Summer 2007

Voice-driven picking can play a crucial role in meeting the high customer expectation levels that dominate multi-channel retail operations. Sharon Clancy reports on the latest advances

Five short years ago, the idea of giving your warehouse staff headsets and getting them to do their stock picking in response to automated voice instructions would have seemed either highly avant garde or rather quaint.

Not any more. Voice-enabled warehouse management systems have gone mainstream, and few serious competitors in the warehouse management market now would dare not to offer at least some degree of voice capability in their systems.

Why? Well, the benefits of voice-enabling warehouse operations have become evident, especially in fast-moving consumer goods, multi-channel retail and food distribution sectors where all the early-adoption deployments occurred.

Basically, voice-enablement can usually offer very clear evidence of return on investment - sometimes over a remarkably short time span. The technology itself is already mature, and new developments are coming along all the time, making voice even easier to deploy as resellers and developers begin to resolve some of the remaining barriers.

Among the attractions of voice technology in the multi-channel retail sector, it is flexible, and is relatively easy to deploy, configure and use. It operates over the same 802.11b or 802.11g radio-frequency architecture already installed in many warehouses, so there is no requirement to abandon tried-and-trusted hardware for mission-critical operations. It will happily work alongside traditional pick and put-away technology.

• Voice can operate as a stand-alone system in one part of the warehouse (picking, for example)
• Piggybacked on to an existing WMS
• It can be part of a voice-oriented WMS which allows operations to be done by paper, voice or handheld terminal
• It can even be adopted in a system that uses the same handheld terminals for conventional task such as scanning.

'Voice has gone beyond the early-adopter phase and has reached the point where for many warehouse managers it is becoming a must-have rather than an option,' reports Raf Jezierski, marketing director at Vocollect Europe. 'Voice provides an opportunity achieve better management of warehouse activities and improve the welfare of workers though safer working.'

Duncan Smillie, managing director of Psion Teklogix, agrees. 'The shift towards greater use of voice technology is probably one of the most significant events in the logistics industry at the moment,' he says.

Raf Jezierski suggests one reason why demand for voice is likely to grow: many existing scanning operations are reaching the end of their life. 'For managers, the choice is either to stay with existing technology and upgrade terminals and RF network, or to switch to voice operations.'

Voxware's first-quarter results reveal an increase of 79 per cent in revenue and 172 per cent in software licences. President Scott Yett attributes much of this success to the decision a year ago to adopt service-orientated architecture. He says this makes it easier for developers and resellers to champion voice.

'Over a year ago Voxware delivered the first system of this type. You hear a lot of claims about SOA offerings these days, but most products can't actually deliver the benefits promised by SOA.'

Duncan Smillie sums up the attractions. 'More and more companies recognise the dramatic impact on productivity levels that you can achieve by introducing of voice recognition systems that enable order pickers to keep their eyes and hands free during their daily routine.'

He adds: 'Problems that held the sector back in the early days have all been resolved, and voice systems are now regarded as extremely reliable.'

Given that the early vendors of voice-directed systems claimed accuracy rates of over 99 per cent, there was understandably some initial scepticism about whether voice could deliver.

However, there is now a body of evidence demonstrating that this is exactly what voice can deliver. It equates to an error rate of just 10 per thousand picks, and there are regular reports of operations achieving 9.9 per cent accuracy. In the home delivery sector, such a result offers even greater benefits than in conventional retail, simply because erroneous deliveries to customers have greater impact on costs.

Moving from a paper-pick system to voice can reduce errors by 70 to 80 per cent, say advocates. ROI returns are high, says Anton Dupreez, business development manager for Vocollect, because there are accompanying savings in process steps and cost. 'Vocollect customers usually see ROI within twelve months or less, and typically they experience productivity gains of between 10 and 35 per cent, plus improved accuracy rates of 99.9 per cent and above, as well as reducing training time by around 50 per cent.'

Productivity improvements

Of course handheld terminals deliver more accuracy than paper in any case, but in existing handheld operations, voice can deliver another key benefit: between 10 to 20 per cent productivity improvements. Hands and eyes are free to focus on picking, so there is no time wasted checking pick lists, for example. With high-rate pick operations, you do not need to save much time per pick for a useful ROI. That's another benefit for time-sensitive fulfilment channels.

