By Kim Ann Zimmermann
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from Grocery Headquarters magazine, presented here for discussion.
For the past decade or more, grocery warehouse workers have been hearing voices in their heads. Not a cry for psychiatric help, these voices are directing them where to head next to pick the items needed to complete shipments to the stores.
While most of the work in speech recognition has been in the area of picking, primarily for dry goods, many grocers and third-party warehouse operators are looking to expand the technology's use to other areas of the DC, such as restocking and putaways.
As voice-directed systems help guide pickers from order to order more efficiently, operators also talk back, using their voices instead of keyboards to let the system know that they picked up that pallet of tomatoes. Once transactions are recognized and the system is updated, workers are directed to their next assignments. They also promise greater efficiencies over bar code scanning as well as the paper-based systems.
One of the factors driving increased interest in the use of voice recognition technology is its availability on standard hardware devices such as PDAs and handheld computers. Previously, supermarkets and warehouse operators looking to implement voice recognition had to invest in costly specialized hardware.
"This is an opportunity to buy less expensive terminals that are less expensive to run and can do more," said Larry Sweeney, vice president and product manager at Vocollect, a provider of voice recognition technology. "If I'm a grocery company and I own 1,000 dedicated terminals, the maintenance cost goes from $600 to $200 for an industry-standard device."
The move of voice toward standardized equipment also enables the devices to be used for other applications on the shop floor and even in the stores.
"Everything is going mobile, so operators can use one unique terminal to carry out different tasks alternating between voice and traditional bar code reading, what we refer to as multi-modal applications," says Bruce Bowen, vice president of sales for Aldata Solution, a supply chain technology provider.
Productivity will be further enhanced when RFID becomes more common. For instance, when an out-of-stock product is received at the store and passes through an RFID reader, a team could be alerted by voice and directed to expedite it to the retail shelf. The team member may also use a wearable RFID reader to locate and verify the correct product. A similar system marrying voice and RFID could be used for discontinued, recalled or expired items, as well as time-sensitive promotional items.
As the technologies advance and become less expensive, grocers may consider using the systems in trucks, in the back room and even on the store floor.
"Say the voice system was working in concert with RFID," said Mr. Sweeney. "The driver could roll the pallets past an RFID scanner as he unloaded the truck, and he would be immediately alerted by voice if he took the wrong order into the store. The store staff could get an immediate voice alert if there was an out-of-stock situation if the shelves were equipped with RFID readers. The night crew could be directed by voice as they stock the shelves at night. There is huge potential going forward."
Discussion Questions: How do you think the rollout of speech recognition technology will transform the warehouse and supply chain? What processes do you think they could particularly benefit?