Learn how voice picking technology — also known as pick by voice, voice-directed warehousing, or speech-based picking — can improve efficiency, accuracy, and safety in the warehouse.

Warehouse Voice Picking

Voice picking, also commonly known as voice-directed warehousing (VDW), pick by voice, and speech-based picking, is a paperless, hands-free, and eyes-free system that employs easy-to-understand voice prompts to direct warehouse operators to picking locations, and to instruct them in picking tasks. How Does Voice Picking Work?

Over the past decade, voice solutions have become increasingly popular as more industries have discovered how they can improve warehouse productivity while reducing errors and safety risks for workers. In the modern warehouse, voice picking is one of the best ways to boost warehouse visibility and meet the ever-growing demand for fast product delivery. As voice picking solutions become further intertwined with technology like robotics and augmented reality, those numbers will only grow.

This article is a good starting point for discovering the ins and outs of voice picking and countering any myths you might have heard. With the continuing growth and development of the technology, we’ve decided to update this post to keep the learnings as relevant as possible and make sure that they reflect the new directions of voice solutions.

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What Is Voice Picking?

Voice picking is the process of creating a direct dialogue between your mission critical systems and team members through the simplest means possible: a conversation in plain language. Voice picking eliminates the need to burden workers with RF scanners or paper by translating picking orders through a headset. This allows pickers to move through the warehouse with their hands and eyes free, increasing productivity, accuracy, and safety, and decreasing training time and damages.

With voice picking, the picker is directed to a specific location where they must provide a set of check digits. These digits confirm that the picker is in the correct aisle, and looking at the correct bin location. Once the check digits have been confirmed, the picker is provided with the pick quantity. After the quantity is confirmed, they are given the next pick location. The voice system will optimize the pick path as this process continues, ensuring that the picker is maximizing their efficiency as they work through the warehouse.

The Benefits of Voice Technology

Productivity

Voice directed work allows users to concentrate on the tasks they are performing, while keeping their hands and eyes free at all times. This simplifies the function and streamlines physical movements by eliminating the necessity of picking up and putting down a device or instruction sheet. After removing the obstacles from the picking process, pickers will often see up to a 35 percent increase in productivity.

Accuracy

Voice picking eliminates the distractions created by having tools in your hands, allowing the picker to dedicate their full focus to the task. This increases accuracy up to 85 percent by reducing the chance of a mispick caused by looking away from the picking area to look at a scanner or piece of paper in your hands.

Safety and Damages

When dealing with a box-cutter or lifting a heavy object, it is imperative that the picker be able to easily use their hands. With voice picking, the picker keeps their hands free at all times, eliminating the potential for injuries or damages caused by lifting or cutting an item with a scanner or piece of paper in hand.

Training Time

Because each task that a worker performs is driven by voice, there is no need to train workers on reading printouts, applying labels, or confirming information through a keyboard. Once a worker attends a one-time training session and creates a voice template (which takes as little as 15 minutes), the entire work process is driven step-by-step through voice commands. This reduces training time by up to 50 percent on average.

Worker Satisfaction

Utilizing voice simplifies the picking process and makes it much faster and easier for pickers to do their jobs. This becomes highly important in incentivized picking scenarios, where workers are compensated based on the results of their picking. In many cases, the switch from RF or paper to voice picking results in a 50 percent decrease in employee turnover.

Multilingual Picking

At a time when more than 20 percent of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home, having voice picking technology that works with multiple languages is more valuable than ever.^[1] Fortunately, modern voice picking tech works with up to 40 different languages that it can both speak and detect. In fact, the technology can even speak in one language and detect responses in another. This means that, if all your workers can understand English, they can all hear directions in English, but then respond in the language of their choice. Multilingual voice picking provides all of your workers with the productivity and safety benefits of voice picking no matter what languages they speak.

Voice Picking System

Voice Picking and Robotics

When it comes to warehouse technology, some may worry that robots will take jobs away from people. However, voice picking used by human workers can actually make robotics even more efficient in the warehouse. Because voice picking solutions have an interface that is very intuitive for workers to understand and operate, when robotics are incorporated into those existing interfaces and structures, they too can become more efficient and effective. In this way, humans and robots can work together to enhance productivity and reduce overhead costs.

Over the years, this post has been one of our most popular and helpful pieces, so we’ve decided to update it to keep the information as relevant as possible.

Warehouse order picking describes the process of selecting and pulling an item from inventory to fulfill a customer’s order. The labor, materials, and technology involved in picking make up an average of 55 percent of operational costs within a given distribution center (DC).^[1] Therefore, it’s essential for supply chain managers to optimize their picking processes in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

When it comes to determining the most effective picking solutions, there are four main options that are typically considered: paper, radiofrequency (RF) scanning, pick-to-light, and voice. Each of these solutions has their own unique benefits and drawbacks, especially when it comes to warehouse productivity, order accuracy, and overall flexibility.

In this article, we take a look at the ideal applications of each warehouse picking option — and how they compare to one another in key areas. As you evaluate your choices, it’s important to consider future projects and updates in order to make the right choice for your operation.

Paper Picking

Paper-based order picking, or label processing, is the process of completing warehouse procedures with the use of paper orders. Paper picking is typically coupled with after-the-fact data entry using desktop terminals. Associates perform warehouse tasks off of pick lists, put-away labels, printed VAS instructions, and other paper documents. Upstream processes (such as how the information is sorted on the documents), and downstream processes (such as scan and verify on a desktop terminal), directly impact paper picking’s performance and functionality.

Paper/label processing may be a good fit for smaller operations with relatively straightforward transaction requirements. Even operations that rely on RF scanning for the bulk of transactions usually employ paper/label processing for some functions. It can be purely a manual proposition or part of an automatic flow, such as a label case pick-to-belt, where the pick is confirmed by an in-line conveyor scan.

