When the international nutritional solutions and cheese group Glanbia converted over to voice for its Irish dairy business, it didn't stop with picking. It found ways to use the technology in virtually every part of its distribution operation.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
When it comes to distribution applications for voice technology, people tend to assume the story begins and ends with order picking. That's no surprise given the kinds of productivity and accuracy gains voice users have reported over the decades.
But it turns out picking is just part of the story. As a number of users have discovered, voice technology can bring the same types of advantages to other DC processes, such as receiving, putaway, replenishment, load building, cycle counting, inventory management, and shipping. In fact, voice can be used to streamline nearly every aspect of distribution center management.
Glanbia, an international provider of milk, cheese, dairy foods, and nutritional products, is a case in point. For nearly three years now, the company, which is headquartered in Kilkenney, Ireland, has been using voice technology to direct not just picking operations, but also activities like receiving, putaway, and loading at its Irish dairy facilities.
What started Glanbia down this road was its growing frustration with the manual processes it was using at the time. "We were solely a paper-based operation," explains John Mee, the company's supply chain manager. "Replenishment, for instance, was all manual. A person had to follow directions on paper and look for a replenishment slot."
Trouble was, that was proving to be both time consuming and error prone. It wasn't unusual for papers to be misplaced or products to be put in the wrong places. "Our labor costs were high, but we were getting these high errors and less-than-optimal productivity rates," Mee says. "We knew we were not as effective and efficient as we should be."
On top of that, the paper systems did not provide real-time inventory information. Glanbia employees could not always find products, and when customers made credit claims, there was no good way to check the claims' validity. At the same time, Glanbia was under pressure to reduce costs.
Glanbia began working with its technology integration partner, Heavey RF of Ireland, to investigate alternatives that would reduce costs and resolve its other distribution challenges. They soon determined that voice-directed technology offered the flexibility to work in many different areas of Glanbia's operations. Also, because voice systems typically have a return on investment of less than a year, the technology would provide the fast payback Glanbia required.
The company installed voice systems from Vocollect at four sites, beginning in September of 2008 and finishing up in March of 2009. The voice systems now perform a number of operations in two milk manufacturing facilities and two distribution centers. One of the DCs distributes milk and cream products, which are bottle- and carton-based, while the other deals with other food products that are primarily case-based.
Creating a fluid process
The two milk plants operate entirely on voice for their distribution processes. Once the product is manufactured, the company's SAP warehouse management software assigns orders to trolleys, which are wheeled racks in a lattice framework approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall. The trolleys, which act as both storage medium and conveyance for the milk, are used throughout the distribution process, even to the point of wheeling them into retail stores where the milk is offloaded directly onto store shelves.
When it comes time for orders to be picked, workers are guided to the appropriate storage locations through instructions received through their headsets. Upon arrival, they read off a check digit—a three-number code attached to or suspended above the location—to confirm they're in the right spot. The system then requests that the worker read off a "best before date" to the system to confirm that the product falls within the customers' requirements for expiration dates. The milk is picked onto the trolleys and the process is repeated until the trolley is full or the order is complete.
The trolleys are then wheeled directly to shipping, where the voice system provides instructions on where to place the milk prior to loading onto trucks. Some milk will ship directly to customers and agents (similar to brokers), while the rest will be sent in 40-foot trucks to the central milk warehouse.
The central milk warehouse turns its stock three times each day, so it doesn't actually store product—it merely stages it so that it can be picked for delivery by smaller route trucks. The facility operates 24 hours a day six days a week, turning out 1.6 million liters (approximately 422,675 gallons) of milk each day. "We have to turn these products quickly," says Mee. "It just has to keep flowing. We can't have any lost time."
