past 15 years. It was not broken,
but we were looking to improve
on that,” explains Christy Parra,
the retailer’s director of logistics
systems. “We have a lot of bulky
things, so going hands-free was
desired.”
Converting over to voice was
not a spur-of-the-moment deci-
sion. According to Parra, the
retailer had looked at voice sys-
tems about five years back but
decided that what was available
at the time did not suit its needs.
This time around, it came to a
very different conclusion, she
says, largely because of recent
technology enhancements.
Compared with their predeces-
sors, today’s systems are more
user friendly as well as simpler
to configure, Parra says. On top
of that, she says, the current sys-
tems are easier to customize, an
attribute that was important to
The Container Store.
The Container Store looked at
systems from five different voice
vendors before inviting two to
come in and set up a small pilot program at its DC. Employee
involvement was crucial to the decision, as the company
prides itself on its employee-centric culture. (The retailer has
become a fixture on Fortune magazine’s annual list of the best
places to work. During the recession, it managed to avoid laying off a single employee or closing any of its stores.)
“We are an employee-first company, so we needed a sys-
tem that makes sense for our users,” explains Parra. “Our
users really drove this decision.”
The system ultimately chosen was Jennifer VoicePlus
from Lucas Systems. “[The users] felt that Jennifer
VoicePlus offered a more natural voice,” Parra reports.
“Training was also very simple, and they liked the ease of
the commands, as well as being able to get information back
from the system.”
Parra notes that in addition to the normal picking dia-
logues, workers can query the system about the size of their
assignment, how they’re doing as far as performance, and
what the target goals are for that assignment—interactions
that allow workers to continuously monitor their produc-
tivity. If they’re about to go on break, they can even ask the
system to calculate how much time it’s expected to take to
complete their current assignment.
THE RIGHT PICKS
The Jennifer voice system went live last September. Today, it
works in conjunction with the facility’s Catalyst warehouse
management system to oversee all order fulfillment activity
at the Coppell DC, which includes both store replenishment orders and direct-to-customer orders. (Most of the
latter are Internet-based orders, but some are orders customers place in stores for shipment directly to their homes.)
The Jennifer software itself is resident on Motorola
MC3190 terminals, which offer scanning capabilities in
addition to voice. The Container Store currently deploys 80
Motorola units in its voice picking operations. The terminals are used by about 100 workers over two shifts—one
shift devoted to direct-to-customer orders and one that
handles both store and consumer orders.
Store replenishment primarily involves the selection of
cases, which order pickers deposit onto pallets, with each
pallet earmarked for a particular store. Walkie rider trucks
transport the pallets through the pick areas.
To begin the process, a worker dons a headset and microphone and logs onto the voice system using the Motorola
device. Next, he or she scans a pallet’s ID “license plate,”
which allows the system to associate an order with a particular pallet.
The system then directs the worker to the location of the
first pick. Upon arrival at the location, the worker reads off
a check digit displayed on the storage rack to confirm that
he or she is in the right spot. The worker then selects the
required number of items and places them on the pallet.
Picking instructions are sequenced so that heavier items
will be picked first and thus, positioned on the bottom of
the pallet.
Lucas has configured the voice dialogue for The
Container Store to eliminate the potential for confusion
arising from some of its product packaging. For instance,
many of the retailer’s items are packaged with inner-packs.
To ensure clarity, the system is set up to provide instructions like “pick two cartons of six.” If it merely said “pick
two,” the worker might interpret that as meaning he or she
should pull two inner cartons out of the master carton,
which would result in a mis-pick.
The process continues until all items in the order have
been selected or the pallet is full. The voice system then
directs the worker to ferry the pallet to a particular shipping
dock for staging. On arrival, the worker reads off a check
digit posted at the dock position to confirm that the load
was dropped off in the right place.