Yet, while paper picking is a great starting point for many smaller operations, it tends to be a barrier to large scale growth and improvement. Paper does not offer real-time visibility into inventory, employees, or systems. Instead, the entire process is held up until data entry begins, and that process is prone to errors.

Additionally, burdening workers with paper handling slows down the processes that are key to the functioning of your DC. Having to pick up and put down clipboards removes the workers attention from the task, and can lead to unwanted errors or mispicks.

Radio Frequency(RF) Scanning

RF scanning terminals have long been considered a prerequisite for larger, more complex operations. However, RF scanning can be found in all different types and sizes of operations, primarily due to direct support by most Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). Even operations running non-RF enabled legacy fulfillment systems can turn to automated data collection software for this functionality.

RF scanning offers some distinct advantages over paper/label processing. It can provide positive verification that a warehouse associate is at the right location or has picked the correct SKU through a barcode scan or key entry. Work can be pushed out to associates based on location and task priority instead of handed out from a manually managed queue. Transaction data is captured in real time as associates perform tasks. Furthermore, RF scanning makes some functions like multi-order cart selection possible or more practical than paper/label processing.

While they are popular with many companies, RF and barcode scanners do have some drawbacks. Training on RF scanners can be extensive, with some operations requiring up to three weeks before workers are self-sufficient. Once fully trained, these workers can still be distracted with something in their hands, and are unable to complete warehouse processes without picking up and putting down the scanner.

Additionally, maintenance costs for the devices can be high, as many workers drop or mishandle the scanners during use. This can lead to expensive screen or keyboard replacements, as well as the need for extra equipment to compensate for the damaged units.

Pick-to-Light (PTL)

Pick-to-Light remains a popular selection technology due to its ease-of-use and ability to support high pick rates. It is typically used in a zone-based, pick and pass flow where an associate scans a tote or carton barcode label. The PTL software activates light displays for every location that shows the required quantity needed for the tote or carton. The associate walks the zone, selecting SKUs and confirming picks by pressing display buttons. Displays can also be provided to show SKU, order, or other relevant information.

As its name implies, PTL technology is about the order selection process. Unlike the other technologies discussed in this article, it is not employed to drive other warehousing functions such as receiving, put-away, and cycle counting. This means any investment in the technology cannot be leveraged beyond the confines of the PTL module and order selection process.

Pick-to-light also presents some challenges that go beyond pick rates and raw productivity numbers. It is an inherently more costly and complex technology that typically requires a significantly higher start-up investment and a relatively rigid product flow. Totes and cartons are generally routed between fixed pick zones via a conveyor system. Managing workflow can be an ongoing issue, because of daily workload fluctuations between zones that result in bottlenecks in some and under-utilization in others. Furthermore, changing the configuration of a pick-to-light module can require additional changes to the light displays, communications backbone, and pick-to-light software as well as physical storage media and WMS changes.

Voice Picking

Voice technology offers much more flexibility and visibility into operations than the other three solutions. It enables associates to redeploy resources to match daily changes in overall workload on the warehouse floor. Further, reconfiguring pick modules supported by voice is a simple proposition that generally only requires labeling in addition to storage media and WMS changes.

Because voice technology is relatively quick to learn, it can drastically for new or temporary employees. In some cases, training can be cut down to thirty minutes without sacrificing worker safety and productivity.

Voice technology allows workers to complete tasks reduce training time, with workers able to keep their attention on the project at hand. The voice picking process can cut the information exchange down to just a few simple steps, which leads to a direct increase in picking speeds. It also eliminates a variety of human errors, boosting order accuracy by up to 85 percent.^[2]

Plus, when it comes to worker safety, voice picking stands significantly above other warehousing solutions. With their eyes and hands free, workers are less easily distracted and prone to injury. Further, as voice technology can be used to guide autonomous mobile robots, it can help with heavy lifting and reduce worker fatigue. Using voice-enabled headsets, workers are able to direct AMRs while lowering their risks of falls, exhaustion, and collisions.

Final Comparisons

Paper vs. Voice:

• Productivity - Voice is 15-25+% faster
• Accuracy - Voice has 10-20 less errors per 1,000
• Training - Voice reduces time by 50%
• Paper Issues:
  • Lack of real-time associate visibility and accountability
  • Lack of real-time inventory, people and system updates
  • Difficult to batch-pick
  • Data entry errors
  • Labor and materials cost to handle paper
  • Not hands or eyes free

RF Scanning vs. Voice:

• Productivity - Voice is 10-15+% faster
• Accuracy - Voice has 2-4 less errors per 1,000
• Training - Voice reduces time by 50-65%
• RF Scanning Issues:
  • Average 2-3 weeks of training for associate to be self-sufficient
  • Operator is distracted: data entry, read, scan
  • Safety issues (head-down)
  • Not ergonomic
  • Not hands or eyes free
  • Battery issues
  • Risk of equipment damage

Pick-to-Light vs. Voice:

Voice Picking Duties

• Productivity - Same as voice
• Accuracy - Voice has 2-4 less errors per 1,000
• Training - Similar training effort as voice
• PTL Issues:
  • Inflexible
  • Expensive to add additional SKUs
  • Can't efficiently manage two order selectors in one zone
  • Difficult to batch-pick
  • Sized based on SKUs vs. number of people on floor
  • Thousands of points of failure

Although each of these warehouse picking solutions has its merits, voice often outperforms the other options. And many businesses are realizing voice’s benefits. As such, the voice-directed solutions market is expected to gain a total incremental opportunity of $1,703.3 million during the period from 2018 to 2026.^[3] With better productivity, accuracy, training time, and flexibility, voice can improve your warehouse while delivering an ROI in 9-12 months.