NuminaGroup

Author: Jennifer Maloney

  • Voice Directed Order Fulfillment Automation for Frozen Food Fulfillment

    Voice Directed Order Fulfillment Automation for Frozen Food Fulfillment

    Voice Directed Order Fulfillment Automation for Frozen Food Fulfillment

    Jennifer Maloney
    June 2, 2017

    Success Story

    Founded over 100 years ago, Neesvig’s is privately held meat processing and food fulfillment firm that specializes in temperature controlled and frozen food fulfilment.  They distribute products nationwide as a one-stop shop for e-com direct to consumer deliveries.  Acting as a third party logistics service provider for dozens of top brand food suppliers and retailers, their DC is equipped to ship same day orders of perishable, frozen, refrigerated, and dry goods.

    Neesvig’s partnered with The Numina Group to design and implement the processes and automation to lean-up their pick, pack, and ship operation resulting in substantial labor savings, reduced order processing time, and operational savings that resulted in under a 2 year ROI.

    The operation is controlled by Real-time Distribution System, RDS™, Numina’s Warehouse Execution and Control System WES-WCS.  RDS™ includes a voice directed order fulfillment suite  that manages the entire pick, pack, and ship order fulfillment process in the distribution center.  RDS™ manages the order start using cartonization logic to direct the selection of the right size cooler, document insertion, and the order identification barcode label placed on the cooler.

    Pick by voice directs order picking throughout the operation. At order release, RDS™ creates an optimized batch of orders and directs the batch picking in the freezer for the required products into barcoded totes. The fork truck operators are directed to each pick location in an optimized travel path using voice commands and barcode scanning validation. Products are batch picked to totes, and at pick completion the totes are dynamically slotted to barcodes carton flow positions in the cooler area pick module.

    Once freezer picking is completed, totes of products are moved to the pick module to begin picking customer orders to shipping container/coolers. The picking operation uses multimodal voice combining voice commands interleaved with hands-free barcode scanning to pick and pack the required items to capture the SKU, GS-1 lot numbers, and sell by date for each order.

    At the exit to the pick module, coolers are conveyed to the ice-pack and lidding station. Based on shipping rules, RDS™ directs the proper ice pack quantities per order so customer shipments arrive frozen.

    Voice picking combining product barcode scan to container validation has streamlined the process, reduced errors, and increased worker productivity at Neesvig’s. “We reduced picking labor in the frozen goods fulfillment by 50 percent.” stated Valerie Walter, the Operations Manager.

    Pick and pack completed shipping coolers convey to the in-line scale. Orders that pass the weight audit convey to the print-and-apply labeling systems for automated application of the shipping label. “The print and apply has eliminated the manual processes of weighing and hand applying the shipping labels, significantly speeding up the shipping process,” Walter stated.

    At the exit of the print and apply labeling system, coolers convey, are automatically shrink wrapped, and sorted to UPS/FedEx parcel trailer. Automation gave Neesvig’s efficiency gains across the entire operation providing an excellent ROI and scalability to handle Neesvig’s growth. The investment has reduced labor costs by 35 percent and increased throughput by 50 percent during peak periods. “From start to finish, we have less touches, faster order completion time, and less errors” stated Walter.

    Automating the Order Fulfillment Operation has enabled Neesvig’s to continue to grow and meet the spike in direct to consumer orders during peak seasons and especially now during the current pandemic.

    If you’re interested in reducing labor costs, accuracy, and order throughput across your order fulfillment operation, contact The Numina Group at 630-343-2600.

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  • Value Stream Mapping

    Value Stream Mapping

    Value Stream Mapping

    Jennifer Maloney
    May 4, 2017

    Eliminate Waste in your Order Fulfillment Operation with Value Stream Mapping

    In an earlier post, we discussed how upfront planning to define the right DC design road map can lead to free warehouse automation thanks to a rapid ROI generating significant cost savings. Studies show that best-in-class companies that emphasize continuous improvement, invest in value mapping to streamline processes, and collaborate across departments in warehouse design improvements gain the following benefits:

    • Reduced order-to-delivery cycle time from weeks to days
    • Consistently meet same-day delivery
    • Reduced on-hand inventory from 10% to 30%
    • Increased inventory turns
    • Experienced throughput gains of up to 70%

    A project that focuses only on cost through head count reduction misses the opportunity to consider other gains achieved through investment in automation. Lean only designs can generate some benefits, but not at the same level that a holistic warehouse design evaluating order flow across the entire operation. The best means to achieve the highest ROI is to start with a design and process flow that focuses on people and processes, and then considers which blend of technologies delivers the best ROI.

    Begin with Value Stream Mapping

    Value Stream mapping begins by asking two questions, “what adds value to customers?”, and “What steps can be eliminated or combined into a single step?”  In layman terms, the goal of value stream mapping is to identify what a customer will pay for, and how it makes executing the customer experience more profitable.

    It is an exercise of discovery that creates a flowchart of what you’re doing today, including all the steps and touches, and identifies which steps add value and which are wasted. The goal should be to eliminate as much of the waste components as possible throughout your entire order fulfillment process.

    The As-Is flowchart creates a step-by-step overview of your entire process in order to identify opportunities for improvement.  In a warehouse operation an As-Is flowchart begins by documenting all of the touches associated with the pick, pack, and ship process.  This typically represents the highest labor cost areas in the DC.

    The next step is to drill down into each of these steps and ask, “Where is the value?” As you ask this, keep in mind, customers pay for value – they don’t pay for wasted steps and multiple touches, wherever waste is present, you are absorbing these costs in the operation and damaging your bottom line.

    Customers don’t care if you have to move an each, case, or pallet four or five times before it is ready to ship. The end customer doesn’t consider if you use paper, RF terminals, or pick by voice to manage the pick and pack process.  Customers don’t care about your internal operational inefficiency, unless it affects their experience or business!

    After completing the current DC flow charts, post the flow chart on the conference room wall and have the team collectively review the operation. You won’t have to ask “Which of the steps in the process that we’re doing right now add no value to the customer?” Several will jump right out! Then begin brainstorming and collaborating on how to eliminate the non-value steps, which will increase customer value.