Voice is often deployed with enhancements to the WMS, delivering further benefits. Real-time communication, for example, allows real-time stock updating, which can deliver benefits in replenishment operations and reduce the need for re-picks.

Real-time stock updating is behind another trend: the extension of voice from pick operations into wider warehousing functions. Voice is now being deployed in put-away and replenishment operations as well, and some companies have even taken it into the despatch area. In stock replenishment, for example, it provides similar accuracy to handheld terminals, but offers enhanced safety - simply because the forklift truck driver is able to look ahead rather than at the truckmount terminal screen.

As Psion's Duncan Smillie puts it: 'The system can also be applied to achieve significant efficiencies throughout the supply chain operation - from goods-in to put-away, replenishment and even despatch. In fact, one of our clients runs its entire operation on voice technology, and the gains it has made been phenomenal.'

A more open policy

One of the deterrents to wider adoption of voice has been the need for middleware to provide the link between mobile terminals and legacy warehouse management systems. Another has been the need for specific protocols on handheld terminals for multi-function deployments. As a result, past voice hardware tended to be specific to hardware and WMS supplier. Now, however, a more open policy is being adopted by developers and resellers. They are recognising that one of the keys to encouraging greater take-up of voice technology is to make it simpler to deploy with as wide a range of WMS and middleware applications as possible.

Voxware has been a torch-bearer for non-proprietary, open standards in its voice solution, adopting service-oriented architecture, Java, voiceXML and web technology. Open standards allow WMS suppliers to take ownership of the voice part of the application.

Now Vocollect has also adopted this policy with the launch of its Voice Integration Platform. VoiceLink 3.0 has an open-interface architecture that allows Vocollect Voice applications to fit easily and cleanly within an enterprise-wide information technology, and aims to permit easy integration with a range of standard and custom warehouse management systems. The company says it has over 400,000 fully-tested configuration options, and that its technology has been designed to integrate with SOA platforms already in distribution centres.

Voxware also prefers to offer a standard voice solution for conventional data capture devices rather than link specifically with one hardware manufacture. Its just-launched version 3.0 software offers more flexibility and faster startups. User-based configuration replaces the more typical programming or code generation approach, and customers can independently change or extend voice workflows.

Hardware is plug-and-play; Voxware has a list of certified units compatible with its VoiceXML browser, VoxBrowser, which include units by LXE and Motorola.

Other handheld terminal suppliers are also coming forward with their own take on the voice market. Datalogic, for instance, has added voice technology to its Datalogic JetPDA and Kyman-Net mobile computers, and is integrating Nuance speech engines with vo-CE technology. The vo-CE software does not need middleware software or server; all that is needed it connection to a standard headset.

RedPrairie has become the latest software company to resell Voxware's SOA open voice software. 'Customers are demanding platform-independent systems that allow them more influence over system configuration,' says RedPrairie vice-president Gary Morgan. 'A true, end-to-end open system architecture enables our customers to deploy the hardware of choice independent of the voice software, which lowers total cost of ownership.' It also gives RedPrairie the opportunity to customise voice workflows to suit operations, and to integrate voice easily into subsequent releases of its WMS, he points out.

Peak Technologies (now part of Zetes) is deploying voice solutions to integrate with SAP's Logistics Execution System modules. It enables workers to use voice to communicate with SAP supply chain management systems for tasks such as goods receiving, pallet put-away, let down, and stock checking. Zetes itself claims a 50 per cent share of the pan-European voice technology market, supplying Metro in Germany, Syst�me U in France and Migros in Switzerland. It is now targeting retailers in Great Britain following a successful deployment with Northern Ireland Spar franchise holder Hendersons.

Vendors promoting voice

The developments at Red Prairie and Zetes demonstrate the increasingly active role WMS vendors now have in promoting voice as a solution to improve supply chain processes. 'WMS vendors are offering voice as a solution rather than reacting to customer requests for voice,' says Vocollect's Jezierski.

