What is Pick to Voice? Benefits & More

Pick to Voice Order Picking

Order Fulfillment System using Voice Pick

A popular warehouse order picking technology is called voice picking or voice directed picking. We've put together this page on voice picking systems to answer the following common questions about what it is, how it works and it's benefits:

• What is voice directed picking?
• What are the benefits of voice directed picking warehousing systems?
• What are ideal applications for voice picking?
• How does voice directed picking work?
• What is the best voice directed picking technology?

What is Voice Directed Picking/ Voice Picking?

Voice picking or voice directed picking is an order picking technology that has been adopted by many warehouse fulfillment systems. It is an order fulfillment system that helps improve picking productivity and accuracy. By eliminating the need to handle paper, voice picking makes the order fulfillment process more efficient. With paper picking, the pick ticket(s) are in the operator's hand, on a cart, or the forklift and the operator travels through most of the warehouse in search of the general location of the item. Once the pick bay is located, then the actual order picking process begins. However with voice directed picking, you eliminate handling the paper and manually searching for the next location to go to. In other words, operators go "hands free" picking, dramatically increasing picking productivity.

Eliminate Paper Picking Go Hands Free Multilingual

Order pickers are simply directed by voice where to go next. Once they reach the pick bay, the order picker is then directed by voice what to pick.

What are the benefits of voice directed picking?

As mentioned earlier, voice directing picking systems allows you to go “paperless picking”. By eliminating the time consuming and manual labor of having your order pickers read each SKU item to pick line by line and having them travel throughout the entire warehouse for an order, you can greatly improve productivity and accuracy. With a voice directed picking system, orders are downloaded from your existing host or WMS computer and then optimized to reduce labor costs related to paper picking. In short, voice picking order fulfillment systems allows any order fulfillment warehouse operations to:

• Increased picking accuracy
• Increased inventory accuracy
• Increased employee productivity
• Improved safety
• Reduced new worker training time
• Increases job satisfaction for warehouse associates
• Eliminates cost of printing and distributing picking documents
• Growing customer satisfaction

One of the great productivity benefits of voice-based systems is that they allow operators to do two things at once whereas other media used in warehouses such as paper or radio frequency terminals tend to require that you surrender the use of at least one hand or you have to stop and read something before proceeding. This productivity benefit tends to be inversely related to the fraction of an operator's day spent walking.

What are ideal applications for Pick to Voice systems?

Voice directed warehousing systems are best fit for any warehouse order fulfillment operations that does piece picking or broken case picking. These operations typically have a large quantity of SKUs that is running a highly labor intensive order picking operations. If you find that 20% of your products or SKUS require 80% of the picking labor, this type of pick to light system would improve your productivity and even accuracy. Below are some ideal voice picking applications:

• eCommerce & Mail-Order
• Apparel & Footwear
• Automotive Aftermarket Parts
• Food, Beverage & Grocery
• Pharmaceutical
• Health & Beauty
• Reverse Logistics
• Consumer Goods Manufacturing
• Value-Added & Customized Products to Order
• Retail
• Vending

 

How does Voice Directed Picking work?

We won’t go into the technical details of how the system communicates at each level throughout the voice picking order fulfillment process, but we’ll explain the main components involved with a FastFetch voice directed picking warehouse system.  
Step 1: Add the voice directed picking software to your existing WMS or host computer  
Step 2: Add voice directed hardware. With FastFetch a headset is not used, instead a Tablet PC directs pickers where to go.
 Step 3: Get your order pickers acquainted with the new picking system! It will be their new best friend!

What is the best voice directed picking technology on the market?

We've put our FastFetch voice directed picking video next to the typical voice directed picking. See the videos yourself and see how much FASTER FastFetch is compared to the typical voice directed picking systems:

While, we would like to simply say that FastFetch order fulfillment systems is the best voice directed picking system on the market, we’d like to explain why we think it is so. FastFetch is a 3-in-1 directed picking technology that combines voice directed picking, pick to light, and bar code scan picking. In side by side comparisons, it is obvious that:

• FastFetch is 2 to 3 times faster than other voice directed picking technology
• FastFetch batches orders to reduce pick times (whereas typical voice directed picking doesn’t)
• FastFetch downloads “next best order” to replace offloaded order (whereas typical voice directed picking doesn’t)
• FastFetch constantly is optimizing picks to reduce travel distance and increase picking productivity (whereas typical voice directed picking doesn’t)

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3 Myths of Voice Picking, Pick to Voice, Pick by Voice

3 Myths of Voice Picking

It is easy to assume that voice directed picking is all the same, but in reality this is false. Voice-directed warehousing (VDW) has been around since the late 1990s, and has been instrumental to many DCs and warehouses. The technology has greatly improved picking productivity and accuracy, therefore providing a significant competitive advantage to those who use it.

Whether you're thinking about an order fulfillment technology or not, we've put together an important video on the 3 myths about voice directed picking that everyone should review. This report gives you the knowledge to help you make the right choice to maximize the ROI of any order fulfillment operation.

