Is this really any different than texting-while-driving?

With the rising numbers of texting-related driving accidents, more and more states are banning texting while driving (to see the laws in your State, use this link).  But think about this: is texting while driving really any worse than using paper pick lists or an RF terminal in a distribution center, especially if you’re “driving” a pallet jack or fork lift?

So maybe it’s time to bring the same thinking to the distribution center floor, where associate distraction is a leading factor in lost-time injuries, in addition to picking errors and lost productivity. The answer: put down the terminal, put down the pick lists, and let Jennifer™ guide you by voice.

We All Do It
I’ll admit it, and I’d guess that most of you would admit to being distracted by a cell phone in the car, or even texting while driving.  At the very least, we’ve all seen someone else on the road making bad lane changes or blowing through an intersection while holding a phone to their ear or in their hand!  Put a hands-free headset on the phone, use voice recognition to dial calls, stop reading your texts and emails, and you’ve improved your concentration on the driving task, making the roads safer for everyone. (For another view on the subject of texting-while-driving, see Mitch MacDonald’s commentary in the April issue of DC Velocity magazine.)

Now think about the distribution center associate who is juggling paper lists, pens, and/or RF terminals, looking for locations, looking for correct items, and trying to remember the correct quantity to pick, in some cases while maneuvering a cart, pallet jack, or other equipment.  Compare the eyes and hands-free driving experience to the life of the DC picker and you’ll start to appreciate how voice direction and voice recognition improve associate safety.

Quantifying the Safety Benefits?
Do it Best’s DC in Waco, Texas has a big banner hanging out front touting 2+ years since a lost-time injury. Brent Watts, the DC General Manager, says the Jennifer voice system is a big reason for their spotless safety record. It’s hard to quantify the direct dollars and cents safety benefits of voice since there are lots of factors that contribute to safety. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that voice makes for a safer workplace, just as texting-free roadways are safer roadways.

What are your thoughts? Is paper-based order picking really as bad as texting while driving? Submit a comment to join the conversation.

Last week Do it Best Corp. opened the doors of its Waco, TX Distribution Center to folks from other warehouses in the area. Do it Best has a great success story to tell (use this link to see a video case study about Do it Best), but that wasn’t the most striking thing about the tour. What struck me was how surprised most of the tour attendees were by the depth and richness of the Do it Best System compared to legacy voice systems they had seen at other DCs.

The fact is, most operations people today have a general understanding of voice, since its been around for years and is no longer a true “bleeding edge” technology. But when you get beyond the voice-picking basics, it’s amazing the degree of flexibility available in today’s voice applications. There are an almost limitless number of ways to handle exceptions, configure voice dialogues for different users, and combine scanning with voice. And beyond the hands-on user capabilities, today’s voice applications also provide incredibly rich management reporting and process management tools that help supervisors do their jobs better. Long story short, if you haven’t seen a modern voice system in use, you might be surprised by what you see.

We will be posting the dates and locations for upcoming Voice-Directed DC tours on this blog. So if you’re interested in taking part in a future event, and seeing Jennifer up close and personal, sign up for blog updates using the box at the top of this page. (Or fill out our request form and we’ll add you to our mailing list.)

How do you feel about hosting or attending warehouse tours? Are DC visits more valuable than trade shows and conferences? Or do trade shows and tours serve different needs: education versus networking, etc.? Please submit a comment to join the discussion.

This post was written by John H. Schriefer at Lucas Systems, Inc.

The number of warehouse voice solutions has multiplied over the past 3-5 years, as described in our earlier blog post depicting the Voice Picking technology market. With all these new voice products, distribution and IT executives have to weigh many options when considering voice. Here are three things to look for when considering a voice system for your warehouse:

1. If users shout, swear and repeat themselves when using the software, there’s a problem.

• With proven voice solutions, mis-recognition of what a user says is rare, even in the noisy warehouse. With sub-standard recognition, you may force your users to repeat themselves.
• Besides reducing productivity, poor recognition will frustrate users and lead to low user acceptance. You’ve probably experienced this frustration with a bank or insurance company’s voice-directed call center.
• There are lots of good, robust speech recognition engines on the market, but it takes unique expertise to ensure flawless recognition across users, accents, mobile terminals, and noisy warehouse environments. (For some background and history on speech recognition, read this Wikipedia entry on speech recognition.)
• To avoid problems, any vendor you consider should have multiple voice systems in production running on different hardware platforms in a variety of warehouse settings. And don’t assume what works in a conference room demo will work on your warehouse floor.

