Voice in logistics: hands free, fewer errors and greater insight

Disadvantages of working with hand terminals

There are also disadvantages to this method. For example, your employees do not have their hands free. They have to put their handheld terminal away or in its holster every time they want to put products on the picking trolley. An additional risk is that the employees’ eyes are constantly on the screen of their hand terminals. With all those forklift trucks and reach trucks driving around in a DC, this results in dangerous situations. A good alternative is order picking with a voice solution.

How does Voice technology work?

Voice technology works on the basis of voice recognition. Your logistics staff are fitted with headphones with microphone and a handy, wireless computer that hangs on their belt or is placed on the pick trolley. Through their headphones they receive instructions, such as ‘walk to aisle 5, section 8 and pick 20 items of article X’. After following the instructions, the logistics employee confirms this by voice through the microphone.

You can arrange the entire logistics process in advance. You can lay down procedures about all instructions to be received and the confirmation that must be given in response. For example, the employee can say in confirmation: ’20 items of item X picked’. You can also preset error messages. If the stock of item X is not sufficient, the employee reports that he picked 10 instead of 20. The system then automatically turns this order into a partial delivery. One of the advantages of voice is that employees have their hands free and do not have to constantly stare at their screens. It is more pleasant and more efficient.

Voice solutions can be perfectly integrated in Warehouse Management Systems. Major WMS vendors such as SAP and Oracle have standard modules for interfacing with voice.

Voice detection in 30 seconds

Of course, the use of a new solution also requires a critical attitude: Will I be wearing the same headphones tomorrow that my colleague is wearing today? Will the device recognise my voice if I have a cold? How does the system deal with my heavy accent?

Voice recognition has become enormously intelligent in recent years. The system needs about 30 seconds to learn a voice. Including accent, speech restriction and/or cold. Hygiene is never a problem. Each employee has his own headset and keeps it in his own locker. The computers are in a rack. You hardly ever touch them. You put on a belt, receive instructions and can start working.