Benefits of Voice Picking - Efficiencies

Dramatically increase productivity and pick accuracy, by going hands free and allowing them to keep their eyes on the picking instead of the paper pick ticket.

Increase in picking efficiencies:  The biggest gain in order picking productivity is when an order fulfillment operation must pick "eaches" or "pieces".  Many time operations double their pick rates.  The primary reasons why order fulfillment operations really benefit from pick by voice is that:  

• Operators work "hands-free", while their eyes are focused on the picking process.  They eliminate the time and energy of looking at a piece of paper and then back to searching and picking a product. 
• Operators confirm their picks by voice or other form instead of having to typing in their picks or writing it down onto paper.
• When orders are completed the pick to voice system will direct the operator where to go next.  This greatly increases productivity by eliminating any time in between in search of or planning the next pick. 
• Voice directed picking also cuts down administration time to complete paperwork involved with each order.

Benefits of Voice Picking - Accuracy

When you move from a manual paper picking process to a voice direct picking system, you immediate enjoy the benefits of increased picking accuracy.  While results may vary, many times implementation of voice picking can lead to almost 100% picking accuracy. Here are the factors that improve accuracy with a voice pick system:

• Eliminate the back and forth of handling paper pick tickets... focus is removed from checking a list to handling the product.  
• Picks are confirmed by voice to ensure maximum accuracy, this includes verification that the item has been pick and the quantity.
• The performance (productivity and accuracy) of each operator is easily tracked and reported. 

Myth #1: 

Voice Picking is Expensive

Yes, when voice directed picking technology was new to the market, it was extremely expensive to install and implement.  This meant that that there were many cost factors involved, which includes:

•    Custom coding the software to your WMS, ERP, or host system
•    Dedicated servers
•    Changes to business processes to adapt to the software
•    Equipment
•    Training


Like all technologies, pick by voice has become much more advance, easy to use and inexpensive.  

Voice directed picking technology has greatly evolved over the last decade, making it an affordable solution for almost any sized distribution and warehouse operation.  For many voice-directed technologies custom coding is no longer required for implementation.  Many voice directed warehousing systems are deployed across multiple platforms.

Myth: Voice directed picking systems are expensive
Reality: Voice directed picking systems are affordable.  In fact many companies small and large gain an ROI within 12-18 months. 

Myth #2: 

Voice Picking is Difficult to Implement

You’re probably imagining the long process and the headaches involved in implementing a voice directing picking system to your warehouse operation.  You are worried about the time it takes to put in the system (from software to hardware) an worried about training your staff.
Not to worry, since many voice directed picking systems now easily add onto your existing WMS, ERP, or host system, there is no or little interruption to your existing business processes.



Myth: Voice directed picking systems are difficult to implement
Reality: Voice directed picking systems are as easy as 1-2-3. See below: 

With FastFetch, a 3-in-1 pick directed technology, you  accuracy (light, voice, & barcode scan)
1. Simple to interface to WMS: Your WMS, ERP or order management system downloads order data to FastFetch. Next, FastFetch optimizes order picking based on real-time location of your product and order picking personnel. 
2. Easy to Install: Most of the FastFetch system (hardware and software) are assembled  and tested offsite, therefore final installation is quick and easy.
3. Requires minimal training: The FastFetch tablet PC directs new operators, using light, voice, and/or scanning.  Training only takes ~10 minutes!

Myth #2: 

Pick to Voice is Incompatible with other Systems

We’ve worked with many companies and oftentimes we find that several picking systems are all under one roof.  Compatibility issues between two or three different order fulfillment systems are common.
The two most popular types of order fulfillment systems, (aside from voice directed picking) include light directed picking and bar code scanning systems.
Many warehouse distribution centers start with one type of order fulfillment system and decide to add another system.  So what if your operation dramatically expands and you have a sudden need to have a close watch on your highly valuable goods?  What do you do if you decide to add lights or bar code scanning to the system? 

Myth: Compatibility is an issue if I wanted to add lights and bar code scanning to my voice directed picking system.
Reality: FastFetch’s 3-in-1 voice, light, and bar code scanning directed picking system gives you the flexibility to adapt to customer’s demands and your business needs.



With so many choices in order picking technologies what is the best option?  Is it Pick-to-Light/ Pick-by-Light, Bar code scanning or Voice directed picking?
You no longer have to choose, you can now “HAVE IT ALL” with FastFetch.  FastFetch is a 3-in-1 pick directed technology that combines light, voice, and bar code scanning to gain virtually 100% accuracy.

What FastFetch 3-in-1 order fulfillment system means to you:

FastFetch customers have gained improved picking rates with virtually 100% accuracy.  Labor reduction with FastFetch can be as high as 40% to 50%, savings that customers enjoy year after year. 

FastFetch order picking systems have helped its customers, including GNC, Lucky Vitamin.com, Nash Finch Co., Capay Organic Foods, Atlas Vending, A Beka Book, Stanley Black & Decker, and others.  They enjoy:
•    Increased picking productivity (pick rates)
•    Reduced labor costs
•    Decreased errors with near-perfect picking accuracy

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