Pet Supermarket Keeps Growth on Track Without Adding Staff or Expanding Its DC
Pet Supermarket’s DC was growing beyond the capacity of a paper-based picking process that restricted efficiency. The manual system generated over 1,500 sheets of paper a day, creating clerical work for three full-time associates, and making it difficult for front-line supervisors to react to shorts and manage production throughout the day. They had been using barcode scanning for receiving and replenishment, but managers had determined they needed a Lucas voice-directed optimization solution to achieve the productivity gains they were seeking.
About Pet Supermarket
Pet Supermarket is a leading pet supply retailer with more than 130 stores from coast to coast.
“This was the smoothest implementation of any technology I have been involved with in my 28 years.”
The Lucas Solution
The Lucas solution includes unique AI-based optimization that is embodied in Jennifer™, the brains, voice and orchestration engine of the solution.
Voice-directed applications running on open, multi-modal mobile computers.
Industry leading speech recognition technology that provides accurate, consistent recognition accuracy across the wide range of accents in the DC.
The management console enables supervisors to view stock outs, manage mark outs, and order let-downs immediately, reducing shorts.
- The management console also provides immediate insight into the status of picking, so that workers can be moved from one pick area to another to ensure all the orders get picked across all areas in a timely fashion.
The Results
The same number of pickers can process one-third more orders per day without overtime.
The previous two-week training period for new pickers has been reduced to 1-2 days.
New pickers can work as efficiently and productively as experienced workers within 1-2 weeks.
Prior to Lucas, two full-time clerical staff had to print and manage pick tickets. With Lucas, they are free to do other work.
“You can’t overestimate how much our associates appreciate picking with Jennifer. They’d probably quit if we tried to take it away.”
