Is Voice Picking the best method for my warehouse?
The answer to this question depends on the potential gain in Accuracy, Productivity, Quality, Ergonomics and Safety that you company may achieve by moving to a voice directed warehouse.
As a general rule of thumb the most significant benefits are achieved in low margin, high volume, labour intensive case picking operations. A minimum picking team size of 10 is another useful criteria when establishing the suitability of voice technology to your business.
Giving pickers the ability to work hands free can be particularly important in certain processes or environments. For example:
- Picking multiple small items from densely populated pick bin faces
- Frozen and chilled food warehouses, where gloves hamper the use of RF terminals.
- Picking heavy cases or single items
Likewise there are some scenarios where Voice picking may not be the most appropriate picking method: for example pick tasks requiring the input of long serial numbers ( although this could be addressed with a multimodal voice system), bulk item picking (for example huge paper rolls or whole pallet picking by forklift), picking very limited SKU numbers from a single bay or small zone. In typical warehouse environments though, Voice is as fast or faster than either paper or RF and is much less costly than pick to light.
Voice picking frees up the picker hands and eyes, allowing them to get from location to location faster and to select items faster. Voice allows pickers to focus on picking, rather than on terminal displays, lists or lights & switches.
If you would like to explore how an eSmart Voice system could transform your warehouse operations why not complete our Voice picking ROI Calculator form. Here we will collect some key metrics on your current warehouse performance and create an ROI statement tailored to your business. From this statement our voice experts can quickly identify if voice is a good fit to your operation and provide an indication of the savings that an eSmart voice system could bring to your business.
If you'd like to speak to a member of our team directly call us now on 01254 688 088 or email us today! More contact details here.