    You may currently pick-to-tote, use an inefficient cart, or manually pick and pass orders at several steps in the operation.  It is up to you to decide if you want to absorb the higher cost of labor and inefficiency that stems from error prone picking processes that require secondary validation at QC to prevent errors. Waste and secondary touches drive higher costs per shipment, and need to be identified and eliminated for the Value Stream Mapping Initiative to be successful.

    Ultimately, customers only care about getting the right product on time, at the lowest delivery cost. The Warehouse Education Research Council (WERC) has studied this topic extensively and created a metric companies can compare themselves against called The Perfect Order Practice.

    The Perfect Order Practice focuses on the following four metrics: 1. Rate of accurate order fill – meaning the percentage of orders picked and packed complete, 2. Correct documentation, 3. Arrive damage-free, and 4. Delivered on time!   Companies scoring high in these categories are on average 17.5% more profitable.

    A lean pick, pack, and ship process should score high across the board on all components of The Perfect Order Practice.  Conducting a Value stream mapping study provides companies with the opportunity to identify how your company scores on The Perfect Order Practice metric.  This study will allow you to focus on what steps need to be taken to achieve warehouse operational improvements, and ultimately enable you to define what software and automation technologies can be deployed to enforce better processes and practices.

    Empower Your Employees

    Equipping people with technology that allows them to perform faster and more accurately combined with a low-touch process is a good place to start in an initial phase. Consider what technologies enforce the improved practices and build accuracy into the operation. Technology decisions should be made after you’ve leaned up and value-mapped the order fulfillment process flow.

    Can you guess what great technology will obtain the above? A hint…….it starts with v and ends in e. Pick by Voice technology can be a low cost game changer for most order fulfillment operations!

    It is vital to focus on “better” processes that can be improved or are adaptable to future changes. For example, it’s sufficient to begin with a new design that takes a mediocre picking process and improves it to a good, sound pick-to-tote process. Then, as a second step, once you have the SKU cube and weight database thoroughly tested, you can make additional incremental changes to improve the process with functionality such as picking directly into the shipping carton.

    Order picking operations can be improved from discrete order picking to batch picking using push cart and fork truck carts. Batch picking reduces travel and visits to the same item storage positions, and thrives when combined with proper velocity based slotting of SKUs.  Also, a “Speed Pick” process can be interleaved during the batch pick, which speeds up single SKU shipments by picking them all to a tote in one stop.

    If you have questions or would like to augment your team’s expertise as you go through this process, the Numina Group is here to help. Our engineers are here to create improvements in distribution and order fulfillment, and help you select and implement automation technologies that result in rapid, measurable improvements for higher profitability throughout your order fulfillment operation. Please contact us today to discuss warehouse process improvement questions and your thoughts and goals.

    Learn more by calling sales at (630) 343-2622.

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  • How Mechatronics Shows the Path to Higher Productivity in Order Fulfillment Automation

    How Mechatronics Shows the Path to Higher Productivity in Order Fulfillment Automation

    Warehouse Execution System by Numina Group for High Performance Automation

    How Mechatronics Shows the Path to Higher Productivity in Order Fulfillment Automation

    Jennifer Maloney
    January 28, 2017

    Far too often, distribution operations compartmentalize areas and direct managers to focus on solving daily operational issues andman-working-wearing-voice-set requirements in specific departments within the distribution center (DC). However, a more effective approach is to combine higher accuracy and more efficient design driven with technologies such as pick-to-voice, and then combine better picking with pack automation into an integrated continuous flow distribution machine. Results: better processes are magnified with the right technology, and customers report gains of 70% or higher productivity improvement in their order fulfillment operations!

    Order Fulfillment using a Mechatronics Design

    Distribution operations can benefit from applying the philosophy of mechatronics, a thought process that is a growing trend in machine design. Mechatronics, the engineering of an automated machine or production line, is a holistic design approach in which mechanical and electronic design teams work together to produce a more efficient machine.

    The designers look at moving points in a machine and evaluate all the mechanical motion – with gears or pulleys, a hydraulic or pneumatic motion control, or digital servo control of the motion and sensors and the control system works together. This combined effort allows the designers to produce automated machines that give customers increased performance and ability to run smaller batches or a greater diversity of package sizes.

    This same holistic design concept is required when implementing process improvements in order fulfillment operations. Without this holistic view, compartmentalized thinking may result. The shipping manager, for instance, may have a specific area KPI productivity goal not related to receiving, inventory forward stock levels, picking rates etc. This leads to a work environment in which managers don’t talk and collaborate with their peers about ways to streamline cross-department order flow in the DC. The fact is, the largest boost in order fulfillment productivity and higher DC profitability levels occurs when the entire pick, pack, and ship process design is considered collectively, i.e. holistically planning, designing and implementing leaner pick, pack, and ship distribution processes.

    By designing a system that considers the combined processes of pick, pack, and ship as a single continuous order flow operation, the distribution center gains far higher yields in productivity, as opposed to looking at singular or isolated process improvements such as adding pick to voice, or print-and-apply labeling of the shipping label as single area standalone automated system in the pack area.

    Better Design leads to a Higher ROI

    Thinking about and designing a distribution operation in its entirety including receiving, inventory management, and pick, pack, and ship process achieves far greater results and a higher ROI. One of the first steps is deploying “better practices” by doing an A, B, C, SKU movement analysis, and then re-slotting to obtain an optimized pick path. This helps for the short term but to consistently get results, a customer must invest in a Warehouse Management and Warehouse Control System (WMS-WCS) that contains all the software functionality to drive and enforce consistent receiving and put-away logic that will lead to a more efficient slotting and picking path.

    Companies that implement what Numina Group refers to as a “Lean Pick and Pack Process” eliminate touches and combine pick and validate tasks into a single step by picking direct to the right size order shipping carton. A leaner pick process, enforced with Pick by Voice technology that validates the pick- and put-to-carton process, and hands-free barcode scanning that validates the SKU or lot/ serial barcode, allows the packing process to take advantage of upstream pack automation.