Going with the flow
To ensure this quick flow through, voice is used in a number of processes within the central milk warehouse, including receiving products into the 23,000-square-foot facility. The "goods-in" receiving process starts with the driver's logging onto the voice system upon arrival. The voice system then prompts him to read off a delivery number listed on his dispatch paperwork. As the driver begins unloading the truck into the goods-in receiving area, he reads into the voice system the trolley's carrier number, which was attached to each trolley before it was shipped from the milk manufacturing center. This marries each trolley with the receipt.
A goods-in person will then complete the putaway process, also using Vocollect voice. The worker will read off the carrier number from the trolley, and the voice system—together with the SAP warehouse management software—will direct him or her to take the trolley to an assigned staging location for picking. The worker can also choose his or her own location by informing the voice system of the change. A check digit posted above each location must also be read to confirm the load is put away into the correct area. The worker confirms the putaway, the status of the load carrier is updated, and the stock is then available for picking.
A bar-code label attached to each trolley can also be scanned using a hand scanner at any point within the process. This will bring up a list of every item on the trolley, which can be helpful in resolving any inventory issues.
Once deposited in the putaway location, the milk is ready for picking. Some orders will require a full trolley of one SKU, while others call for multiple SKUs to be assembled onto one or more order trolleys. If the order requires multiple SKUs, the voice system will direct the worker to the lanes holding products for the order. Upon arrival at each location, the worker must read off the check digit displayed on the overhead sign to confirm the right slot has been reached. The voice system will then provide instructions on the number of cartons to pick onto the order trolley. The worker picks the items and confirms the quantity by reading the number of items picked back to the system. Best-before dates are also read into the voice system as items are picked to assure customer service requirements are met. Additional picks are made from other product trolleys.
Once the order is complete or the trolley is full, the voice system directs the worker to wheel the trolley to a marshaling area, where products are staged for loading. The system also provides the lane assignment for each trolley. As the worker deposits the trolley in a lane, he or she must read the check digit for that lane to confirm it's the right location.
Voice also directs the loading process. When an order is ready to ship, a loading person logs onto the voice terminal. He then reads a delivery docket number found on the dispatch sheet (similar to a packing slip) that is later given to the driver and accompanies the order in transit. The worker is then directed to load the truck in reverse delivery sequence, according to the unit carrier label attached to each trolley. The worker must read back the last four digits of this number to confirm that the correct trolley is being loaded onto the truck in the proper sequence. The process continues until the entire truck is loaded.
Vocollect's voice system is also used in Glanbia's food warehouse, where cases of products are picked from 1,000 positions in pallet racks onto order pallets. As in the other facilities, the voice system provides workers with instructions on which products to pick and confirms that all order requirements are being met.
Milking the benefits of voice
Voice has had a tremendous effect on productivity in the food warehouse, including a 60-percent increase since moving to the technology. Even greater increases have been realized in the central milk distribution center. In that facility, productivity has nearly doubled, with a 95-percent increase.
"Eliminating the paper means workers do not have to stop and mark their sheets. They instead keep moving," says Mee. "We also eliminated the dead time going back to the office to get additional paperwork. We have better locating now, so workers do not have to look for products. And we have less time spent rectifying errors. Overall, it is a much more fluid process."
These improvements in productivity have resulted in substantial labor savings. Work is also more flexible, as workers can be moved to whichever operation needs them the most. Once they are trained on voice, they merely have to follow the prompts for the new area, whether they're performing receiving, putaway, picking, or loading tasks. Soon, workers will also do inventory counts. Glanbia is hoping to interleave the counting process within putaway and picking operations for better overall inventory control and efficiencies.
Accuracy has also improved since moving to voice, with a 600-percent decrease in errors. This has resulted in a 45-percent drop in credit claims.
"The error rate reduction has been very noticeable by our customers," notes Mee. "We have reduced our claims, as we now know when a product was picked, who picked it, and what truck it went out on. It has brought us marketplace credibility and has lowered our supply chain costs, allowing us to remain competitive during a difficult economic environment."
Leaders at American ports are cheering the latest round of federal infrastructure funding announced today, which will bring almost $580 million in Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) awards, funding 31 projects in 15 states and one territory.
