distribution logistics IT (voice) l
Following the successful growth and expansion of the Channel Islands Co-operative Society Ltd, an upgrade of the current Belgravium RF scanning solution at its food DC in Jersey was required to support this growth. A voice recognition add-on was implemented as part of the progression towards the new system.
Strong solution T
he Channel Islands Co- operative Society Ltd (CICS) operates at the forefront of one of the most dynamic and progressive retail societies in
the British Isles.
CICS food business operates from ten locations in Jersey and eight in Guernsey. Focussing on providing a tailored, yet flexible service, the society takes great pride in ensuring CICS members and customers are able to buy the best fresh, packaged and ambient foods at a fair price. To this end, it constantly reviews its procedures, operation, and technologies employed to maintain market share and exceed customer expectations.
The DC is the hub
The food distribution facility is at the hub of CICS operations. CICS services its ten Jersey stores from a food distribution centre in Bellozanne, St Helier.
As CICS has grown, the need to run an effective and efficient distribution operation has become critical. In response to this, CICS implemented a traditional RF scanning solution into the goods receipt department of the CICS distribution centre. The main driver for this was the inefficiency of the existing paper based system and associated cost implications for the society in terms of loss of productivity and errors. CICS in partnership with RCS, selected one of the leading mobile computing providers Belgravium to implement a full solution to automate the RF process. In the 6 years since the implementation, the Belgravium solution has secured many tangible benefits. CICS has continued to grow, now dispatching in excess of 55,000 cases per week and growing to more
40 ShD August 2010
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than 90,000 square feet in capacity. CICS needed to support this growth and realised that the existing solution needed to evolve, with even tighter controls needed to be placed on maintaining and increasing productivity. With a full Wi-Fi network already in place across the whole of the distribution facility CICS decided that it had to extend the use of RF technology from goods receipt to a fully RF operational warehouse. It required a system that would enable real-time management and control of the whole of its operation.
Looking at the technologies that could be employed to improve the automation and management of their stocks, voice recognition was identified
as the ideal solution for their operation. With the industry quoting accuracy levels of 99.8%, the hands free technology was particularly suited to the Jersey operation– allowing the pickers to quickly manipulate products, yielding higher pick rates and leading to improved accuracy and reduced cross picks.
The development of voice Belgravium’s existing solution was easily configurable – the progression to a voice system essentially required an add-on to the existing warehouse management system. The multimodal Atlanta handheld, currently used for the goods receipt operation was voice enabled which provided CICS with the
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