We handle large, often unwieldy cartons and SKUs in our warehousing operations. Capturing the receipt of an item requires at least 6 separate scans (item code, PO, package quantity, scan to cart, scan putaway of item to location) – which in our business means taking the hands off the product, picking up the RF scanner, locating and then scanning the appropriate bar code. And inevitably, you do this so many thousands of times and inevitably you drop the gun or leave it sitting where it shouldn’t be – and thus the guns are on a constant repair cycle.
I’ve been thinking lately about this problem – how could we reduce or (dare we dream?) eliminate scanning while retaining tight control of our inventory? What if we moved away from the data-limiting zebra-stripe barcodes, to the more data-rich 2D (QR) codes? An entire ASN line could be encoded in this expanded data symbology, and with one scan we could verify and receive an item.
Recent breakthroughs in voice technology (see Vangard) make me wonder about receiving by voice – completely hands free! The receiving label could display an ID code for the ASN line: using voice tags and simple codes the operator could receive the item, instruct the system what to do with discrepancies using specific commands, and putaway the item into the bin location. No juggling RF guns and product, no equipment to be damaged, and potentially we can increase accuracy since the operator’s mind is focused on the item and its location – not interpreting data on a label or on a tiny screen.
A similar solution for picking isn’t as obvious (yet) – but just the thought of streamlining the receiving and putaway process while increasing accuracy is exciting.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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1 comment:
I like both technologies, data rich scanning and the voice-command/data solutions. I think a mixture of both might be a way forward. Having used voice to text technologies, and having worked in a large warehouse operation, I can see a problem for voice technologies arising in a noisy warehouse environment with forklifts and trucks and semi-trailers being loaded and unloaded - these are noisy processes and often physically strenuous, so the voice recognition technology would have to be quite robust and sensitive at the same time.
As far as QR scanning, this is a technology whose time has come but on which American uptake seems to be slow. Perhaps a case of lack of vision, perhaps also a case of managers trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity from the old zebra stripes. It's time that zebra got a new suit?
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