    Additional benefits are derived when packing automation is applied to the process, including in-line scan weigh dimensioning, pack sheet documentation print, fold and insert technology, automatic or semi-automatic carton taping, and print-and-apply labeling to auto-apply the compliance, carton content and shipping labels. The combination of these technologies removes several touches out of the manifesting and shipping process.

    Achieve Dramatic Results

    Taking advantage of the principles of mechatronics in distribution – the power of a process design that  combines pick, pack, and ship order fulfillment operation will achieve an integrated solution that uses less conveyor, material handling equipment, better product storage and retrieval methods, lower labor costs across picking, packing, shipping and replenishment within a smaller space footprint.

    A lean, automated order fulfillment operation reduces labor costs, improves accuracy and shortens the order delivery window to lowers your overall cost of doing business.This delivers higher operational profitability, improved customer satisfaction and a fast ROI – sweet music to the CFO and CEO.

    If you’re interested in learning more on means to boost productivity by applying our “mechatronics design principles”  in your fulfillment operations, contact the Numina Group today.

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  • How Warehouse Automation Helps Retain Good Employees

    How Warehouse Automation Helps Retain Good Employees

    How Warehouse Automation Helps Retain Good Employees

    Jennifer Maloney
    October 11, 2016

    How to Retain Key Warehouse Staff in a Tight Labor Market

    Crain’s of Chicago recently announced that Amazon will be opening a second distribution center (DC) in Joliet, IL, bringing 2,000 new jobs to the area. In addition to Amazon, Whirlpool, Michelin North America, and IKEA are also opening or planning to open large warehouses in the area.

    While these new DCs are great for the local economy, they represent a challenge for other companies drawing from the same employee pool. 

    According to Pat Fera, director of the area’s Workforce Investment Board, entry level positions at Amazon will pay $13.50/hour, a rate that’s pulling up wages at other competitors and staffing agencies.

    “Anyone offering $9 or $10 per hour will struggle to get folks in,” she said.[i] Not only will area employers be struggling to fill positions, but they’ll also be facing competition to lure away their best employees.

    Illinois is not alone. With the national unemployment rate hovering below 5%, the Federal Reserve Bank stated that tight labor markets were widely noted in most districts, pushing up wages for many workers.[ii] 

    The competition for good workers is fierce. As Robert Pericht, senior vice president at Saddle Creek Logistics noted, “Someone can come in next door, bump the local wage by 10 or 20 cents an hour and people will jump on that. They’ll absolutely move for that.”[iii]

    What can companies do to retain good warehouse employees while controlling labor costs?

    Solution – Improve Employee Experience by Eliminating Repetition and Boredom

    In a manual, paper-driven warehouse environment, workers spend hours on repetitive tasks such as picking to totes, constructing shipping cartons, re-checking order contents, packing, and other labor-intensive tasks that burn dollars that would go to bottom line profitability in a lean and automated order fulfillment operation. 

    It’s not surprising that workers in a primarily manual DC operation become unengaged as their attention drifts from what they are doing to overcome boredom. That’s how unintentional errors occur, and it’s also the reason employees become a nomadic workforce; they can be easily enticed to work elsewhere.

    One way to eliminate this problem is to identify mundane work tasks and improve or eliminate them by applying automation technologies. By doing so, you’ll reduce the labor needed to get the work done and also free up your employees for other high value work that can help build your business.

    Take an employee whose job is to stand at a pack sheet printer, print documents and walk over and put them into several boxes. 

    With this task, it’s easy to be distracted. If the employee is not focused on their work, the probability of mixing up paperwork and making order packing errors is high. 

    On-demand print/fold/insert technology and eliminate the need to dedicate a worker to the task. Accuracy will improve, and the worker’s skills can be put to much better use.

    The same benefits can be gained by automating the pick process using voice picking to enforce and validate pick and pack tasks. 

    Additionally, downstream of packing, the manifesting area of the warehouse is an easy first step to drive errors and mundane labor tasks out of the operation. Rather than using people to manually weigh, measure and ship packages, you can install inline scales, dimensioners and an automatic print-and-apply system to process shipments. 

    This eliminates numerous points for potential error but more importantly, it eliminates mundane work. Freed up workers can be trained in other skills and deployed in other areas such as quality control or customer service.

    Voice-directed picking in the order fulfillment process can improve efficiency and accuracy. Voice technology continually engages the employee in conversation, directs them in their tasks and assures that they are fully focused on their work. 

    Their eyes are focused, they’re listening for instructions, and using hands-free barcode scanning technology to scan and validate their work. With voice technology guiding them through their work tasks, accuracy rates of 99.9% can be consistently achieved. 

    Equally important, it fosters a consistent, best-practice environment that ensures the staff is consistently following the pick-and-pack procedures and working correctly in the most efficient travel path.

    As these examples show, warehouse automation technology is not always about creating a 100% automated storage and retrieval environment to be efficient. Significant gains can be achieved by strategically applying technology to eliminate the most mundane work and its associated labor costs and, many times, generate a faster ROI than highly automated facilities.

    The right processes and technologies can stimulate your workforce and make the DC a more challenging and interesting place to work. In this way, technology serves as the foundation for accuracy, order completeness, and correct documentation, which are all the major components of perfect order practice. 

    Equally important, it creates a work environment that attracts and retains good employees and makes them want to work in a high-tech environment.

    Do you have any questions about implementing lean automated pick, pack, and ship operations in your DC facilities?  The Numina Group is here to help.  Contact us to arrange a complimentary site visit and consultation.

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    [i] Micah Maid Enberg, “Can Amazon Persuade Thousands to Work at it Warehouses?” Crain’s Chicago Business, July 28, 2016.

    [ii] Ben Leubsdorf and Jeffrey Sparshott, “Fed’s Beige Book: Tight Labor Markets’ Are Pushing Up Wages,” Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2016.

    [iii] Micah Maidenberg.

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  • How the Right DC Roadmap Can Lead to Free Warehouse Automation

    How the Right DC Roadmap Can Lead to Free Warehouse Automation

    How the Right DC Roadmap Can Lead to Free Warehouse Automation

    Jennifer Maloney
    September 15, 2016

    Companies today are grappling with major challenges in their quest to maintain a competitive edge. Trends such as the explosion of e-commerce, lower levels of business on-hand inventory, retailers becoming e-tailers, and the demand for same-day deliveries are all placing tremendous pressure on business operations to keep up. The need for accurate, on-time order fulfillment execution is more pressing than ever.

