HAL Systems’ Warehouse Management System, allows you to maximize the use of wireless terminals, scanners and bar-codes to identify, track, locate, and control inventory quickly and accurately throughout your warehouse, from receiving through shipping. We have now added Voice Directed to our system

Why use voice:

Because workers don’t have to juggle a scanner, paper or pencil as they accurately pick, their hands and eyes are free. As a result, picking efficiencies are improved greatly.

By using a voice directed system and replacing error ridden, labor-intensive systems, you can experience increased productivity, accuracy and job satisfaction which lowers turnover rate and improved worker safety.

With voice-driven technology in the warehouse, workers wear a headset and a mobile wireless computer attached to their belt. Software converts the picking instructions from the WMS (Warehouse Management System) into voice commands.

Using voice-directed systems a warehouse workers wear their headsets and follow verbal instructions transmitted to them from the WMS application. They are directed as to what, where and how many items to pick or move.
 

With a voice workers receive instructions, such as “Go to zone A” or “shelf 1, bin1”, and then to “pick item number ‘115112’ a blue widget”. All of this is received by the worker through the headset. Once the worker arrives at the location, he confirms the location with a scan by using the ring scanner. The item number is then scanned for correctness. Next the location into which the item is placed is directed; such as a cart, pallet, location, etc.

The worker confirms that the task has been completed when the ‘put’ command has been executed. The information is continuously transmitted to the host systems to keep the WMS accurate in real time. At this point the next command is given and the process begins again.
Because the system is operator sensitive, voice clips can be specific to the worker. They can be designed by you to accommodate each operator so that these voice clips can be of different languages, dialects and even different voices. This reduces training time.

The voice directed solutions are typically an alternative or used in conjunction with other technologies such as RFID and handheld scanning.

The advantage that ‘Voice directed’, when combined with a scanning systems, have over voice recognition systems is speed and accuracy. Voice works well for directing work but is much less reliable when retrieving information from the operator.

Training employees on a voice directed system typically takes no more than 20 minutes. Workers who have used another picking technology usually are back to full speed with a voice system after just a few minutes and then continue to improve. “The ramp-up time is extremely fast,” one user says.
 

Benefits

In addition to helping boost productivity and accuracy in picking applications — often significantly — voice-directed warehouse applications can improve safety in the warehouse, some industry analysts say. Workers are able to monitor their environment as they walk or drive around the warehouse rather than focusing on the equipment they're using.

Voice-driven systems are scalable and easy to implement and have been shown to boost accuracy and productivity. In addition there is the “WOW” factor when others look at this technology. This can give a company an edge when potential clients are deciding which provider to select.

Voice Directed Picking is the most important technology change in the warehouse since the development of barcoding. It has a clear, demonstrable payback and industry experts say that seeing a return on investment in less than a year isn't uncommon
 

• Hands-Free — Keep both hands free to handle packages or operate machinery and still scan bar codes. Save time by eliminating the need to stop and pick up or put down the hand held scanner in between every package handled.
 

• Ergonomic — Reduce physical strain and chance of injury by scanning with natural hand motions. It's light weight and it's as easy as pointing your finger!

Listening to what the voice technology is telling you:
Productivity: Voice increases productivity by making workers more focused and therefore more efficient.
In companies that use paper/pencil and hand-held scanning devices employee attention is frequently being distracted and productivity drops. Voice is a hands-free/eyes-free operation forcing attention to be placed to getting the job done and not being diverted by other conversations and unproductive eye and hand motions.
Labor Cost: You can expect a 30 to 50 percent increase in productivity and this relates to the labor savings over the life of the system. Language, turnover, seasonal employees and the cost of training need to be considered when evaluating labor costs. Considering language barriers being broken, worker satisfaction increasing and training times being drastically reduced. The Voice Directed solution becomes the most positive and strategic decision that you can make regarding warehouse operations, inventory, labor and customer satisfaction.
Safety: Workers are focused on where they are going while walking or driving.
Lower Turnover: Workers are measurably more productive and have greater job satisfaction.

Payback: 12 to 14 months Return On Investment.


How would you answer:

In our sophisticated world you communicate using cellular phones and internet e-mails. Is your warehousing and distribution facility using pencil and paper?

Is it true that a new pencil sharpener for inventory control really cheaper than a Warehouse Management System?

How much longer can your company survive before you are forced to embrace WMS and distribution technologies?

Are you currently tracking your inventory?

Do you see a time when training a new employee only takes 15 minutes?

Do you know who are the top producers in your warehouse are and how do you track their productivity?

Your business depends on inventory; do you know with certainty what you have and where it is?

Can you expect your people to get it right the first time and not give them the tools?

Is it time to consider Voice-Direction to control of your inventory?

Although they may not capture headlines like other technology solutions, a voice-directed system is proven and highly effective. “I've never seen something so bulletproof and reliable” a voice user commented.

Financial Justification for WMS:

A WMS generates savings in four primary areas:

   Data entry

   Material handling

   Inventory costs

   Reduced shipping and production errors

An average payback period for our customers is typically 10-14 months. If you need formal financial justification, we have an ROI model that will be helpful.

HAL WMS is scalable for all sizes of warehouse operations because the software license and radio frequency hardware costs are primarily determined by the number of users. Our Clients range in size from 4 users and up to multi-warehouses, multiple locations and many more users.

It costs a lot to build and expand warehouses and many are looking at the WMS tool in order to boost warehouse productivity.

 More Accurate Inventory: Improve your inventory accuracy to 99% or better. Eliminate time and errors associated with manual handwritten entries and keypunching.

 Faster Physical Inventories: Our clients report that typical physical inventory time is reduced 70%-75% and accuracy is also greatly improved.

 Eliminate internal and external shrinkage: The WMS time and date stamps every transaction so you have an audit trail of who, when, and where for every product move.

Increase productivity:

The WMS allows you to pick multiple orders at a time with one picker, or multiple pickers can pick one large order.
Improve Customer Satisfaction:

 A large reductions in incomplete or incorrect shipments result because the WMS confirms that the right item and quantity have been picked.
 

Implementation:

Our goal is to implement your WMS solution as quickly as possible so you can begin to realize all the benefits of your new warehouse management system. Typically, this takes 2-4 months and includes an assessment of your facility to determine the required RF equipment, any software customization, administrator & user training, RF equipment and bar-code printer installations and live then implementation.

Rapid implementation time is only dependent on the availability of your key personnel for operational decisions and the warehouse personnel for half day hands-on training sessions.

RF equipment configuration is determined by the required coverage area in your facility, the number of users, and whether the equipment will be voice directed, handheld or truck mounted. Our hardware partners offer a variety of hardware to meet your specific material handling needs. HAL’s WMS is also hardware independent and can utilize a variety of manufacturer’s equipment.

Post Sales Support:

We provide dedicated support 24 hours a day, seven days a week via our software support line. The WMS software maintenance contract provides prioritized phone support, software patches and a major annual update.

HAL Systems has been in business since 1983 and is dedicated to the manufacturing and distribution markets. We are also resellers of the Solution-IV distribution – order entry ERP solution. HAL also markets Distribution-Express, a completely integrated wholesale/retail distribution system that includes order processing, accounting, warehouse management, credit card processing and shipping software; all on one platform.

Solution-IV is a registered trademark of Thoroughbred Software International, Inc.