“Modernizing America’s port infrastructure is essential to strengthening the multimodal network that supports our nation's supply chain,” Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips said in a release. “Approximately 2.3 billion short tons of goods move through U.S. waterways each year, and the benefits of developing port infrastructure extend far beyond the maritime sector. This funding enhances the flow and capacity of goods moved, bolstering supply chain resilience across all transportation modes, and addressing the environmental and health impacts on port communities.”
Even as the new awardees begin the necessary paperwork, industry group the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) said it continues to urge Congress to continue funding PIDP at the full authorized amount and get shovels in the ground faster by passing the bipartisan Permitting Optimization for Responsible Transportation (PORT) Act, which slashes red tape, streamlines outdated permitting, and makes the process more efficient and predictable.
"Our nation's ports sincerely thank our bipartisan Congressional leaders, as well as the USDOT for making these critical awards possible," Cary Davis, AAPA President and CEO, said in a release. "Now comes the hard part. AAPA ports will continue working closely with our Federal Government partners to get the money deployed and shovels in the ground as soon as possible so we can complete these port infrastructure upgrades and realize the benefits to our nation's supply chain and people faster."
Supply chains are poised for accelerated adoption of mobile robots and drones as those technologies mature and companies focus on implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation across their logistics operations.
That’s according to data from Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones, released this week. The report shows that several mobile robotics technologies will mature over the next two to five years, and also identifies breakthrough and rising technologies set to have an impact further out.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology or innovation through five phases of maturity and adoption. Chief supply chain officers can use the research to find robotic solutions that meet their needs, according to Gartner.
Gartner, Inc.
The mobile robotic technologies set to mature over the next two to five years are: collaborative in-aisle picking robots, light-cargo delivery robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for transport, mobile robotic goods-to-person systems, and robotic cube storage systems.
“As organizations look to further improve logistic operations, support automation and augment humans in various jobs, supply chain leaders have turned to mobile robots to support their strategy,” Dwight Klappich, VP analyst and Gartner fellow with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Mobile robots are continuing to evolve, becoming more powerful and practical, thus paving the way for continued technology innovation.”
Technologies that are on the rise include autonomous data collection and inspection technologies, which are expected to deliver benefits over the next five to 10 years. These include solutions like indoor-flying drones, which utilize AI-enabled vision or RFID to help with time-consuming inventory management, inspection, and surveillance tasks. The technology can also alleviate safety concerns that arise in warehouses, such as workers counting inventory in hard-to-reach places.
“Automating labor-intensive tasks can provide notable benefits,” Klappich said. “With AI capabilities increasingly embedded in mobile robots and drones, the potential to function unaided and adapt to environments will make it possible to support a growing number of use cases.”
Humanoid robots—which resemble the human body in shape—are among the technologies in the breakthrough stage, meaning that they are expected to have a transformational effect on supply chains, but their mainstream adoption could take 10 years or more.
“For supply chains with high-volume and predictable processes, humanoid robots have the potential to enhance or supplement the supply chain workforce,” Klappich also said. “However, while the pace of innovation is encouraging, the industry is years away from general-purpose humanoid robots being used in more complex retail and industrial environments.”
An eight-year veteran of the Georgia company, Hakala will begin his new role on January 1, when the current CEO, Tero Peltomäki, will retire after a long and noteworthy career, continuing as a member of the board of directors, Cimcorp said.
According to Hakala, automation is an inevitable course in Cimcorp’s core sectors, and the company’s end-to-end capabilities will be crucial for clients’ success. In the past, both the tire and grocery retail industries have automated individual machines and parts of their operations. In recent years, automation has spread throughout the facilities, as companies want to be able to see their entire operation with one look, utilize analytics, optimize processes, and lead with data.
