VOICE
technology Opinion Voice in the outsourced warehouse
Vocollect EMEA vice president of sales, Richard Adams, explains why Voice-directed working is increasingly becoming an indispensable part of the business model for many third-party logistics firms.
working provides 3PLs with the same benefits enjoyed by other organisations. Letting their staff work ‘hands free and eyes free’ and focus entirely on tasks in hand such as picking, receiving and stock counting delivers savings and efficiencies through greater productivity, increased accuracy, and improved visibility for management of warehouse operations.
Richard Adams: Manifold gains to be had. A 34
n important trend has emerged over recent years for suppliers of Voice-directed work systems such as Vocollect. A while back we mostly had customers with
in-house warehouse operations who were looked after by us and our network of reseller partners. Increasingly, we’re seeing a distinctive role played by third-party logistics firms (3PLs) who are both a customer for us and our resellers, but also use Voice-directed working to deliver services to their own customer base.
Drivers So what are the drivers behind this trend? It’s because Voice-directed working provides 3PLs with a unique capability to both improve the service offering to existing customers and also strengthen their ability to win new contracts.
Taking firstly the service to existing customers, the introduction of Voice-directed
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT July 2011
Improved service levels For 3PLs, however, the gains go beyond this. Because operational efficiency is improved, the service levels experienced by the 3PL’s customer are similarly more positive. This applies equally when 3PLs are supporting single contracts in a facility and multiple
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Voice-directed working provides 3PLs with a unique capability to both improve the service offering to existing customers and also strengthen their ability to win new contracts.”
contracts. Additionally it lets them address perennial challenges such as managing seasonal peaks and troughs, where Voice- directed working provides temporary staff with an intuitive way to come up to peak productivity within a matter of days. And as peaks demand extra resources, the automatic generation of management information allows 3PL management to have real-time visibility of work schedules and the progress of shifts against targets, and reallocate resources as appropriate.
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Typical of the approach taken and benefits experienced is leading 3PL specialist DHL. Working together with Dublin-based Vocollect partner Heavey RF, DHL upgraded its Warehouse Management System to incorporate Voice capability. As well as recording improved productivity and accuracy, DHL also saw improvements in quality-control, stock integrity, data reporting and overall warehouse efficiency.
Key differentiators
Looking beyond the setting of existing customer business, Voice-directed working also provides 3PLs with key differentiators over competitors without Voice capabilities when bidding for new contracts. The proven gains in productivity and accuracy allow the
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