Seiko Optical supply lenses for glasses to opticians large and small throughout the UK and Ireland. The nature of the products is that whilst being very small they are also very high value often several hundred pounds each. As such accuracy in picking is absolutely critical. Seiko Optical UK is part of the European Seiko Optical Group of companies which has centrally hosted software systems for their whole European business, managed in their German based European HQ.
What Seiko Optical UK required was a system that would improve efficiency by removing the need for ‘checking’ after the pick which was effectively double handling the product. This was a real requirement when ‘Picking on Paper’ and was the primary objective for the business when moving to Voice.
Besides, the key requirement was to deliver first time pick accuracy that would enable the checking to be dispensed with.
Other key requirements were to connect the voice system seamlessly with their European IT systems without impacting performance of other country subsidiaries. The new solution needed to be scalable to allow for growth across Europe if required. Seiko expected to increase the speed of the operation and to be flexible to allow for a phased roll out of not just picking functions but also other functions such as put away.
Taking these requirements into account Seiko decided to implement the Lydia® Plug & Play solution from topVOX.
Plug & Play is an ‘out of the box’ Voice Logistics Solution designed for small to medium sized operations from single user operations up to 25 users. That said, 80% of the components are reusable should the solution be expanded beyond 25 users and even for a multi-site operation.
The main purpose for Lydia® Plug & Play is to provide all the benefits of a flexible Voice Solution to smaller operations in a very simple, cost effective manner.
The basic standard version of Plug & Play includes all the necessary hardware like the mobile voice devices (Voxter® Elite Edition), headsets, access point, chargers and CoPilot Training device. All of the software required including Lydia® Control Centre, User & Device Manager, interfaces and even telephone functionality if required.
It also includes all of the Professional services from topVOX like the Go Live implementation and training on-site at the customer.
This means there are absolutely no surprises as all the costs are included in the price.
The standard basic configuration comes with picking configured to customer requirements like the ability to split orders across multiple operators, multi-order picking and to combine multiple orders for one picker on a single pick run.
Lydia® Control Centre provides picking statistics and the ability to have the full data capture including specific time and date stamps of every action which can be exported to a customer database at no extra cost so they can build their own reports over time.
topVOX ran an on-site meeting to confirm the picking process and the interface requirements with Seiko Optical UK. The interface needed further clarification with Seiko European headquarters in Germany so a technical meeting was held to define the final details.
This resulted in the interface needing to be designed specifically for Seiko Optical to meet their unique requirements driven by the need to minimise impact on the other European Businesses but also be developed in such a way as to allow the system to be scalable across Europe should the solution be taken up by other countries. This was developed and added as a new option for Plug & Play to widen the functional options available within it.
The topVOX team arrived on site at Seiko in Gloucester and installed, tested and went live on the same day. The training was provided on a ‘train the trainer’ basis over the next 2days with the plan that Seiko Optical would deploy the solution in a controlled rollout of bulk picking over the next two weeks. This was completed in the next four days.
Picking productivity was improved by over 60%. Accuracy improvements were also immediately apparent which led to the fast rollout resulting in the removal of the checking process by the end of the first week.
As staff became more familiar with the system over the following weeks the productivity has continued to rise.
Since this initial implementation, Seiko Optical has also deployed the Put Away module. The standard Plug & Play put away module was redeveloped specifically for Seiko Optical to meet their needs.
The results are that the Put Away process has massively improved in both efficiency and accuracy which is having a ‘knock on’ effect in picking accuracy.
The initial picking implementation delivered a productivity improvement of about 60% and an error rate improved by more than two thirds which has now improved just as significantly following the put away implementation
Not only did these results impress Seiko Optical UK, but also the panel of expert judges for the Logistics Business IT Awards in October 2015 where topVox and Seiko were honoured with the Logistics Business IT Award for “Wearable Devices & Voice Technology in Logistics.”
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