Sound in a hurry: Owens & Minor's high-speed voice rollout
With just one year to convert 40 DC operations from RF to voice, medical supplier Owens & Minor decided its only chance lay in developing a completely bulletproof plan.
James Cooke is a principal analyst with Nucleus Research in Boston, covering supply chain planning software. He was previously the editor of CSCMP?s Supply Chain Quarterly and a staff writer for DC Velocity.
To anyone familiar with Owens & Minor's distribution operations, news that the medical supplier was planning to convert its DCs over to voice technology came as little surprise. It had been apparent for quite some time that the company's radio frequency (RF) order picking system was falling well short of the mark.
What did raise some eyebrows, however, was the aggressive timetable set for the voice technology's rollout. Eager to make the changeover as quickly as possible, senior management set an ambitious goal of implementing voice technology in 40 sites across the country in just one year.
Given the tight timeline, there would be no point in trying to customize the process for individual facilities. Instead, the medical supplier would have to develop a set of standard procedures for introducing the technology. The goal was to design a kind of cookie-cutter approach that could be repeated quickly and easily at each of the locations, recalls Doug Farley, the company's vice president of supply chain operations.
Sound arguments
Based in Richmond, Va., Owens & Minor is a distributor of name-brand medical and surgical supplies. It operates a network of 52 distribution centers throughout the United States to serve its customers, which include hospitals, healthcare systems, group purchasing organizations, and the federal government.
For over a decade, the supplier had used an RF-based system to direct all of its warehousing activities, but as business expanded, it became clear that the old system could no longer keep up. "Having a picker lugging around an RF device with one hand, and picking with another, we were losing efficiencies," explains Farley. "And we were at the point where we were looking for the extra boost in performance and quality."
The way to get that boost, company executives decided, would be to replace the RF system with voice technology. One of voice's biggest selling points is that it allows workers to receive their instructions via headsets, leaving their hands and eyes free to select items or perform other warehouse tasks. After evaluating vendors, the company chose the Jennifer voice-recognition software program from Lucas Systems Inc. of Sewickley, Pa.
All systems go
With the selection decision out of the way, the company turned its attention to the mechanics of the implementation. To expedite the rollout, Owens & Minor decided to avoid making wholesale changes to its operations, Farley says. Instead, it would keep the "business rules" that were already written into its warehouse management system (WMS)—a system from North Charleston, S.C.-based Cambar Solutions that directs activities in all of the company's DCs. These business rules are used to make such determinations as the sequence in which orders will be picked.Among other advantages, keeping the existing rules would allow Owens & Minor to avoid the work of configuring business rules in Lucas Systems' middleware—software that's generally used to pass data from a WMS to a device like a voice terminal. Ultimately, the medical supplier decided to bypass the Lucas middleware altogether in favor of modifying its WMS to enable it to "talk" directly to the client application software on the voice units. "I knew that if we were customizing and changing business rules in the middleware, it would have taken us multiple years to do the project," says Farley.
But there would still be some integration work to do. For one thing, Owens & Minor had to find a way to get its WMS to communicate with the voice system. The medical supplier contracted with Dell Perot Systems, a Plano, Texas-based systems integrator, to write the interfaces needed to integrate the voice recognition application into the WMS. Once the special interface code was written for the first WMS, it was a simple matter to install it in the warehouse management systems at the other DCs.
In order to standardize operations as much as possible, Owens & Minor decided to use the same hardware in all of the facilities. For the order pickers' terminals, it chose the Intermec CK3 unit, a device that can handle both radio frequency and voice systems. Because some of the DCs were already using the CK3, all the company had to do on the hardware side was reprogram the existing terminals and buy additional units as needed.
In January 2009, Owens & Minor piloted the new voice system at its Jacksonville, Fla., distribution center. Once it had the Jacksonville facility up and running on voice, the company established four teams to roll out the technology to the other DCs. The teams, which included both Owens & Minor personnel and implementation engineers from Lucas Systems, spent two weeks at each site. In the first week, the team made the necessary software adjustments and trained workers on the use of the system. In the second week, when the system went live, the team remained on site to provide user support.
Hands and eyes free
By the end of 2009, Owens & Minor had completed all 40 of its planned voice implementations. But the project isn't over yet. Farley says Owens & Minor plans to convert two or three more DCs from radio frequency to voice technology this year.
So how has the voice system worked out to date? Although Farley declined to release specific numbers, he reports that the company has seen improvements in both worker productivity and accuracy in the 40 distribution centers where the technology is in use. "The productivity we're seeing as a result of the implementation is consistent with our expectations, and early indications are that we are on track to achieve our goals," he says.
Although it's using the voice system only for order picking right now, Owens & Minor has plans to expand it to other applications. The second phase of the project will involve the use of voice technology for item putaway, inventory control, and truck loading. "We've found that workers who are "hands free"—and "eyes free"—are more efficient because of voice systems," says Farley.
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”