DC Velocity - May 2019

34 DC VELOCITY MAY 2019 www.dcvelocity.com
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able if you only had full-time employees and they never
left,” Deutsch explains. “That’s the old way of doing voice
recognition. Today, because of our deep neural network,
employees can just start talking [and the system will work].”
In addition to individual productivity improvements,
today’s more advanced voice-picking technology also con-
tributes to increased order through-
put across the facility, which is anoth-
er key management goal, Deutsch
notes. He points to the complexity
and high cost of expanding a facility
or relocating to accommodate busi-
ness growth in today’s fast-paced
omnichannel environment.

“Businesses are growing, and they are looking for ways to improve the overall process [to accommodate] that growth,” he explains. “Customers are asking, ‘How do I get [higher] throughput at my existing facility?’ If you can delay the lease or construction of a new building, that’s a direct impact to the bottom line.”

WEARABLES GET SMARTER

Experts also point to innovations in wearable picking tech-
nologies, especially those focused on worker comfort and
buy-in. With voice systems, users have more choices in how
they wear the hardware today; some newer solutions allow
workers to choose between a headset or a wearable vest, for
instance. The trend is also emerging among makers of bar-
code scanning devices, as companies develop ergonomic
scanning solutions that streamline the manual picking
process. Munich, Germany-based
startup ProGlove is one example.

The firm has developed a wearable hands-free scanning solution that company leaders say can save up to four seconds per scan and speed up the overall picking process by as much as 50 percent. ProGlove offers a lightweight industrial glove with an attachable scanning module that allows workers to use both hands to grab and move items instead of repeatedly picking up and putting down a handheld scanner. Especially suited to fast-paced operations—those with 200 or so scans per station per day—the hardware-only solution works wirelessly and integrates with a company’s existing software system.

“There is certainly a business case for this if you are scan-
ning a lot,” says Adam Brown, the company’s U.S. mar-
keting manager, emphasizing the worker-comfort aspect
of the product. “From the end user’s perspective, there are
not a lot of products in the industrial space that [take the
user into account] in the creation of the product. Users get
excited about this. In the world of bar-code scanning, that’s
not something you see every day.”
The glove comes in a range of sizes, and ProGlove also
offers a hand wrap for applications that don’t require hand
protection as well as for those that require workers to wear
heavy-duty gloves, such as cold-storage environments.

Brown adds that solutions such as ProGlove’s help bridge the gap between the manual and automated solutions found in most warehouses and DCs today.

“In this middle ground we’re in, where some of the process is automated but humans are still involved, making [workers] as effective and as efficient as they can be is really important,” he says.

SORTING OUT NEW SOLUTIONS

The buzz over DC automation is spurring interest in robotic picking solutions as well. Robotics company Kindred offers a key example with its piece-picking solution called “Sort.” Used by retailers in omnichannel and e-commerce fulfillment centers, Sort is an artificial intelligence ( AI)-driven robotic solution that automates the manual process of sorting multiple SKU (stock-keeping unit) batches into a single customer order. Using vision, grasping, and manipulation technology, Sort consists of a robotic arm that separates items into predetermined slots that are laid out in a circular pattern around the arm. Employees then unload the sorted, completed orders. Sort is designed for