implemented it to improve the productivity of selectors in cold store and ambient operations.
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New Evaluation Criteria for Voice
Steve Gerrard - October, 2010
Voxware exhibited at SCOPE West, a major US trade event held in Las Vegas last month, and one insight from the expo stands out: of 40 attending industry executives surveyed, more than half have plans to add, expand, and/or relocate a distribution centre or warehouse in the next 2-3 years. The simple takeaway is that warehouses and distribution centres are in a constant state of change; and just as business conditions change and warehouses evolve, so too must the technology that supports these operations.
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Voice Technology Must Be Operations-Tested, IT-Approved
Scott J. Yetter - September, 2010
Three IT-Related Concepts That Affect Voice Deployments And Result In Saving Huge Amounts Of Money For The Enterprise
Industry analysts have observed that the IT group has become increasingly involved in the selection of high tech systems that operate within the warehouse. There are meaningful reasons behind this trend. Over the past 15 years, enterprises have implemented an expanding array of technology-driven solutions that manage everything from equipment to labor to inventory.
Forward-thinking companies involve both IT and Operations in the technology selection process. Although this arrangement has the potential for organizational friction, many are finding that greater cost savings and heightened solution effectiveness can be the result.
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Food Banks Raise Interest in Voice to Keep Costs Low
Steve Gerrard - August, 2010
Consortium uses voice picking software to increase productivity 20% and make better use of labor in receiving, selecting and shipping for their clients.
Hunger? Here in the USA? Many are not surprised that some hunger exists in this land of plenty — but most are shocked to learn that one out of six Americans does not have enough to eat. Hunger is not confined to certain neighborhoods, education levels, or the homeless, but increasingly afflicts college-educated people and those with good jobs who just don't make enough to afford adequate food for their families.
“Food Banks are one of the few industries where you hope that the need for your services goes down each year,” says Bill McKnight, operations director for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, as deteriorating economic conditions have left more people needing assistance -
Voice technology: State of the industry
Maida Napolitano - July, 2010
Order picking with voice technology has undergone many changes since the 1990s. Here’s what experts told Modern about the current state of the industry.
Scott Yetter, CEO and president, Voxware: “We’ve broadened the footprint of our applications in terms of doing more things in the warehouse such as loading, putaway, replenishment and cycle counting. We’re starting to see a convergence of technologies and you’re seeing different kinds of user interfaces. A number of the devices that are now being made support 3G or 4G, thus making it a lot easier to do mobile applications outside the warehouse; and now that cellular networks are becoming ubiquitous, there are new opportunities for voice beyond the warehouse.”
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Three Unique Approaches to Voice Picking
Maida Napolitano - July, 2010
Our warehouse/DC engineer takes a look at three distribution operations employing three unique approaches to voice picking. But no matter how different each solution may be, these operations illustrate how the benefits of picking with voice remain largely the same.
Pierre’s Ice Cream Company distributes approximately 1,000 ice cream products and frozen treats from its 40,000-square-foot, all-freezer warehouse in Cleveland, Ohio. And as one can expect, picking cartons of ice cream using paper picking tickets in temperatures of -20 degrees Fahrenheit clearly presented its own set of challenges.
In March 2008, the company selected Voxware’s speaker dependent software operating on LXE’s rugged, freezer-proof HX3 unit. Access points were added to beef up RF coverage, and in June 2008, voice picking at Pierre’s went live. Productivity quickly skyrocketed, reducing the need for pickers from 15 to 9. Order accuracy went from 99.7 percent to a consistent 99.96 percent and above. And training is now a piece of cake.
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Safe & sound
Richard Turcsik - July, 2010
A vast array of safety and security measures ensures our food supply is the safest it’s ever been.
Once food is shipped to the warehouse, many warehouse managers are employing Voxware, a system that replaces the manual tasks of using clipboards and scanning with voice-activated software. “We have a lot of grocery customers who collect information regarding country of origin and lot numbers,” says CEO Scott Yetter.
According to Steve Gerrard, Voxware’s vice president of marketing, much of the information needed for the Produce Traceability Initiative simply isn’t captured because it was never required before, and that can add up to an added expense that is sent through the supply chain. “Our customers have been talking to us about how they can capture this information without having to raise prices unrealistically high or reduce margins,” he says. “You need to be able to make sure that at the point where the food is being handled that the correct steps are being taken.” -
Voxware launches Voice Picking Blog
Modern Materials Handling Staff - June, 2010
Company extends an invitation to share your voice about voice.