    Shippers are also facing a labor shortage. As Brian Devine, senior vice president of staffing firm EmployBridge noted, “We expect the demand for hourly labor to increase by about 28 percent over the headcount needs of the third quarter. This large increase will be on top of the already-tight labor market we are now experiencing.”[1] Pay rates, which have increased by 11 percent for logistics employees in the last 24 months, are expected to increase for the next year. With all these factors combined, the impact on employment costs will be significant.

    The bottom line? It is not realistic to believe anyone can continue to operate a successful and profitable enterprise with traditional “high touch-labor” practices that they were able to get away with just a few years ago. Today’s distribution operations need to be lean, low-touch processes, automated with technologies that deliver a fast 18- to 30-month return-on-investment (ROI).

    The Need for Lean Operations

    The technology and tools are available today to clearly make the shift to combining a lean and automated strategy to significantly simplify daily operations and apply the right mix of automation to control the improved processes and business functions. This can be accomplished by identifying the strategies and tactics to “lean-up” the DC operation. It is especially important to design the means to use less labor touches and select the blend of automation that returns the fastest ROI to gain competitive advantage.

    Warehouse automation can deliver huge returns by eliminating redundant manual processes and increasing employee productivity. Technology such as conveyor systems, automatic print-and-apply labeling, robotic pick carts, voice picking, automated guided vehicles and storage technologies can drive high accuracy and rapid paybacks – and when applied to the right application, really answer the CEO’s demand to “show me the ROI.”

    But automation alone will not solve the problem. Supply chain operations are made up of a complex interplay between people, process and product workflows. It takes a deep understanding of how these elements work together to truly drive the highest benefits of automation.

    It All Begins with a Design Roadmap

    Experience has shown that a company must have a common methodology to guide their day-to-day work tasks. The company must also have a clear understanding of the best starting point to initiate a change in order for the automation lean program to take root. A basic operational analysis based on historical order shipment data can be used to pin-point and fast-track a design improvement study or roadmap that can identify where the cost savings are. Unfortunately, many companies fail to benchmark their current processes against identified leaner practices, so they don’t realize the time, resources and money that can be saved across the entire distribution operation.

    It may seem easier to focus on a specific area such as a basic picking improvement or area automation. However, to achieve the highest financial payback, a holistic approach that considers the benefits of a united and automated pick, pack, and ship order fulfillment operation is required.

    It has been documented that best-in-class companies who have taken a holistic view of the entire DC have:

    • Experienced positive cash flow within 120 days of the program’s kick-off
    • Reduced order-to-delivery cycles from five or six weeks to days or even same-day delivery
    • Documented inventories reductions of 20 to 30%
    • Increased the inventory turns and seen gains of up to 70% in productivity

    These savings are very achievable; in fact, we’ve seen it happen for many of our customers and it can be achieved at your DC operation.

    Take a Short- and Long-Term View

    A good design plan needs both a short-term phased implementation, as well as a definition of the long-term goals. Also, it must be built with the company’s overall business objectives in mind. The first step is to determine where your organization stands in defining its multi-year objectives across the enterprise. Without this end-to-end enterprise perspective, your capital investments will yield only incremental, costly changes and limited benefits.

    The design roadmap should assess how and which process improvements can be made, and identify the “low hanging fruit” and what is required to harvest it. It can also compare and contrast which automation technologies yield the best ROI.

    A Lot Size of One

    A colleague of The Numina Group, Neil Glenney, a consultant on the Consult League Team, likes to recommend companies take the approach of considering a “lot size of one” when brainstorming processes to streamline operations in the distribution center (DC). He stated, “Think in terms of consistently moving a ‘lot size of one.’” Thinking in this way can drive innovation across the entire DC. The operation can be flow-charted and the product and data flow-mapped to create a design with least amount of product moves and touches. This is a value-mapping technique to eliminate excess steps in receiving, inspection, put-away and pick, pack, and ship processes.

    Recovering Your Automation Investment

    For many companies, leaning out operations is accomplished in a series of incremental changes over a period of time. When it is well-planned and managed, the company can realize measurable incremental savings along the way. The recovered corporate dollars can be used to further eliminate inefficiencies arising from misaligned functional “as-is” priorities, replaced with proven and time-tested successful methodologies.

    With this mindset, your company can reach the point in which “Automation is Free,” much like the notion that “Quality is Free,” defined by quality guru Philip B. Crosby. Getting there requires a commitment to understanding the people, processes and products that make up your business and carefully applying automation to drive the best results. It also requires collaboration across functional teams in your organization. As Crosby also said, “To help in a positive manner, you must be genuinely interested in people and results.”

    So, what does a good design roadmap for lean operations look like? We’ll talk about must-have elements of a good design plan for lean and automated distribution operations in our next blog.

    Do you have questions about implementing lean automated pick, pack, and ship operations in your DC facilities? The Numina Group is here to help. Contact us to arrange a complimentary site visit and consultation.

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  • Labor Tracking and Performance Metrics Bundled with Voice-Directed Order Fulfillment Automation

    Labor Tracking and Performance Metrics Bundled with Voice-Directed Order Fulfillment Automation

    Labor Tracking and Performance Metrics Bundled with Voice-Directed Order Fulfillment Automation

    Jennifer Maloney
    August 12, 2016

    How Voice-Directed Picking with Labor Tracking Delivers Continuous Improvement

    Warehouse labor costs account for 50% to 70% of a distribution operation’s operating costs, making it a top concern for all companies. One sure way you can reduce labor and increase worker productivity − by 30% or more − is to replace manual processes with voice technology especially in picking.

    Doing so will generate a rapid ROI, often in under one year, especially if the solution includes labor tracking to measure worker productivity across work zones and compares it to established standards.

    Blog: The ROI of Voice Picking

    That’s exactly the benefits offered by Numina Group’s RDS™ Victory Voice™ Suite. This voice picking system simultaneously increases worker productivity and accuracy in picking and other related work tasks when interleaving replenishment and cycle counting with order picking duties.

