Waitrose was founded in London in 1904. It has since been acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, who opened the first Waitrose supermarket in 1955. Today there are 280 branches, dedicated to offering quality, value and customer service.
Waitrose combines the convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop.
Locations range from high streets to edge-of-town sites and vary in size from just 7,000 square feet to approximately 56,000 square feet.
Waitrose services its stores from four regional distribution centres across four sites at Bracknell, Aylesford, Leyland and Brinklow. Having recognized potential productivity improvements through the use of voice technology, the Waitrose supply chain team decided to research the technology by visiting other UK retailers and testing different systems.
Prior to the introduction of voice-picking technology, Waitrose operated with a variety of picking methods including pick sheets, pick labels and RDTs.
Having chosen a supplier, the team introduced voice for the pick operations only, although there are plans to utilize voice for other operations in the warehouse in future.
The implementation began at Bracknell and was subsequently rolled out to the other sites. The fresh foods department was excluded from this implementation phase.
One reason for the partial implementation was the fact that the existing WMS was a bespoke system, didn’t operate in real time and therefore would have required greater functionality to be written into the voice software system.
Waitrose utilized their productivity systems team to measure productivities within each department prior to the implementation to enable them to compare the different methods of picking.
The voice-picking operation was measured after a three-month settling-in period.
In order to introduce voice technology, a business case was produced which, based on discussions with other companies who had introduced voice, predicted a 7.5 per cent increase in productivity.
Having operated the technology across a number of sites and for a reasonable period of time, Waitrose has calculated that the overall productivity improvement is on average 8 per cent. As the staff become more experienced, the productivity rate is likely to improve further. Staff are also able to monitor their own productivity through the voice system in terms of cases picked per hour, for example.
In terms of pick accuracy, independent auditors recorded an increase from 98.68 per cent to 98.88 per cent accuracy based on sample audits. The system only operates with check digits for the location and doesn’t include product confirmation. There is pressure therefore on the put-away team to ensure accurate placement.
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The team at Waitrose has been very happy with the implementation to date even though the process didn’t run smoothly throughout.
When considering the introduction of voice technology, the Waitrose team came up with a list of Dos and Don’ts as follows:
Do:
● visit other operations to assess impact of introduction;
● work in partnership with these companies where possible;
● get a full understanding of the potential technology issues;
● ensure sufficient RF coverage throughout the warehouse;
● ensure the management team fully understands the benefits and has a full understanding of the system;
● consult and gain full acceptance from your staff;
● explain fully the advantages of voice and allay fears regarding safety and any
‘Big Brother’ issues;
● appoint super users to respond to and react quickly to issues;
● ensure training standards and procedures are maintained at a high level;
● provide choice to the users in terms of headsets and voices;
● provide opportunities for staff feedback;
● measure productivities before and after implementation and ongoing;
● continually assess and review the processes.
Don’t:
● think it’s easy to implement and manage;
● assume staff will accept it unconditionally;
● implement other systems at the same time.
The main advantages to date include:
● improved health and safety as a result of the hands-free operation;
● a safer working environment as staff are able to concentrate fully on the job in hand;
● improved productivity;
● greater accuracy;
● quicker staff training compared with paper- and RDT-based picking;
● ability to use many nationalities in the same operation.
The Waitrose case study shows an initial average productivity improvement of 8 per cent across all the operations.
In order to calculate the benefits you need to measure productivity levels before and after implementation.
Increases in productivity can be measured in terms of the average cases per hour picked by each worker. Take the cases picked per day divided by hours per day worked (eg 7.5 actual hours) divided by number of pickers (in this case 35):
36,000 cases ÷ 7.5 hours per day ÷ 35 operators = 137 cases
per hour per operator. A 10 per cent productivity gain would raise the cases per hour to 151.
To calculate the reduction in operators, take the same equation and solve for X as the number of operators:
36,000 cases ÷ 7.5 hours per day ÷ (x) operators = 151 OR
× = 36,000 ÷ 7.5 ÷ 151 = 32 operators
In this example that means three fewer operators are needed with the switch to voice-directed selection based on a 10 per cent improvement in productivity.
Further savings can be made in terms of stationery, the labour involved in administrative tasks, the training of personnel, improved safety, reduced sickness levels and potential compensation claims and quicker, more accurate stock checks.
Time to full productivity for a new worker using scanning methods is typi-cally two to three weeks; with voice it can be as little as three to four days.
In terms of expected return on investment, this will vary significantly from company to company. It will depend on:
● the current level of productivity and scope for improvement;
● the current method of picking;
● the amount of checking within the system;
● the number of picking shifts within the system;
● the current level of RF infrastructure; and
● whether the WMS can support voice.
Voice on its own may not work in all environments. Where companies require the capture of data such as serial numbers or batch codes, voice needs to be supplemented by some form of scanning or image-capture technology.
Voice technology, unless used in conjunction with scanning, may not be 100 per cent accurate. It does rely on the correct product being in the right location.
Some companies have supplemented voice confirmation of quantity with prod-uct recognition by repeating the last four digits of the barcode, for example.
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Even if hands-free picking is a requirement there are other systems on the market that can be as appropriate, if not more so.
Overall, voice technology can provide a reasonable return on investment by improving accuracy, increasing productivity and improving ergonomics, thus reducing staff illness and, as a consequence, improving customer service.
Taking things a step further, a number of manufacturers have introduced a combined voice and automated guided vehicle (AGV) or laser-guided forklift truck system.
The AGVs feature a laser navigation steering system which charts the picker’s route. At the first location the voice system instructs the picker as to which item should be loaded onto the empty pallet. The picker informs the system as to what has been picked and loaded and the truck continues to the next location without the operator having to control it.
Once the truck is fully loaded it transfers to the loading bay while the picker moves on to the next order, arriving at the first location where another AGV with an empty pallet has just arrived. See Figure 6.3.
By implementing both systems simultaneously, the Swedish Co-op reported that it had improved productivity by up to 70 per cent.