2. Quick-and-dirty voice-enablement probably won’t give you the big improvements you want from voice.

• In recent years, a new category of voice-enablement tool kits have been introduced that promise to rapidly voice-enable an existing RF-based workflow.
• The advantage of a so-called voice-scraping approach (using a tool to screen scrape and voice-enable an existing RF workflow) is that it is quick and cheap.
• Many DCs that compare voice-scraping applications to RF-based processes typically see little improvement in user productivity and accuracy.
• The limitation of voice-scraping is that it creates a voice system with a workflow that was designed for RF, rather than a voice optimized process.

Voice-scraping uses a screen-based RF workflow with voice

3. Voice is not just a substitute for RF or lights.

• The shortcomings of voice-scraping tools apply to voice applications that are voice-enabled versions of existing RF or pick-to-light systems – including some WMS voice add-ons.
• Voice-enabled applications may provide some performance gains compared to paper-based processes, but they typically don’t generate the really dramatic gains possible with voice.
• A true voice-centric application should provide a tailored workflow that is optimized for voice. Think of this as voice-empowerment rather than voice-enablement.
• Finally, today’s most advanced voice systems can combine voice, scanning and other technologies in a seamless voice-directed workflow. These multi-modal or voice-plus systems generate efficiency gains beyond what you could achieve with a first-generation voice-only system. Lucas is the pioneer of voice-plus applications and RSR Group is one example of a company that is using scanning and voice in a single application – check out this voice-plus video to learn more about RSR’s integrated technology choices.

Send us your input, feedback or questions. Do you have any experience with voice toolkits or other voice-enablement systems? What about WMS voice modules – have you compared your WMS voice process and workflow to the WMS RF workflow?

This post was written by John H. Schriefer at Lucas Systems, Inc.

Over the past ten years voice-directed warehouse applications have moved from a handful of early adopters to the mainstream of DCs. As a result, more and more new vendors and consultants are out there promoting voice as the next big thing. Rather than helping DC managers and operations execs understand how voice can help them, this profusion of new vendors has led to overblown claims and confusion about the best approach to using voice in challenging DC environments. So what does this have to do with pigs and lipstick? Read on.

The voice software market (distinct from the voice hardware market) has evolved into two general categories: Voice Applications and Voice Development Kits. (Use this link to watch a selection of videos of voice-directed picking and other warehouse voice applications.)

Voice Applications
Voice Applications are standalone software products for voice-directed picking and other warehouse processes. They typically extend and supplement existing WMS, host and other back-end systems, rather than replacing or duplicating their functions.

Lucas Systems pioneered the warehouse voice application market as the first vendor to develop voice-picking software running on third-party hardware. Our earliest Jennifer™ systems used the voice-only hardware of other companies, including Verbex, Vocollect and Voxware. Since 2004, we redeveloped our voice software from the ground up to run on the open, industry standard RF devices from big mobile computing companies like Symbol Technologies (which was purchased by Motorola in 2007), LXE, and Intermec. In the last few years the providers of legacy voice-only hardware have also made their software available as standalone voice packages.

At the same time, a number of all-new vendors have also entered the fray, including material handling system providers, WMS vendors offering voice add-ons, system integrators, and software development companies. Many of these newer vendors have little voice experience, so they resell the voice applications of other companies. Others offer a voice-enabled version of an existing RF- or pick-to-light system, rather than a voice-centric product designed to optimize your process for voice. This type of voice-enablement is like putting lipstick on a pig. It may look better, but it’s still a pig. Which brings us to Voice Development Kits.

Voice Development Kits
Voice development kits fall into two categories: customization kits tied to a standard voice application package and so-called voice-scraping tools. Voice-scraping tools allow developers to build a simple voice front-end to an existing screen- and scan-based system. These screen-scraping for voice solutions use an existing RF-based workflow with voice direction and voice data-entry instead of screens and scans. Think of lipstick on a pig. On the other side, Lucas and other voice application vendors offer toolkits that allow third party vendors or in-house development teams to customize a voice application package.

Why It Matters
In the end, more competition in the voice picking marketplace is good for customers: It drives us all to find new and better ways to leverage voice to generate cost savings and improve customer service. On the other hand, Buyer Beware: don’t confuse lipstick with a voice makeover.

In our next entry, we’ll look at three things to consider when thinking about voice in your DC, including the pros and cons of voice-scraping and the difference between voice-enablement and voice-empowerment.