Voice Recognition Rollout Designed to Improve Productivity, Quality, and Safety at Owens & Minors' Distributions Centers
Owens & Minor’s (O&M)distribution centers come in all shapes and sizes. For example, the warehouse is three stories high, with storage racks that tower close to the 40-foot ceiling. Forklifts, reach trucks, conveyor belts, and sortation stations, all make up the equipment in the warehouse that is used to compile the orders of medical and surgical supplies for Owens & Minor’s customers.
As an element of its current 5-year strategic plan, O&M embarked on a project to install automation equipment and voice technology in selected distribution centers. The new voice-pick technology is designed to improve teammate productivity, accuracy of orders, and worker safety, as teammates fill customer orders every day.
Before the advent of the new voice-pick technology, order “pickers” used hand-held computers while pulling orders from the vast warehouse. They read the order and then figured out what to do with the computers, which weigh four pounds, as they grabbed the item, scanned it, entered information and then moved on to the next item in the order. Their hands were not free, the computer was cumbersome and they were surrounded by rapidly moving machinery.
O&M, the nation’s leading distributor of name-brand medical and surgical supplies to hospitals, figured there had to be a better, safer, and faster way to fill totes and build pallets. And, there was an economic incentive, too. The new technology has the potential to improve productivity, allowing Owens & Minor to grow its business, but hold the line on headcount. For a distributor, leverage and productivity is key.
So O&M approached its IT outsourcing provider, Perot Systems, to help find a solution. Together they scoured the market and discovered Jennifer . (For O&M’s Spanish speaking team mates, the Spanish version of Jennifer will be used.)
Jennifer will change the way teammates work in the distribution centers. Equipped with the new technology, teammates will cruise the warehouse, wearing headsets with both hands free to work. As the tote comes their way, Jennifer tells them which products to grab and what to do if an item is missing. Jennifer happily slows down or repeats the instructions, if needed.
Jennifer , however, is not a real person. She is a voice recognition software program from Lucas Systems. Perot Systems helped O&M bake this voice recognition application into the company’s warehouse management system to create a more productive way to get the job done.
Perot Systems and O&M piloted the voice recognition program in the warehouse in February 2009. The two companies are scheduled to introduce Jennifer to 39 more warehouses by the end of this year.
O&M is already seeing results. The software has increased the number of order lines picked per hour, a key measurement in warehouse distribution productivity and, it has reduced the labor cost per line picked. For the facilities using the new technology, quality also is improving, as the teammates make fewer errors in packing the totes — keeping the customers happy. Additionally, safety, a huge concern, has improved too because employees don’t have to multi-task 40 feet in the air by trying to read and grab at the same time.
In today’s tough economic climate, any competitive edge helps a company survive. Perot Systems helped O&M use technology to improve the working life of its employees, as well as its bottom line.