    Voice-Directed Work Tasks Combined with Real-Time Labor Tracking

    RDS Victory Voice includes built-in labor tracking software so that picking and other work task measurements are time stamped and tracked, and worker productivity is automatically reported, providing worker accountability. Workers’ performance data can be compared to work standards set by management to the work zone and work activity.

    RDS Voice delivers additional operational savings due to its speaker-independent engine, which virtually eliminates costly training time, so that temporary workers can be productive in basic pick or pallet build tasks in 10 minutes or less.

    Blog: The True Cost of NOT Automating Your Warehouse

    Productivity is King

    Picking labor comprises the highest percentage of a DC’s labor costs. This is especially true in B-to-B and B-to-C e-commerce operations, in which large portion of orders are mixed-SKU pick-and-pack parcel shipments.

    An advanced solution like RDS Victory Voice offers greater savings when it is combined with other functionality. For example:

    • RDS voice picking, when combined with pick-to-carton cartonization logic makes it possible to pick orders directly into the final shipping carton, a great way to eliminate unnecessary touches and lean up the pick and pack workflow.
    • When it is integrated with hands-free barcode scanning you can automating the entire pick-to-carton process, it directs the operator’s pick path, verifies the SKU location, and validates the pick and put to carton process.
    • RDS Voice automatically captures critical order data in real time. It is time-stamped and captured in RDS labor and operational database. 
    • RDS Voice also can provide the ability to monitor work zone order volume demand and move workers efficiently to the highest order activity zones.

    The Foundation of Performance Improvement

    RDS Victory Voice, integrated with labor management, enables both real-time and historical reporting and analysis, providing managers with the ability to analyze individual worker performance, and develop better training metrics to support new or underperforming workers. 

    RDS Victory Voice with labor tracking, measures a worker’s activity to a work zone standard and reports task performance. The RDS labor tracking and reporting module can time-stamp each operator sequence in the workflow to capture individual worker’s performance.

    RDS performance reporting tools can account for work zone assignment and any required value-added tasks, and other interleaved worker tasks such as cycle counting, QC inspection and replenishment, or put-away.

    This labor tracking capability makes it possible for managers to immediately address and retrain employees who are not meeting standards recognize and also reward workers who exceed productivity and performance standards.

    Built-in Picking and SKU Velocity Data Analytics

    RDS also captures picking and SKU velocity movement so it can be analyzed for work zone performance, SKU slotting, and re-profiling underperforming pick zones.  Blog: What is Slotting? Benefits & Tips for Optimization

    Comprehensive Reporting for Forecasting and Planning

    The RDS Reporting module measures worker productivity across different order fulfillment tasks and tracks labor to settable work standards. It can be used to monitor people and process performance during both low and high demand periods, management and used for labor planning for peak seasons, and have feedback in real-time to shift labor to work zones to avoid bottlenecks before they occur.

    Zero-Voice Training for Rapid Employee On-Boarding

    Peak seasons require many DC’s to rely on temporary workers. If the DC lacks simple-to-use speaker-independent voice technology with instant worker productivity, it is far more challenging to measure temporary workers’ performance, and increases the risk of increased shipping errors, retailer fines, customer service costs, and lost customers. 

    Advanced voice-picking solutions such as RDS Victory Voice will automate worker directions with 99.9% accuracy. Its speaker-independent voice is simple to learn and use and proven to work in the noisiest work environments.

    Workers can be proficient in 10 minutes or less, so that DC managers can dramatically reduce the time and resources allocated to train new or temporary employees. 

    Numina Group’s Real-time Distribution Software, RDS™ is the definition of a top-tier WES-WCS with advanced, voice-directed order fulfillment software.

    RDS includes a fully-featured warehouse order orchestration suite with pick, pack, and ship order management software suite along with the control of material handling equipment automation including goods-to-person (GTP) solutions, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) automated conveyors, scan-weigh-dimensioning systems, ASRS management, document print, insert, and print-and-apply labeling of shipping, packing, and compliance labels.

    Blog: How End-to-End Warehouse Automation Can Future-Proof Your Company

    Ready to learn more? Contact the Numina Group today.

     
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  • A Top Tier WCS Increases Productivity in Omni-Channel Distribution

    A Top Tier WCS Increases Productivity in Omni-Channel Distribution

    A Top Tier WCS Increases Productivity in Omni-Channel Distribution

    Jennifer Maloney
    February 15, 2016

    Many times, complex warehouse order orchestration automation goes beyond just adding voice technology to a DC. It requires a software platform to manage order release balancing to optimize the entire pick, pack, and ship order fulfillment operation.

    This is the domain of a top tier warehouse control andexecution system (WCS) that includes software to balance and optimize order release to add further efficiencies to all components in the order fulfillment process.

    A top tier WCS manages and executes advanced picking strategies in combination with packing and shipping into a unified continuous order fulfillment process.

    A top-tier WCS manages and balances order picking across each channel, so e-commerce and retail orders can be simultaneously processed within the same DC.

    It bolts onto the existing ERP and WMS system to deliver advanced, best practices automation to control and execute order fulfillment, product tracking, and real-time labor tracking.

    A top-tier WCS includes voice picking technology, inspection, lot and serial number capture, and a full family of material handling automation modules that streamline the entire order fulfillment operation.

    Cartonization Logic

    E-commerce orders are primarily 1-2 line parcel shipments that require strict observance to dimensional weight. Consequently, tools such as cartonization software are required to perform pick-pack optimization and ensure orders are packed into the smallest available carton size and/or padded bag to control shipping costs.

    Blog: Save Money With Advanced Cartonization Software

    A top-tier WCS combining advanced cartonization logic with order release directs the order picking to the optimum carton size. Voice commands then direct the order pick and pack verification direct to the required shipping carton or cartons.

    This is a critical need for both B-to-B and e-commerce operations. Single-touch pick-and-pack reduces touches, lowers packaging and shipping costs, and increases order throughput rates.

