Norwegian H I Giørtz improves accuracy with Voice

Norwegian H I Giørtz bid farewell to picking errors with a Voice picking system delivered by Optiscan Group. As a result pick errors were decreased by 80%.

H I Giørtz located in Vestlandet in Norway is a part of NorgesGruppen that is the largest wholesaler in the country with a 39% market share. There are 1 900 stores and more than 700 kiosks as well as a number of  wholesalers in the group.

The decision to purchase a voice solution was made because H I Giørtz wanted to improve quality by minimizing picking errors, as well as increase productivity and improve the working environment, starting from the freezers.

Implementation of the system was a successful integration project, conducted in close collaboration between Optiscan, DataPro and H I Giørtz. Optiscan´s service agreement also guarantees system support and upgrades for the voice software, as an extra precaution for a company where the system up-time is business critical.

- Optiscan delivered what they promised and we are incredible happy with the result, says Vebjørn Aannø at H I Giørtz.

H I Giørtz chose to test the system first with the frozen food because that is the most demanding area for both staff and equipment.

- It had an amazing effect. It was a true hallelujah moment when we for the first time got to try the system in practice, to put it mildly, says Vebjørn.

After running the system at full speed for 3- 4 months also in cold storage and dry groceries the productivity has increased by 10-15%. This is even before optimizing the picking locations. At the same time the errors have decreased from 1.5-1.6 to 0.1-0.2‰..

- Our customers say that they don´t need to check our deliveries anymore, Vebjørn says.

The solution consists of a voice directed application that communicates with the WMS through a standardized interface. Every picker has a headset and a belt where the voice terminal is carried.

The picker handles all stages of the picking process by directing the system by voice and gets the picking instructions directly his headset. The system enables bacth-picking so the picker can easily handle several orders at the same time. The voice directed system has increased the pickers´ efficiency.

- The voice system has minimized our ineffective time, Vebjørn emphasizes. Every picker used to spend 30 minutes a day just to to collect picking lists and labels. This has been reduced to a minimum in the 15.600 square meter warehouse area.