For customers still trying to determine the potential ROI on voice, WMS provider BCP has an online payback calculator for voice-directed picking. For newcomers to voice, BCP's advice is to ensure that any in any voice solution, the speech synthesis and recognition should be carried out on the unit, so that only data is transmitted over the RF network. Although not common in the UK, there are systems that transmit voice over the network, but this can soon use up the available bandwidth, requiring high-performance voice servers.

Voice technology is available across all of BCP's Accord's warehouse management modules, including order picking, goods receiving, stock-taking, put-away and picking face replenishment. The voice modules can be part of a full Accord supply chain implementation, a stand-alone WMS to interface to third-party order processing and stock systems, and as an addition to a legacy WMS.

Voice is no longer restricted to picking operations, says David Stanhope, managing director of reseller and developer VoiteQ. 'We believe that any warehouse function currently carried out on a handheld terminal can be converted to voice.'

VoiteQ has VoiceMan middleware for voice-directed warehouse operations and Logicman, a full voice-controlled WMS. Although used mainly for standard order picking by customer, Voiceman also provides the capabilities to do pick by line pallet building, replenishment, cross-docking, stock checking and goods in. All VoiteQ data is stored in open-access SQL databases, making it easy for customers to get at their own key data.

In the past, voice-directed hardware tended to be supplier-specific, but as with WMS, there is now a more open approach. 'Our customers will no longer be locked into expensive, proprietary voice hardware,' reports LXE president and general manager Jim Childress. LXE's VX6 and VX7 were among the first standard vehicle-mounted computers to be used in voice-driven logistics applications, while its MX3X and MX7 are dual-use, handheld computers. Psion Teklogix has voice-enabled its popular Workabout Pro terminal for combined operations. Symbol's MC9060 combines the MC9000 rugged mobile computer with voice recognition.

David Stanhope of VoiteQ takes a similar view. 'The biggest change in voice developments in the past year has been that customers who were looking at dedicated voice terminals for part of their warehouse operations are now considering a voice-enabled handheld data capture units instead,' he says. 'A voice-enabled terminal gives flexibility and allows you to switch the device between goods-in and picking to cover peak periods and voice and conventional data capture methods.'

More hardware manufacturers have voice-enabled their terminals. Terminals that combine scanning and voice can deliver the best solution for some operations, helping managers use voice in those areas of the business where it will deliver the most ROI, and scanning for others. It can also help the transition to voice.

Datalogic has added voice technology to its Datalogic JetPDA and Kyman-Net mobile computers, and is integrating Nuance speech engines with vo-CE technology. The vo-CE software does not need middleware software or server; all that is needed it connection to a standard headset.

Voice has quickly become established as a tool that can deliver cost-savings in a variety of warehouse scenarios and multi-channel fulfilment operations. For many managers, the question has become not whether to consider switching to voice, but where in the fulfilment chain voice can deliver the best ROI.

Case study Voice streamlines home furnishing operation

Home soft furnishings and textiles retailer Marston Mills has just begun to implement a fully integrated supply chain system that includes Voiteq's LogicMan voice-directed warehouse management solution and CentriQ.

The company is about to replace its existing batch-processing paper-based WMS, recognising that it creates inefficiencies and bottlenecks which even the most proficient pickers and short-term fixes cannot fully compensate for.

The Keighley-based company has several routes to market, including 265 retail outlets, a contracts operation and a home furnishing division serving independent retailers. All the divisions operate from the same warehouse and there is some stock-sharing, although different barcodes apply.

A particular problem facing Marston Mills pickers is that there is a huge variety of pick options for a single product. 'Our operation is what I call messy picking,' says logistics director Graham Martin. 'The chances of mispicks are high because a single product such as a sheet can come in three or four different sizes, numerous colours and styles. We try to minimise the problem by allocating pickers to specific aisles, and rely on their product knowledge to reduce incidences of mispicks. Switching to voice will eliminate the majority of these issues.'

LogicMan incorporates Vocollect's Voice and Talkman 5 wearable voice terminals. Instructions about the task in hand are sent by the WMS to the picker's headset by his voice terminal in real time.

CentriQ is a product maintenance system that allows order and delivery schedules, pricing and range to be controlled from the centre using a synchronised database.

'LogicMan will revolutionise our warehouse operation with real-time stock control, accurate deliveries to store. This will,for the first time, give full visibility of the entire operation and help to take the business forward.'