How we have improved order picking

The basic advantage of this method is the fact that the picker has both hands free to do his work. In paper-based picking, the warehouse worker holds a pad with the picking order in one hand and follows the printout to pick the goods for a specific order. In radio-based picking, one hand holds a radio scanner. If both hands need to be used, he must put away the tool used to control the correctness of the picking process, perform the task, and later pick up the pad with the order or the scanner. When using voice picking technology, both hands are free at all times. Voice picking drastically increases the speed of the picking process in warehouses where using both hands is commonly required.In Błonie near Warsaw, Raben Logistics Polska services the Food and Non Food central warehouse for MAKRO Cash & Carry Polska. Each day over a 1000 pallets are picked from unit packagings using the multistage picking and Honeywell Vocollect Voice Solutions voice technology.Inbound in the mornings, outbound in the afternoons. This principle governs the operations of this central cross-dock warehouse. Each day over 1,500 pallets are delivered here, which within just hours must be picked and sent to a specific Makro location. This service largely depends on the fluctuations of the demand, which requires high flexibility in planning human resources. This process must be carried out while maintaining the highest quality standards.No alternative to Pick by VoiceWhen in 2014 a contract logistics agreement was signed, Raben company already had a very detailed picture of the processes that would be executed. "High requirements concerning flexibility and quality mean that our workers must perform the order picking process quickly, conveniently and reliably" explains Jacek Luc, the Area Contract Logistics Director. From the very beginning he was convinced that the warehouse location developed specially for Makro should use the voice picking technology. "There was no alternative to Pick by Voice. One of its upsides is the fact that our workers have both hands free during work and they receive clear instructions" explains Luc.For that reason, Raben IT Department had compared various service providers and their order picking solutions using voice and decided to choose the Honeywell Vocollect Voice Solutions system consisting of 32 voice terminals Talkman A710 and wireless SRX2 headsets. Vocollect was the only solution which already had an interface with the warehouse management system used by Raben - RedPrairie by JDA.User friendly operationsThe Honeywell Vocollect Voice Solutions system allows for simultaneous work in several languages which facilitates hiring temporary workers from other countries and ensures the required flexibility. Raben pickers can choose if the system should communicate with them in Polish or in another language - in this way the Vocollect solution serves as a perfect interpreter. Installation of other languages is possible at any time.The same applies to new workers who learn to use the system without any problems within maximum two days. That is why Raben assigns work with voice terminals in the first place to temporary workers. Additionally, demand which occurs in peak hours is satisfied in Raben using hand-held terminals used solely by permanently employed staff. "Our personnel know the processes best and that is why they can cope also with methods susceptible to some level of errors" says Jacek Luc.Multistage picking is not a standardAt the time of implementing the Pick by Voice solution, Raben approached HKK-Consult, a Polish system provider, which has been cooperating with the logistics operator since 2010. HKK-Consult is one of the two authorized partners of JDA in Poland and it has many years of experience with the RedPrairie system. The IMS (Inventory Management System) in Raben receives order data for 41 Makro locations directly from their warehouse management system. Based on the inbound pallets and ongoing orders, RedPrairie generates the picking order and using WLAN it sends the picking order to the voice terminal. The voice terminal transforms the data into voice orders which are then passed via Bluetooth in a specific language to the headset of the worker. If necessary, each order can be repeated. After confirmation from the worker, SAP updates stock in real time.The multistage order picking applied here is considered unusual in the logistics sector as it can be handled by very few warehouse management systems. Pallets delivered in the morning are firstly placed in temporary storage locations defined by a bar code and later they are assigned to new locations by scanning. At the same time a specific quantity of empty pallets defined by RedPrairie are prepared separately in picking zones and also here every pallet space has a specific bar code. Thanks to this RedPrairie can direct a picker using the Talkman terminal to the required pallets in order to start the actual picking process.After picking from full pallets, a picker receives his picking orders using the headset, which one by one lead to the waiting empty pallets. After reaching them, the picker first reads the control number placed on the location, which is immediately confirmed by the Talkman terminal. Right after this, he is informed through the headset about the exact number of items which must be placed on a mixed pallet from the current location of one of the full pallets. "This system practically eliminates errors in picking mixed pallets" says Jacek Luc and later he adds: "This allows us to meet also the highest quality requirements expected by our customer, Makro". The extremely low frequency of errors made by Raben is confirmed by internal Makro audits, through regular spot checks which monitor a specific percentage of picked mixed pallets.Apart from the high quality of order picking, the voice control technology also offers the advantage of significantly higher efficiency. "Compared to traditional picking methods using mobile hand-held terminals, the efficiency using Pick by Voice grows from 10 to 15 per cent", emphasises Jacek Luc. The reason for this, among others, is the fact that workers really like working with voice terminals. "It is really nice and efficient to have both hands free when picking orders" confirms the picker, Dominik Zakościelny, employed in Raben.Implemented in just two monthsOutcome: without Honeywell Vocollect Voice Solution, it is impossible to imagine everyday multistage order picking for Makro Cash & Carry Polska. "Thanks to our concept, from the very beginning we can ensure the correct performance and we are glad that together with our IT partner in this project, HKK-Consult, we were able to implement the new system in just two months", summarises Jacek Luc, the Area Contract Logistics Director in Raben Logistics Polska.Objectives:

• Presentation of the efficient picking process for new customers in contract logistics
• Higher productivity
• Error-free order picking
• Problem-free training for new staff
• Integration of foreign personnel without knowledge of the language of the employer

Application:

• Order picking using the voice control system
• Interface with the RedPrairie warehouse management system by JDA.

Results:

• Productivity higher by 10 to 15 per cent
• High customer satisfaction
• Possible simultaneous picking in several languages

Heiko KrauseCentral Region Marketing ManagerHoneywell Sensing and Productivity Solutions