Taking voice to the next level
Voice technology has long been a part of the supply chain arsenal and over the past few years its stock has risen to an all-time high. Indeed, voice has been valuable in the supply chain since the late 1990’s, but today, it is benefiting more from the evolution of the technology in the consumer space.
Since the launch of smartphones in the mid 2000’s, voice technology has evolved at a rapid rate with most modern phones having voice functions built in to allow them to be controlled hands free. As a result of this, voice control has seen considerable investment, becoming more accurate and popping up more and more in the likes of cars and games consoles, for example. As with any technology, the more popular it becomes the cheaper it is to make and as a result the more likely it is to be adopted by businesses. This is no idle claim – the number of businesses using voice is growing rapidly and between 2012 and 2013 alone, usage doubled.
Why voice?
It is not a new story as to why the supply chain uses voice. Through voice, businesses are able to guide workers to exactly the right products in warehouses, eradicate errors from users misreading stock numbers and improve the overall picking and packing schedule. This makes for a much smoother and faster process from the picker and their daily routine right through to the customer, who gets their items on time.
As well as this, voice enables quicker stock picking to enable stores to have the right items in the right shops, at an even a quicker pace. This can present cost savings for both retailers and manufacturers, as delivery time is slashed, resulting in pushing back ordering deadlines, higher profits and happier customers.
Smartphones in business applications?
The latest twist around voice in the supply chain however, is the adoption of smartphone use. Whilst it isn’t as popular as it is in the traditional office environment, it is starting to make small waves in the supply chain. To date, users have only been offered rugged devices to navigate themselves around the warehouse as they have a better level of durability and the applications are better suited to the job of picking stock.
This is no longer the case: iOS and Android devices are fully capable of running the same applications. Although rugged devices can have a lower TCO in the long term, as they are generally more durable and have lower maintenance and replacement costs, in some cases consumer devices can simply be fitted with hard-wearing cases and peripheral sleds.
In some cases Voice conversion is executed on the device, hence no additional bandwidth is used by the application; although the specifics will vary from codec to codec, existing Wi-Fi – within reason – is usually perfectly adequate to cope with the needs of the voice-enabled workforce. All of these reasons taken together mean that voice is evolving into one of the most beneficial solutions within the supply chain.
As with every technology, there are hidden costs and voice is no different. For example, there are costs for process changes, compliance issues, hardware and software upgrades and any custom coding which is required before implementation. However, for a fast evolving technology, which is fully taking advantage of its consumer device affiliations, it is one of the few solutions which truly offers value for money with limited barriers, as it is simple to add to existing environments quickly and easily.
The power of voice
The beauty of voice is that for any business, across any industry, within any sector, the technology is identical. What works for retail employees for picking and packing stock will work across other applications in other parts of the supply chain and therefore, there is no reason why for instance, healthcare workers couldn’t use it to guide them around the hospital ward, helping them distribute medicine or find assets such as wheelchairs. In this day and age with all the different technologies available to businesses, there aren’t many which cannot adapt to any environment and offer a rapid return on investment.
For these reasons, voice continues to prove its worth in the supply chain sector and with the rise in popularity and developments of smartphones and tablets, it will only become more powerful and more intuitive as the months and years go on.
Opinion is from Willem Beets, Director EMEA at Wavelink
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