36 CASESTUDY
BAKO NW BENEFITS FROM VOICE
Foodservice distributor, BAKO NW is realising major performance improvements and savings following investment in voice-directed warehouse technology
BCP’s Voice solution has proved a superb fi t to our
requirements, quickly delivering the improvements we
anticipated… What’s more, the workers all love it.
B
AKO NW is a co-operative owned by its bakery trade members and one of fi ve BAKO organisations, which together constitute one of the
UK’s largest nationwide distributors to the food industry. The company specialises in the supply of ingredients
and other food produce to bakery operations across North-West England, the Midlands and North Wales, using its own fl eet of modern, multi-temperature vehicles to delivery chilled, ambient and frozen products in the same delivery. Investment in voice warehouse systems was prompted
by BAKO NW’s ever-expanding customer base, which now ranges from traditional bakeries to new companies supplying the convenience sector and its commitment to ensuring its advanced warehousing operation functions as effi ciently as possible in order to offer customers optimal customer service. Supply chain software and warehouse management systems specialist, BCP (Business Computer Projects Ltd) was selected because of the close functional fi t of its voice warehouse solution to BAKO NW’s specifi c requirements and the acknowledged success of the system at other distributors, including NW SPAR wholesaler James Hall & Son Ltd. The investment covers BCP’s complete suite of Accord
Voice warehouse modules, including stock taking, goods receiving, pallet movements and picking, operating with Vocollect Talkman 5 Voice hardware. The voice system has been interfaced directly to the
company’s incumbent warehouse management system (WMS), which was previously entirely paper-based. It has been implemented in a series of phases starting with Goods Inward, followed by Picking, Put-Away and Replenishment and fi nally Perpetual Inventory, where the use of voice allows stock checking to be carried out in real-time without disruption to other warehouse
operations. The Picking, Put-Away and Replenishment stage was itself phased in gradually, starting with the frozen goods department, then chilled and, fi nally, ambient, which is the largest of the three departments. Accord Voice is now operational across all warehouse
activities, transforming BAKO NW’s warehouse facility from a predominantly paper-based operation to one completely based on voice and delivering signifi cant benefi ts across all operations. Benefi ts started to materialise as soon as the system was implemented in Goods Inward with faster, more effi cient handling of deliveries resulting in savings of two and a half man-days’ effort per week in goods receiving administration. The use of voice to check all relevant aspects of the delivery and update the main warehouse system in real time has improved traceability and ensures that stock information on the system is accurate from the start, any discrepancies being identifi ed and addressed immediately rather than fi ltering into the warehouse to cause problems later. Picking accuracy has improved to 99.95% and order
fulfi lment to 99.5%, allowing the company to discontinue an expensive labour-intensive double-check system. The company conservatively estimates savings of £26,000 per annum from reduction in mis-picks. BAKO NW operates a single picking shift system with all pickers starting and fi nishing at the same time. Improvements in picking productivity have saved around an hour per day across all areas and fi ve man-days’ effort per week as workers have benefi ted from the handsfree, eyes-free nature of voice and more accurate, real-time information minimising the need for re-picks and time spent investigating stock discrepancies. Administrative savings, such as eliminating the need
to manually confi rm pick-slips to delivery notes, have delivered further manpower savings of around six hours per day, allowing administrative staff to be redeployed more productively. Moreover, training, which used to take about two weeks, now only takes two hours, meaning new workers can become productive much more quickly. Sean Hobson, BAKO NW logistics manager commented: “BCP’s Voice solution has proved a superb fi t to our requirements, quickly delivering the improvements we anticipated – around £50,000 a year in labour savings and over £26,000 a year from improved picking accuracy. What’s more, the workers all love it – from the supervisors to the lads on the shopfl oor. None would want to return to the old paper-based system.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY MARCH/APRIL 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40