“Voice picking technology has evolved tremendously in recent years, with a profound shift away from custom, proprietary technology in favor of open voice solutions that maximize flexibility and control,” said Scott Yetter, Voxware president and CEO. “Voxware’s Voice Picking Blog serves as an important vehicle for communicating timely insights as voice technology enters the mainstream and continues to evolve at a rapid pace.”
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Belron picks Voxware
LogisticsManager.com - June, 2010
Glass repair company Belron has chosen Voxware software for one of its largest distribution centres.
John Cooper, head of logistics at Laddaw, said: “We selected Voxware because they offer a packaged software product with a toolset for configuring voice solutions… We also wanted an open and configurable software product to give us flexibility for the future to enable a global roll-out across our distribution centres.”
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Voxware's voice-directed picking system expands into new markets
DC Velocity Staff - May, 2010
Voice-directed picking systems are appealing to new audiences, thanks to a decline in the price of hardware, the availability of system-agnostic hardware, and increasing integration with other technologies, such as bar-code scanning.
Scott Yetter, president and CEO of Voxware, said these trends are opening up new markets for voice systems both inside and outside the warehouse. External applications where voice is making inroads include direct-to-store delivery and yard management, he said. Retail, grocery and food distribution, and consumer packaged goods continue to be strong markets for voice.
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Voice technology: It’s all about the software at Voxware
Bob Trebilcock - March, 2010
What’s happening in voice is mirroring a phenomenon that already happened in materials handling equipment. Today, systems are faster because software allows them to operate smarter, not because the motors are running at higher speeds.
While most companies I visit use scanning guns from a single vendor so they don’t have to carry extra inventory and parts - they’re a Motorola house or an Intermec house - in theory, the guns and mobile computers can plug and play. Now that same thing is happening in voice and that’s probably a good thing for end users and voice
technology overall. “It’s validation of the space,” said Yetter. “It shows an end user that voice is no longer a science project. It’s an open market where users have options.” -
Voice Broadens Its Horizons
Maida Napolitano - July, 2009
Over the last five years, voice technology went from “bleeding edge” to “leading edge” to ultimately joining the ranks of other affordable, reliable technologies for use in picking operations. Here’s where it’s going and how it’s being applied by two savvy DC managers.
The verdict is in and there’s very little debate: Voice-directed picking has proven time and again that it can help companies make significant strides in productivity, accuracy, and safety improvement. By converting pick lists to voice commands and transmitting them to workers via headsets linked to wearable, mobile computers over wireless networks, voice allows workers to free their hands and eyes for the most important task at hand—the picking of product. And by all accounts, interest in voice, especially in grocery and retail verticals, is not expected to wane anytime soon.
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Best Practices: Voice Directed Picking
April, 2009
What’s been the hottest automatic identification technology used to improve the productivity of order pickers in warehouses over the last few years? If you guessed voice, you’re right. The advantage of hands-free picking can lead to significant efficiencies over traditional RF-directed picking, especially in carton and each picking operations.
That’s one of the reasons Dunkin’Donuts replaced a paper-based system with a voice-directed order picking system (Voxware) at its Mid-Atlantic distribution center in Westhampton, N.J. In fact, Dunkin’ bypassed bar code scanning altogether. The result: Double-digit productivity gains and increased accuracy. But beyond that, the donut maker has also seen a better, safer work environment, and a 50% drop in turnover.
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Plan for a Better Supply Chain
Erin Harris - September, 2008
Industry experts agree that the road to an efficient supply chain is paved with proper inventory and order management techniques at the store and warehouse levels. Retailers have to make intelligent forecasting decisions about inventory and product demand to strengthen and streamline the supply chain. When store-level decisions and increased warehouse productivity drive the entire supply chain, speed to market increases while shrink and waste decrease.
Effective warehouse management aids in the supply chain’s speed to market by increasing productivity. For instance, voice-based applications used in conjunction with inventory applications increase efficiency with picking, put away, loading, and receiving. “Voice-based applications lead to efficient warehouse management because employees don’t have to write anything down or punch in numbers,” explains Scott Yetter, CEO and president of Voxware. “Their hands are free, and more importantly, their eyes are free, which results in increased productivity and fewer errors.”