Going beyond picking: How can voice create efficiencies

Today’s Class:

Going beyond picking: How can voice create efficiencies

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Thomas Goldsby

Professor

James A. Haslam, II Chair of Logistics

The University of Tennessee Knoxville

Speakers

Peter LaGow

Presales Consultant

Körber Supply Chain

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Why are we here? What are we trying to accomplish?

Class Schedule:

• September 8: Going beyond picking: How can voice create efficiencies

• September 10: Digital Twins: Stimulating efficiencies in your warehouse

• September 15: Hands-free warehouses: How voice and vision improve safety

• September 17: How robots can increase safety in your warehouse

• September 22: Adding automation to improve safety and increase productivity

Master Class Series – On-Demand

• Addressing Labor Challenges

• Cold Storage Trends

• Warehouse Technology Excellence

Supply Chain Master Class: Workforce Efficiencies & Safety

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All phone lines are muted

Recording of today’s class and slides will be emailed to you within 48 hours

Questions:

• Ask questions during today’s class in the GoToWebinar Questions window

• Questions will be addressed at the end of today’s class or we will follow up with questions via email after class

Handout: Voice Beyond Picking

Poll Question: Which of the following processes are you using Voice for?

Housekeeping

Challenging the “Productivity vs. Safety” Paradigm

“Many employees feel productivity pulls them in one direction while safety tugs in the other. The

creation of this safety-vs-production dichotomy usually comes from one of three sources:

• Lack of strategy

• Conflicting organizational and safety strategies

• Disconnect between strategy and practice in the workplace”

- Terry L. Mathis, EHS Today (May 2017)

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“When implementing the voice system into the picking process, it is typical to see increases in productivity ranging from 10-35%, increases in accuracy up to 85%, and decreases in training

time by 70% or more, all while delivering ROI in an average of 9-12 months.”

“When dealing with a box-cutter or lifting a heavy object, it is imperative that the picker be able to easily use their hands. With voice picking, the picker keeps their hands free at all times, eliminating the potential for injuries or damages caused by lifting or cutting an item with a

scanner or piece of paper in hand.”

The Role of Voice

- Voice Beyond Picking,

Körber Supply Chain whitepaper (August 2020)

- Tailar Kennedy, “What is Voice Picking?”

Körber Supply Chain Technology Blog (June 17, 2020)

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What is Voice?

Conversational Voice

Smartphone Searches

Home Assistants: Amazon, Google

Vehicle Navigation: GPS

Automated Phone Systems

Use Case: Low-Med Volume, Simple, Low Background Noise

Transactional Voice

Use Case: Speed, Complex, Noisy

DC Workflows

Time-Sensitive Inspection Steps

Complex Processes

Use Case: High Volume, Complex, Any Background Noise

Created for

Enterprise

Business:

Timeliness

and Accuracy

are Critical

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How Voice is Faster

• Measure using UOM: ‘Time to Action’

• For each piece of information:

1. Focus

2. Comprehend

3. Decision

Take Action

Discard

• RF Screen: Time to Action = 8 lines

• Discard 7 lines, Act on the 8th

• Voice: Time to Action = 1 prompt

• “Pick 100 to position 1”

• All of the addl. information is still there! Just ask

• ‘So What?’

• Train the function, not the form-factor

• Reduce fatigue

• Sustain increased productivity

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Where is Voice used?

Picking

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Adaptable Technology

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Directed Putaway

• Read screen for location

• Scan location

• Read screen for quantity

• Key in quantity

RF

• Scan LPN

• Voice directs to location

• Scan location

• Speak quantity

Multimodal• Speak last 4 of LPN


• Speak check digit

• Speak quantity

Voice Optimized

Highlights

• Automate instruction of material movement

• Same functional accuracy as RF

• Promote proper lifting technique

• Heads up, eyes free while driving

Other Factors / Considerations

• Built-in scanner allows scanning LPN

• Ring scanner can increase scan speed

• Simple ways to collect addl. attributes if needed

• Scan LPN

• Read Screen for

Location

• Scan Location

• Read screen for Quantity

• Key in Quantity

• Read screen for locations

• Scan locations

• Scan UPC

• Key in quantity

RF

• Voice directs to locations

• Scan locations

• Scan UPC

• Speak quantity

Multimodal• Voice directs locations

• Speak checkdigit

• Speak quantity

Voice Optimized

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Replenishment

Highlights

• Automate instruction of material movement

• Same functional accuracy as RF

• Eliminate device handling

• Similar value prop. as Picking


• Checkdigit can be unique to location and item

• Interleaving w/ other processes

• Ring scanner can speed up all scans

• Read screen for location

• Scan location

• Read screen for item

• Scan item

• Count

• Key in counted quantity

RF


• Scan location

• Voice prompts item

• Scan item

• Speak count as you go

Multimodal• Voice directs to location

• Speak checkdigit

• Voice prompts item

• Speak last 3 of UPC

• Speak count as you go

Voice Optimized

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Cycle Counting

Highlights

• Voice keeps track of count for you (count-up)

• Added focus / organization reduces recounts

• Drastic increase to productivity


• By location or by item

• Easily interleaved with Picking

• Can combine location / item verif.

Questions & Discussion

Digital Twins: Simulating efficiencies in your warehouse

When considering building a greenfield or upgrading a brownfield facility, warehouse simulation software allows operations to create a digital twin to test the impact of changes.

Join us on Thursday, September 10 as Simon Shore discusses how best to streamline processes and direct movement throughout the warehouse using digital twins to make a more efficient and safer work environment.

Contributor:

Simon Shore

Managing Director

Körber Supply Chain

Next Supply Chain Master Class

15

Going beyond picking: How can voice create efficiencies

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