Voice picking spreading in the Nordics and Baltics

Voice picking is making a breakthrough in Scandinavian and Baltic warehousing. To speed up this process Optiscan Group is strengthening its organizations in Sweden and Finland and has established a local office in Oslo, Norway, where Optiscan Group has recently delivered a voice picking system to ICA Norge.

As a part of the organisational changes Optiscan Group is also introducing a new group structure to ensure that the international clientele receives the same standard of service at all sites. . A part of this process also includes a new single brand and visual identity for Optiscan.

Mikko Mertjärvi, Managing Director of Optiscan Group, emphasises that the company is a versatile auto ID expert. Optiscan Group supplies solutions based on voice recognition, barcode and RFID technologies for managing material and data flows in manufacturing, warehouse and field automation.

― At the moment we can see that voice picking in warehouses is making a breakthrough in Scandinavian and Baltic countries. What has already happened in Finland, is spreading to neighbouring countries, says Mertjärvi.

 

Over 20 items picked every second, all day, 7 days a week

As a market leader in the Nordics and Baltic countries, Optiscan Group is the key driver in the generalization of voice directed work. The daily number of order lines picked with voice gives a clear picture of the success story of voice in warehouses. One order line typically consists of 2-3 products.

- Our customers are currently picking more than 10 order lines every second, twenty-four hours a day. This means that on an average over 20 products are picked every second without any breaks, Mertjärvi notes.

He explains that the reasons behind the success of voice recognition are twofold. Voice provides both improved accuracy and a faster working process. In other words, it boosts up productivity, allows considerable cost reductions and at the same time improves customer satisfaction.

― Typically voice recognition increases productivity in the warehouse by 15―25% and improves accuracy beyond 99.97%. The improvement of productivity is so significant that voice rapidly becomes a standard in certain business areas. It is not possible to maintain competitiveness without the benefits provided by voice.

The large wholesale distribution centres are the first to implement picking systems based on voice-recognition technology. After these Voice is spreading to other sites.

With voice, employees stay focused on the job at hand. There is a two-way dialogue between the warehouse management system (WMS) and warehouse operators. Instead of relying on paper lists or a handheld device´s display screen for instructions, people use voice as they perform their daily assignments.