VOICE
perform the initial set-up training. But – and this is key - a trained recogniser will generate far better returns in the long run. The particular characteristics of working in the warehouse do not just allow a fully trained recogniser to be used, they make it the obvious optimal choice for anyone who designs a recogniser specifically for the warehouse. First and foremost, trained recognisers generate fewer word errors because they are able to better differentiate and recognise how each individual speaks each word – they do not need to allow for all the pronunciation variations of a region or language. This specialisation also better enables them to reject sounds that should not be recognised, preventing costly insertion errors.
Vocollect has recently run tests to provide a performance
comparison of our own trained speech recogniser against several of the untrained recognisers available from others. In the tests, we looked at word-error rates, the number of times the recogniser makes an error per 100 words spoken. The results of our tests suggest that the increase in word error rate when moving from a trained recogniser to an untrained one is likely to be several percent or more. In fact for speakers with moderate to strong accents the increase ranged from 6 per cent to more than 20 per cent. So what does this mean in terms of cost to a warehouse operation? If it takes 3.5 seconds for a user to correct a word error by repeating what they said, the annual increased labour cost for a single 8-hour shift can be calculated to be £300 for every 1 per cent difference in the error rate. It is easy to see that for differences
in word-error rates of more than 1 per cent and for operations with multiple shifts, these per year costs will have a major impact on a return-on-investment analysis. Furthermore, even if using a trained recogniser only decreases the word error rate by only 1 per cent (a very conservative estimate), then the ‘payback’ period for the 20-minute upfront investment in pre-use training is less than 6 work days. It is also worth mentioning the importance of not overlooking the ‘soft’ benefits of giving workers a high performance system.
Not standing still
A poorly performing recogniser is like a ‘sticky’ keyboard – frustrating. And trained speech recognition is not standing still. Indeed, at Vocollect we are continuously developing our technology
technology
with recent enhancements including ‘Adaptive Recognition’ where the recogniser is being continuously ‘tuned’ by the warehouse worker as they use it. We are extremely confident that trained Voice recognition is a key technological component of Voice in the warehouse, and the universal acceptance of Vocollect solutions by more than 300,000 users in dozens of countries, speaking scores of languages and many more dialects and local accents, underpins our confidence.
Let’s be clear, Voice systems are not all the same. If you are looking at putting Voice into your warehouse, and you are examining case studies and visiting reference sites, then be sure to ‘look under the bonnet’ of the systems to understand what speech recognition technology is being used.
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