    Labor-Tracking Technology

    The majority of omnichannel and e-commerce fulfillment centers track productivity at facilities in a macro manner. According to a 2014 research study sponsored by Kane Is Able, Inc., a leading supplier of 3PL services, distribution operations do not have a good a handle on individual worker productivity.

    According to the study, 57% of respondents consider “increasing workforce productivity” to be one of their toughest challenges. Considering the fact that labor accounts for 50% to 70% of a fulfillment center’s operating budget, it makes economic sense to use technology that increases labor productivity and simultaneously tracks worker productivity.

    Again, a top-tier WCS, with integrated speaker-independent voice picking technology eliminates operator training while adding worker accountability. Voice picking time-stamps each operator sequence in the operation to capture individual worker performance, measure worker’s activity based on a work zone standard, and provides the reporting tools torecognize and reward workers who exceed productivity and performance standards.

    Voice picking technology, integrated with labor and order SKU pick data tracking, enables real-time and historical reporting and analysis. Labor tracking provides supervisors the ability to analyze individual-workers, and provides a better training metric to guide new or underperforming workers.

    Learn More About Numina’s Voice Picking System

    Additionally, data is captured to analyze work zone performance, evaluate SKU slotting, and re-profile underperforming pick zones. Management can use the data to perform labor planning for peak seasons, and Web based screens viewable on tablets or phones provide feedback in real-time to allow a manager to shift labor to other work zones and avoid bottlenecks before they occur!

    Enables Perfect Order Fulfillment Practice

    100% order accuracy is the ultimate goal of all order fulfillment operations. Equipping a DC with technology to direct pick-and-pack validation in a lean, low touch manner goes a long way to achieving the four principles of perfect order fulfillment practices: 

    1. Complete order-fill accuracy
    2. On-time delivery
    3. Damage free
    4. Correct documentation

    Omni-channel and e-commerce DC’s with their mix of high-volume case pick, and low count SKU order reap higher profitability and customer satisfaction with technologies that provide all four components of perfect order practices.

    Supply chain and operation management executives are well served to investigate the benefits of the accumulative productivity gains obtained through automated pick, pack, and ship processes.

    The cumulative effect of a unified, automated omni-channel order fulfillment operation managed with a top-tier WCS combined with speaker-independent voice boosts productivity much higher than a voice-only solution providing 35% to 50% gains, and a rapid ROI in 12 to 18 months for many DC operations.

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  • Why Speaker-Independent Voice is the Right Choice for your DC

    Why Speaker-Independent Voice is the Right Choice for your DC

    Why Speaker-Independent Voice is the Right Choice for your DC

    Jennifer Maloney
    February 3, 2016

    Explore the Efficiencies and Labor Savings Gained with Numina Group’s Speaker-Independent Voice-Directed Picking System

    Order picking can be the most labor-intensive activity in omni-channel e-commerce order fulfillment operations, especially piece-picking operations. Orders that require specific picking rules such as a specific package type, color, accessory, promotional item, document, or gift wrapping benefit the most from voice picking system technology because it directs and instructs operators on the required shipment and packing rules.

    Voice-guided picking technology is highly flexible and can change the instructions for the same SKU pick based on a customer, retailer/e-tailer’s specific shipment rule.

    A pick-by-voice system automatically prompts the picker in a step-by-step manner with the work rules and integrates a paperless voice instruction step-by-step work process to validate picking.

    Voice picking technology outperforms paper-based picking, RF terminals, message displays, and many times pick-to-light, especially when accounting for the benefit of its increased accuracy!

    Latest Generation, Lean, Speaker-Independent Voice-Directed Picking

    The latest advancements in speaker-independent voice recognition technology further drive increased productivity and ease of use. 

    The voice engine’s technology has close to 100% recognition rates across multiple languages, while operating in noisy industrial operations.

    It requires zero voice training, which greatly reduces a worker’s training time to minutes, making it possible to use temporary workers for picking applications.

    The latest generation multi-modal voice technology combines a lean voice command set with integrated hands-free scanning for single-touch pick and pack verification.  

    Integrated barcode scan validation, especially the use of the latest 2D hands-free scanners, significantly increases the speed, flexibility, and accuracy well and beyond traditional speaker-dependent voice picking technologies.

    Streamlines Work Tasks in Many Areas of Fulfillment Operations

    Speaker-independent natural language voice commands and responses are not only suitable for picking, but support all DC order fulfillment activities such as put to order, replenishment, cycle counting, pallet building, case sorting, and inspection tasks.

    A pick-by-voice system directs the worker to the location in the most efficient travel path, and directs the operator to scan a SKU barcode by using a back-of-hand or ring-mounted barcode scanner.

    It directs and validates each step through a combination of voice commands/responses and hands-free two-dimensional (2D) barcode scanning. 2D scanning is omni-directional scanning to speed up by 5% the location, SKU, lot and serial ID barcode capture, and validation steps.

    Hands-free, Eyes Forward Picking for 99.9% Accuracy

    Keeping worker’s hands-free and their eyes focused makes an operation safer while allowing operators to hear, see, and verify SKU, quantity, lot, and serial number capture in a fast, accurate, single touch operation.

    Picking with scan validation, vision, and speech is a three-step verification. Multi-verification voice consistently achieves a 99.9% accuracy rate – far higher than voice-only technology.

    Advances in Voice Technology

    Quite different than first-generation voice systems, speaker-independent voice algorithms have continued to advance and now automatically recognize voice responses regardless of an individual’s accent. Advanced voice picking systems such as Numina Group’s RDS™ Victory Voice™ Suite use a small client message architecture that resides on the small light weight voice-enabled PDA that can operate for 14 hours or more between battery charges.

    Victory Voice System Architecture

    Victory Voice is comprised of a voice server application, database, voice vocabulary, and work logic is server-based. Fulfillment operations can either self-host the solution on their private cloud/virtual server, or host the voice server at a cloud provider site.

    The voice server sends and receives message packets (approximately 25 bytes per message), to transmit the natural voice instructions and receive worker voice and scan confirmation messages. This uses minimal network bandwidth and is a fraction of the size of network bandwidth usage compared to many voice picking technologies.

