Meat + Poultry - July 2004 - 43

99.99 percent accurate. There may be from zero to four mis-picks
(per week) now."
Accuracy improvements are also significant for Giant Eagle. "We
now have 99.9 percent accuracy, whereas before it was about 97
percent or 98 percent," says Baldauf. "This has resulted in significant
savings on distribution costs. We were able to achieve a return on investment within a year of implementation. The reduction in workers'
compensation is a perfect example of the return achieved."
An additional benefit for P.D.I. is productivity increased because
of removing variability from the order picking process. P.D.I. has increased productivity by 20 percent to 25 percent. "Ten people may
pick 10 different ways," says Kloberdanz. "This way, we pick all orders
the same way. Ease of training is also an advantage. It used to take
three to four months for new employees to get up to speed. Now,
there is less variation, and it takes just three to four weeks."
Rippley says A.W.I. has achieved productivity gains of up to 10 percent since it implemented voice technology. "We have also achieved
75 percent reduction in mis-selections. It has also decreased shortages by 45 percent," he says. He adds that A.W.I. has committed to
voice selection in the frozen food area starting next month.

and material handling equipment checkout, the latter two of which it
currently does with a paper-based system. Kloberdanz predicts that
voice technology devices will continue to become smaller and lighter,
which will be helpful for users.
Currently, Giant Eagle uses voice technology for order selection
only, but its plans may include working with technology suppliers to
add more functions to the voice application, including receiving, replenishment, stocking and forklift operations. "There are radio frequency units on the forklifts now, from which you read instructions
such as to pick up a pallet and place it in a particular slot," says
Baldauf. "With voice, it would direct you to the slot where to pick up
the pallet and you would not have to push a button."
Voice technology has already proven to be a benefit to meat and
poultry distributors. As various aspects of the technology continue to
develop, functions in addition to order picking may be more widely
employed. As users of the technology say, any warehouse function
that involves manual recording can potentially benefit from the use of
voice technology.
M&P
The author is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

Other voice technology functions

We would like to hear from you-
your comments and questions
about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: meat&poultry@sosland.com

In addition to order picking, P.D.I. has considered voice-enabled
functions such as inventory control, cycle counting, trailer loading

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Meat + Poultry - July 2004

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