White Papers

Sustaining a Successful Voice Deployment: Leading for Peak Performance

A voice system is a win-win for both the company and the individual worker. Voice makes the job easier for workers to perform their duties, and it makes the organization more competitive. It also can help improve employee morale and job satisfaction, through better and more accurate incentive programs and the ability to recognize top performers.

It Always Comes Down to People

Addressing the human side of the equation boosts the success of a voice deployment. Companies that carefully consider their human resource issues achieve impressive results from their voice deployments.

Using Voice-Directed Work in the Supply Chain: What IT Executives Need to Know

In the last 20 years, voice-directed work has made significant inroads into the global supply chain. Here, the ability to be voice-directed is literally freeing up workers and allowing them to be safer, more accurate and more productive on the job. Voice-directed work takes the most human approach to communication – two-way dialogue – and literally talks people through their daily tasks.

Ten Steps to Make Your IT Executive Happy

If you’re a distribution center (DC) or operations manager, chances are excellent you’ve already heard about the sweeping productivity gains offered by voice-directed work. You already know that voice can boost accuracy to 99.99 percent, improve work productivity from 10 to 50 percent or more, reduce worker injury and turnover and increase customer satisfaction, retention and, ultimately, shareholder return.But knowing the benefits of voice is one thing.

Making the Business Case for Voice: How to Show Return on Investment

An essay from Vocollect, Inc.

The phrases “show return on investment”, “make a business case”, and “get the CIO’s buy-in” can strike fear in the hearts of many an otherwise competent and confident DC Manager. Ask you to pump up the team, to identify how well specific workers are performing, or to state your DC’s current safety record, and you are well in your element. But ask you to convince your CIO that a purchase of voice technology will be costeffective and achieve payback in less than one year, and you are, well…shall we say, feeling a bit wary.

Voice Beyond Selection

Extending the ROI Benefits of Voice Technology

This white paper explores the reach of voice technology beyond its birthplace in selection and into all areas of the warehouse. From receiving to put-away, to replenishment and line loading, voice technology can provide the ability to streamline processes, improve operational performance, and rapidly deliver the most compelling ROI.

Considerations for Selecting the Right Voice Technology

Aaron Miller, Principal Tompkins Associates

Voice technology involves uniting people, equipment and systems to increase accuracy, boost productivity and reduce operating costs. Since its introduction in the business world more than a decade ago, voice technology has proven itself in a wide variety of inventory-driven industries. Because of this emerging technology, distribution center operators are now able to interact directly with their warehouse management systems (WMS's) to perform a wide variety of key warehousing functions. Voice technology solutions have been installed in a number of industries including apparel, beverage, cold storage, consumer packaged goods, food service, grocery, medical/pharmaceutical and third-party logistics.

Order Picking for the 21st Century: Voice vs. Scanning Technology

Aaron Miller, Principal Tompkins Associates

Through direct communication with the WMS, labor management system (LMS) or host system, voice technology solutions facilitate simple, natural communication between order pickers and the system to speed the process and accuracy of order fulfillment. Companies are finding that voice-directed warehouse solutions can improve operations and drive costs from the supply chain.

Voice System Technologies & Architecture

Roger Byford, Founder and CEO

This white paper reviews some of the major technology and architecture decisions designers must make in creating voice-powered solutions for warehousing and industrial applications. We assume in all cases that the voice system includes wearable voice computers, communicating with their operators via microphone-equipped headsets, and with remote information systems via a radio frequency local area network (RF LAN).