    The architecture not only handles high-volume picking transactions, but because of its low bytes per message, it minimally impacts the existing facility’s wireless network. This is different from other voice technologies such as Voice Over IP (VoIP), which requires a significant modification to the IT infrastructure network to accommodate the much larger size data packet messages generated by picks.

    Video: 99.9% Order Picking Accuracy with RDS Victory Voice

    Pickers are productive in 15 minutes, so even temporary workers can be quickly and easily deployed during peak periods. The voice commands and responses are in a natural voice and support multiple languages. A worker can choose English, Spanish, Polish or many other languages and perform the work in their native language.

    Speaker-independent voice technology permits more flexibility in cross-training of workers and interleaving work tasks, leading to better labor utilization for picking, replenishment, and other work tasks. 

    Additionally, the technology captures and time-stamps all orders and labor usage for performance reporting. Labor tracking provides supervisors the ability to analyze individual worker productivity and direct and move operators between work zones and work activities.

    How Speaker-Independent Voice Picking Works

    Picking is performed and confirmed following lean efficient order picking processes designed to the order profile:

    • Starts picks within the required zones, selects correct carton, combines voice and scan validation.
    • Directs batch or discrete order picking in the shortest pick path.
    • Picker confirmations are verified by scanning the item barcode, lot and or serial number picked.
    • Directs pick and placement of items to cartons, conveyor, carts, and pallets.
    • Direct work rules and move workers to the “hot” high-volume work zones.
    • Real-time labor tracking provides supervisors with the ability to analyze individual workers’ productivity levels.

    The process requires no special training. It is remarkably easy to use, learn, and highly accurate, allowing single-touch pick-and-pack validation at near 100% accuracy rates that eliminate the need for secondary order inspection.

    Supports Multiple Picking Scenarios

    Speaker-independent voice integrates work instructions and verification into each step for all pick types including pallet, mixed-case, or split-case piece picking. The ability to interleave picking, cycle counting, and replenishment across different order types is readily supported. 

    Learn More

    Blog: The ROI of Voice Picking

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  • Finding the Right Tool for Warehouse Control Efficiency in Omnichannel E-commerce Order Fulfillment

    Finding the Right Tool for Warehouse Control Efficiency in Omnichannel E-commerce Order Fulfillment

    Finding the Right Tool for Warehouse Control Efficiency in Omnichannel E-commerce Order Fulfillment

    Jennifer Maloney
    January 26, 2016

    It’s abundantly clear that online retail growth is here to stay and virtually every company now requires an omnichannel order fulfillment strategy within their distribution operation.

    Adding e-commerce to an existing DC operation can be complex. Without the right processes, automation, and software, the DC will struggle to pick, pack, and ship low-SKU count mixed carrier parcel shipments.

    Many operations are struggling to blend split-case low-SKU count orders into a traditionally predominant full case, full pallet, LTL order profile operation, leading managers to develop costly manual workaround processes to integrate e-commerce order fulfillment in existing DCs.

    Blog: Key Factors in Integrating Traditional and E-Commerce Fulfillment Operations

    This requires an efficient, low-touch process to contain costs and ensure accuracy. A highly efficient pick, pack, and ship process design, directed with the right technology, can ensure lower labor costs and higher accuracy order fulfillment.

    This article highlights the advantages offered by speaker-independent voice-directed picking automation to support the DC order mix of each SKU picks, case and pallet picking, and the additional demands that e-commerce orders add to order fulfillment operations.

    Integrating E-Commerce and Traditional Order Fulfillment Operations

    The goal should be to use existing distribution center (DC) facilities to integrate the e-commerce sales channel efficiently and profitably into the order fulfillment operation.

    Speed and accuracy are critical components of profitable order fulfillment operations.

    From the moment orders are received to when they are picked, packed, and shipped, the processes must be lean, low cost per order, accurate, scalable, and adaptable to change.

    This is especially true for e-commerce orders, which require order fill windows measured in a few hours to satisfy the customer service experience that will yield loyalty and gain repeat orders.  

    Blog: E-commerce Fulfillment Technologies With Rapid Efficiency and ROI Results

    E-commerce orders have a profoundly different order profile than full-pallet and full-case LTL shipments direct to the retailer and B2B operations. E-commerce orders consist of single items or a few individual items, for example, three pairs of shoes to try on – keep one, and return two. The returns processing also needs to be factored into the operation’s design!

    This order mix is vastly different than full trailer, or LTL mixed-case pallet shipments delivered to a retailer’s distribution centers. E-commerce order SKU counts continue to trend lower, with 60% of orders consisting of one to three line items and 15% or more consisting of a single SKU.

    This trend toward smaller orders shows no signs of slowing down. Internet sales are projected to grow by 17% annually according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Forrester Research reports that by 2017, e-commerce shipments will account for 10% of U.S. retail sales.

    Consequently, retailers and retail suppliers are grappling with the pivotal question – how to adapt current facilities and/or design new operations to support omnichannel fulfillment, and cost-effectively handle the exponential growth of online orders?

    Increasingly, suppliers to retailers are required to add in-house e-commerce to their operations to support direct-to-consumer, retail clients, and Amazon direct-to-customer shipment demand.

    This demand requires additional pick, pack, and ship rules, and the ability for distributors to provide retailer specific compliance labels, packing documentation, and return labels to each shipment.

    Estimated U.S. Retail E-Commerce as a Percent of Total Quarterly Retail Sales
    Courtesy of U. S. Census Bureau

    An example of this is fulfilling orders that appear to the end customer as if the shipment originated directly from Amazon or a specific retailer.

    Essentially, the DC acts as a 3rd party logistics provider (3PL), fulfilling e-commerce orders for Amazon and their retail customers. The order picking, packing, documentation, and labeling all need to match each retailer’s specifications, with the potential of fines for errors if the shipment contains the wrong labels, missing labels, or missed delivery windows!

    E-commerce, by its very nature, is a difficult distribution channel to manage and not well suited to manual paper-based or RF-managed pick-and-pack process that relies on human decisions for enforcing shipment rules.

    The justification for superior technology, such as voice picking technology, is that it is ideally suited to direct pick and pack rules, proven to reduce costs, improve accuracy, track order details and worker productivity.