“Cimcorp has always grown by starting small in the new business segments. We’ve created one solution first, and as we’ve gained more knowledge of our clients’ challenges, we have been able to expand,” Hakala said in a release. “In every phase, we aim to bring our experience to the table and even challenge the client’s initial perspective. We are interested in what our client does and how it could be done better and more efficiently.”
Although many shoppers will
return to physical stores this holiday season, online shopping remains a driving force behind peak-season shipping challenges, especially when it comes to the last mile. Consumers still want fast, free shipping if they can get it—without any delays or disruptions to their holiday deliveries.
One disruptor that gets a lot of headlines this time of year is package theft—committed by so-called “porch pirates.” These are thieves who snatch parcels from front stairs, side porches, and driveways in neighborhoods across the country. The problem adds up to billions of dollars in stolen merchandise each year—not to mention headaches for shippers, parcel delivery companies, and, of course, consumers.
Given the scope of the problem, it’s no wonder online shoppers are worried about it—especially during holiday season. In its annual report on package theft trends, released in October, the
security-focused research and product review firm Security.org found that:
17% of Americans had a package stolen in the past three months, with the typical stolen parcel worth about $50. Some 44% said they’d had a package taken at some point in their life.
Package thieves poached more than $8 billion in merchandise over the past year.
18% of adults said they’d had a package stolen that contained a gift for someone else.
Ahead of the holiday season, 88% of adults said they were worried about theft of online purchases, with more than a quarter saying they were “extremely” or “very” concerned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some low-tech steps consumers can take to help guard against porch piracy along with some high-tech logistics-focused innovations in the pipeline that can protect deliveries in the last mile. First, some common-sense advice on avoiding package theft from the Security.org research:
Install a doorbell camera, which is a relatively low-cost deterrent.
Bring packages inside promptly or arrange to have them delivered to a secure location if no one will be at home.
Consider using click-and-collect options when possible.
If the retailer allows you to specify delivery-time windows, consider doing so to avoid having packages sit outside for extended periods.
These steps may sound basic, but they are by no means a given: Fewer than half of Americans consider the timing of deliveries, less than a third have a doorbell camera, and nearly one-fifth take no precautions to prevent package theft, according to the research.
Tech vendors are stepping up to help. One example is
Arrive AI, which develops smart mailboxes for last-mile delivery and pickup. The company says its Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform will revolutionize the last mile by building a network of parcel-storage boxes that can be accessed by people, drones, or robots. In a nutshell: Packages are placed into a weatherproof box via drone, robot, driverless carrier, or traditional delivery method—and no one other than the rightful owner can access it.
Although the platform is still in development, the company already offers solutions for business clients looking to secure high-value deliveries and sensitive shipments. The health-care industry is one example: Arrive AI offers secure drone delivery of medical supplies, prescriptions, lab samples, and the like to hospitals and other health-care facilities. The platform provides real-time tracking, chain-of-custody controls, and theft-prevention features. Arrive is conducting short-term deployments between logistics companies and health-care partners now, according to a company spokesperson.
The MaaS solution has a pretty high cool factor. And the common-sense best practices just seem like solid advice. Maybe combining both is the key to a more secure last mile—during peak shipping season and throughout the year as well.
The Boston-based enterprise software vendor Board has acquired the California company Prevedere, a provider of predictive planning technology, saying the move will integrate internal performance metrics with external economic intelligence.
According to Board, the combined technologies will integrate millions of external data points—ranging from macroeconomic indicators to AI-driven predictive models—to help companies build predictive models for critical planning needs, cutting costs by reducing inventory excess and optimizing logistics in response to global trade dynamics.
That is particularly valuable in today’s rapidly changing markets, where companies face evolving customer preferences and economic shifts, the company said. “Our customers spend significant time analyzing internal data but often lack visibility into how external factors might impact their planning,” Jeff Casale, CEO of Board, said in a release. “By integrating Prevedere, we eliminate those blind spots, equipping executives with a complete view of their operating environment. This empowers them to respond dynamically to market changes and make informed decisions that drive competitive advantage.”