FEATURE SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS
THE EPITOME OF THE MODERN WAREHOUSE
B
ehind the seamless operation at the front end of every Starbucks, there is
a supply chain, and for the 750 locations in the UK and Ireland that rely on Gist, its supply chain specialists, this is no different. In any industry, warehouses have always been fast-paced operations, constantly being challenged to meet rising productivity and accuracy standards. In an especially frantic environment, and with such mission critical supply chain operations to deliver, Gist had the challenge of updating its technology to cope with the increasing demand of delivering small quantities of multiple items to numerous Starbucks destinations daily. For this reason, the company chose to work with voice controls, which accelerated productivity and streamlined business operations by enabling workers to use a headset and perform tasks hands-free. With the device narrating what to do next, users can respond with “affirmative” or “negative”, enter quantities, verify locations, dictate product numbers and/or barcode scan at the same time, and much more. These capabilities mean major enhancements in output and accuracy within the supply chain that powers Starbucks. Martin Withers, warehouse manager at
Gist, explains the thought process behind this move to voice-controlled warehouse technology: “We are always looking for ways to pick stock faster, which is hard to do when you are holding a device in one hand. For a customer like Starbucks you really want both hands free for maximum speed. And for pickers in cold storage and wearing gloves, it was especially awkward keying numbers into a device.” For this voice-enabled picking capability, Gist chose to deploy Ivanti
S8
By Chris Tozer, territory manager at Ivanti Supply Chain
Speakeasy, formerly Wavelink Speakeasy, a full-featured voice-enablement solution that does not require major changes to infrastructure. Speakeasy enables pickers to work without interruption, by simply saying “next” to confirm their picks and then receiving voice instructions for the next item. The solution has proved easy for employees to start using. For example, unlike previous software, Gist does not have to spend time training the system to recognise each new picker’s voice. Withers explains the value in this: “For
most people, Ivanti Speakeasy understands what workers are asking for right out of the box. New pickers just spend a couple of minutes training in the warehouse so that the system learns to filter out background noise.” The implementation of Speakeasy lived up to expectations. Within three days, Gist had two Speakeasy enabled devices up and running within its live environment, growing to 12 devices over a six-week testing period. Utilising a cost-benefit analysis, Gist quickly found that the solution being implemented within its environment would deliver a rapid return on investment. Marcus Jeffery, business IM manager,
major accounts, at Gist, comments: “Our general manager, and our operational and IT leads, could all see the benefits right from the initial demonstration – it was obvious that Ivanti Speakeasy was going to be an easy and low-risk implementation with a big pay-off.”
JULY/AUGUST 2017 | MATERIALS HANDLING & LOGISTICS
To ensure the smooth rollout of Ivanti Speakeasy, Gist also chose to deploy Ivanti Avalanche, which enables easy software distribution, sends configuration updates and allows full management of all mobile devices within the supply chain. Avalanche is rooted in managing the mobile computers that drive the supply chain, with an end goal of ensuring that workers and their devices are always performing at peak productivity. Jeffery continues: “With Ivanti Avalanche
we have the flexibility our business needs. If we want to make a change to accommodate a customer’s processes, or try out new ways of working, we can simply use Avalanche to push it out to a couple of test devices with no changes required to the WMS itself. For a business like ours, which always tailors operations to suit our customers’ specific needs, the adaptability of Ivanti solutions is fantastic.” Gist has also found that, enabled by
Ivanti Speakeasy, accelerated picking means that they can meet service level agreements faster and with fewer resources than before. Withers adds: “Switching to voice- enabled picking has made a massive difference to users. The old devices were slow and hard to use, and you had to put them down if you needed both hands to pick an item. Now we can pick with greater speed, efficiency and accuracy.” Based on the benefits Gist has seen
using voice solutions, the company is actively looking to deploy it for other customers. Jeffery concludes that Ivanti Speakeasy provides an agile way to offer better supply-chain services.
Ivanti
www.ivanti.co.uk
/ MATERIALSHANDLINGLOGISTICS
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