    Click Here for information on Numina’s RDS™ Victory Voice™ Suite.

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  • The Latest Trends in Track and Trace SKU Serialization Capture

    The Latest Trends in Track and Trace SKU Serialization Capture

    The Latest Trends in Track and Trace SKU Serialization Capture

    Jennifer Maloney
    December 1, 2015

    Lot and serial SKU information tracking is no longer limited to specific industries.

    The need to track lot and serial SKU information for order shipment records is no longer limited to specific industries. It exists throughout the supply chain and if it’s not required today in your business it could be coming shortly!

    Consider the demands of electronics and computer distribution channels, where a warranty begins the moment a product is shipped to a customer. The shipment requires that both the SKU and serial number are captured for each individual laptop, television, home theater, network switches, printer, etc., for customer warranty tracking. This order data is required to be transmitted to the manufacturer with the end user’s items and serial number for every shipment.

    To support these requirements, high-volume electronics and computer system supplier distribution center (DC) operations are implementing top-tier warehouse execution and control (WES-WCS) platforms, integrated with their ERP and WMS systems.

    Learn More About Numina’s RDS™ Top-Tier WES-WCS Solution

    A top-tier WES-WCS system integrates automated intelligent conveyor systems with in-line weigh and dimensioning with multi-sided camera-based scanning systems (scan-tunnels) to capture SKU, serial number and order shipment data to improve order fulfillment shipment mandates. 

    A top-tier WES-WCS includes real-time control modules for voice-directed picking and pick-to-light picking, balancing orders, cartonization, shipment lot capture, track-and-trace dimensional shipment QC checking,  print-and-apply labeling, order tracking, and labor reporting.

    Print-and-apply labeling is a very valuable asset due to its ability to be combined with in-line measurement and audit technologies for automating on demand print and apply of customer-specific packing sheets, shipping labels and hazardous lithium battery warning labels to ensure that shipments meet regulatory requirements.

    Single Touch Pick, Pack, and Ship Process

    In-line scan and labeling technology becomes an integrated solution for a lean pick, pack, and ship full-case “ready to ship” process. Cases are picked in a highly efficient single-touch batch pick process that directs the operator using hands-free voice picking to pick cases for a batch of orders directly to a powered conveyor line. Voice technology guides the picking tasks and verifies the case pick and quantity of each SKU during the fulfillment process.

    Learn More About Numina’s Scan-Weigh-Dimensioning Solutions

    Cases are then transported to the camera scan tunnel, where all sides of the case are scanned, and the product ID and serial number barcodes are captured and transmitted from the WES-WCS to the sarehouse managements system (WMS).

    The WMS validates the case SKU and manufacturer serial number, assigns the case or cases to the specific order, and transmits the required label and documentation data back to the WES-WCS.

    The WES-WCS manages the labeling process and prints and applies either a combination packing slip/sheet shipping label, or a shipping label for each carton of a given order. The WES-WCS verifies case to order assignments, detects any picking errors, and validates that items match the quantity of the current order batch. 

    If a case is mis-picked, or a no-read occurs, or over-under picking conditions are detected using the scan tunnel data, the case is then diverted to an operator inspection station.

    The WES-WCS integrates the entire full-case pick, pack, and ship operation into a single-touch automated operation to reduce picking errors, lower labor costs, and increase same-day deliveries for B to B, retail suppliers and e-commerce distribution operations.

    Regulatory Track-and-Trace Mandates

    New regulations proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require more stringent DC and supply chain track and trace in food, pharmaceutical, medical device and nutraceuticals manufacturing and distribution.

    These stricter tracking standards require real-time data capture of SKU lot codes and serialization traceability of product movement across the entire supply chain.

    The FDA’s track and trace mandates for the distribution of pharmaceutical pallet, mixed-case and split-case product serialization require changes to current product labeling and barcode requirements. A Standardized Numerical Identifier (SNI) will be required to be printed on item-level packages.

    The FDA’s SNI guidance requires an identifier that contains the National Drug Code and a second 20-digit alphanumeric identifier that will be unique to each drug package. The SNI would be printed in a two-dimensional (2D) data matrix barcode or alternately, radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on the immediate package for tracking requirements. 

    A top-tier WES-WCS such as Numina’s RDS Real-time Distribution platform is an ideal solution to manage these complex real-time data capture and automated print-and-apply labeling requirements.

    Learn More About Numina’s Print-and-Apply Labeling Solutions

    Lot Tracking Initiatives

    Emerging standards and best practices for manufacturing and distribution operations are setting internal quality standards that dictate real-time data capture of SKU lot codes and serialization traceability of product movement.

    Regardless if you are a food, pharmaceutical, nutraceuticals, electronics, automotive, aerospace, specialty wholesale/retail, or omnichannel operation, there are reasons to track order level details using the  array of cost effective automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies available to improve your operation.

    Manufacturers and DCs are shifting from laser-based scanning to camera-based barcode and optical character recognition (OCR) scanners in combination with radio-frequency identification (RFID).

    Voice picking and vision inspection/audit technology can be used to seamlessly integrate order lot and serial number capture into material tracking and order fulfillment. 

    Learn More About Numina’s Voice Picking System Solutions

    These operations can use technologies and Numina’s RDS WES-WCS software modules that provide track-and-trace for kitting, pick, pack, and ship to gain the benefits of high operational productivity while meeting improved operational and regulatory standards, in addition to automating the data required for supplier warranty requirements.

    If your operation is being challenged with increased order data tracking standards or plans to automate pick, pack, and ship with automated picking and labeling, investigate the capabilities available in Numina Group’s RDS Warehouse Execution and Control System with database architecture developed to manage data track and trace capture and archiving requirements. 

    Integrating SKU and serial lot data capture combined with automated print and apply labeling technology is proving to be the answer for many industries that need both regulatory and customer-specific order documentation, including shipping labels, packing sheets, and hazardous lithium ion battery warning labels for regulatory shipment rules.

    For more information about top-tier WCS and track and trace automation, contact Numina Group at (630) 343-2600 or sales@numinagroup.com.

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