A new communications protocol and interface developed by Dematic and Paperless Warehousing (PW) makes the productivity benefits of Voice Directed Technology available to hundreds of PW users throughout Australia and overseas.
PW’s Scott Symons said: “The development of a direct connect interface to our WMS eliminates the need for middleware. This means PW users can now implement Voice Directed Technology in a real time environment and take full advantage of the technology’s proven productivity gains. Whilst PW has had Voice technology for several years, Dematic’s solution in regards to hardware and Voice recognition software is second to none.”
Since Dematic introduced Voice Directed Technology to Australia, hundreds of companies have embraced the concept, achieving significant bottom line savings through increased productivity, accuracy and throughput, reduced labour costs and better workplace safety.
Dematic now supports more than 7,000 voice users in the field across a wide range of logistics applications such as 3PL, Pharmaceutical, Apparel, Discount Variety, Food, Beverage and Ports.
Voice picking prompts the operator through a series of tasks with clear, verbal commands, which are transmitted in real time by a wireless data network that interfaces with the user's warehouse management system.
The operator wears a headset and a lightweight, portable voice recognition computer is attached to a belt around their waist. This keeps both hands and eyes free at all times while working. Because the operator doesn't need to waste time looking at and reading data on a computer screen or picking list, scanning or handling and applying labels, productivity increases substantially.
Voice technology also improves order picking accuracy, with users often achieving accuracy rates of 99.95%. To verify they have reached the correct location, pickers are asked to read a randomly assigned check digit on the slot. This makes the system virtually fool-proof, eliminating costly picking errors and improving customer service levels. Barcodes, scanners and labels are generally not required, providing further savings.
Learn more about Voice Directed Technology
“It is exciting for us to offer the benefits of our real time Voice Directed Technology to PW’s extensive user base in Australia and overseas,” said Dematic’s General Manager of Real Time Logistics, Nathan Taylor.
“Voice Directed Technology has proven to be a superior solution to RF for order picking, typically delivering productivity improvements of 10% or more. It also maintains and builds on the very high accuracy rates for which PW’s WMS is renowned.
“RF users who switch to Voice Directed Technology also benefit from greatly reduced maintenance costs as there is no terminal to drop, or screen to smash,” added Mr Taylor.
“In fact, the reduction in maintenance costs of moving to Voice from RF Terminals can at times provide an ROI of less than 12 months, without even considering the productivity increases.”
PW’s WMS covers all areas of warehouse functionality including:
- Receiving
- Put-away
- Cross docking
- Order picking
- Replenishment
- Interleaving
- Dispatch
“Our operations-based approach to building warehouse management systems, which only contain the actual functionality that customers need, makes PW a very affordable WMS solution,” said PW’s Scott Symons.
“As demands increase or as business requirements change and grow, our systems can be easily enhanced to provide greater functionality, again at a very competitive cost.”
Other WMS modules available from PW include:
- 3PL or multi-owner mode
- Logistics provider/business unit billing
- Pallet type tracking
- Batch/lot tracking
- Random weight tracking
- Serial number tracking
- Load planning/truck loading
- Dock/Yard management
- Dangerous goods management
- Production/raw materials management
- Container park management
- High frequency batch picking.
PW has more than 3000 users in Australia across a wide range of industries and applications. PW’s WMS is also in operation in over 12 countries overseas. Its largest single site is in South America, where the WMS supports the real time operations of more than 150 pickers on site, facilitating the timely and accurate distribution of more than 2,100,000 items per day!
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