| Q1. | What warehouse processes work with voice technology? |
| A. | There are many areas of the warehouse that can work more efficiently, safely and accurately with voice technology. Overall, any process
that would benefit from increased productivity, accuracy, safety and reduced training time while being hands free and eyes free is a candidate for
voice technology. Vitech has solutions for receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, put-to-store, auditing, loading, pallet building and cycle counting. |
| Q2. | Does voice work in a noisy environment?? |
| A. | Yes, Vitech has successfully implemented voice at a number of sites with very loud environments; including operators at the end of
a production line beside pallet-lifters and operators standing directly underneath freezer fans. Vocollect's SR series headsets use a double microphone
to cancel background noise and can use cupped earpieces specifically designed to allow operators to hear in noisy environments. Please feel free to visit
our voice hardware section for more information. |
| Q3. | How does voice technology increase productivity? |
| A. | Voice technology increases productivity by making workers more focused and efficient. With voice technology the work flow is never interrupted to
put down the RF device, or look to the screen or paper instructions. The user stays in a continuous state of movement because they immediately here the next task
as they are completing the one at hand. |
| Q4. | How does voice technology increase accuracy? |
| A. | Voice technology increases accuracy through the use of check digits and ensuring that eye contact is never broken with the task at hand.
Check digits are numbers placed at each location or part of a product identifier that the user would not be able to guess without physically being at that location
or handling that product. The system will not let them finish the pick or task without stating that correct check digit. Also, Voice Technology is not dependent
on a device display or paper list that can be misread. This frees the user's eyes to stay focused on the steps of their process. |
| Q5. | What is the difference between "Speaker Dependent" and "Speaker Independent" voice recognition? |
| A. | With "Speaker Dependent" solutions each user trains the system to recognize their individual language, dialect and speech patterns. This allows
the "Speaker Dependent" solution to filter out environment noise increasing accurate and robust responses from the user's voice. With "Speaker Independent" solutions
the user does not train the system to recognize their individual language, dialect or speech patterns but instead tries to match the user's voice to generic
previously created voice patterns. This causes "Speaker Independent" solutions to have increased misreads of the users voice and a less ability to filter out
envirnmental noise. It also performs poorly for users with accents and different languages. Visit our Voice Technology page
for a more in depth explanation. |
| Q6. | What is the difference between "Pre Recorded Speech" and "Text To Speech" technology? |
| A. | Pre Recorded Speech involves a human recording the voice prompts ahead of time and those prompts are played back to the user during the process. Text
To Speech involves the computer taking a text string and translating it into spoken instructions. Although Pre Recorded can sound more human, it does not allow a
user to speed up and slow down the device and introduces significant overhead if you want to add additional propmts or speak descriptions and comments while maintaining
a consistent user experience. Visit our Voice Technology page
for a more in depth explanation. |
| Q7. | What if my workers are hearing impaired? |
| A. | Unless the operator is 100% hearing impaired, they can most likley use Vocollect Voice successfully. The Vocollect Text To Speech (TTS) engine
allows users to choose their preferred voice, pitch, and volume to dial it into a frequency and volume that almost any operator is comfortable with.
Vocollect also has a number of different headset styles including a cupped style of headset which eliminates background noise. |
| Q8. | How does voice technology improve safety? |
| A. | Voice technology removes the need for the user to have to read device screens or paper lists while performing their process tasks or
traveling. Freeing the user's eyes and hands enables the user to concentrate on their surroundings while performing their process or traveling, thus
increasing safety. |
| Q9. | What are the typical results of implementing voice technology? |
| A. | Results vary based on the processes you voice enable and the current technology you are replacing (paper, scanning, lights, etc.). However, Vitech's
clients that implement voice technology achieve quantified results in increased accuracy greater than 99.9%, 15 to 50 percent increases in productivity, and increased safety leading
to an ROI of 6 to 24 months. |
| Q10. | What is the difference between a "Purpose Built" device and a "Multimodal device"? |
| A. | A "purpose built" voice device, like Vocollect Talkman series is intended to be used by a full time voice user. The screen and keyboard
are not present to eliminate distractions and improve the robustness of the device. A "multimodal device", like the Teklogix WorkAbout Pro is a mobile device
with a screen, keyboard, and scanner that has also been certified as Vocollect Voice compatible. Such a device is a common solution for users who are only part
time voice users or environments where the customer requires to have a single device in the warehouse. Visit our Voice Hardware page
for further information, product photos, and data sheets. |
| Q11. | What type of ROI can I expect for my operation? |
| A. | The return time frame for a voice project varies based on number of operators and the process that is being replace, but
most customers see an ROI of 14 months or less. Vitech can work with you to calculate an accurate ROI as part of your discovery process. Our ROI models
use a combination of engineered standards, process observation, and the experience of successfully implementating voice at hundreds of DCs. Click here to start the
process today. |
| Q12. | What is the differences between speech based picking solutions, pick by voice solutions, speech based logistics, voiced directed warehousing, and voice solutions? |
| A. | There is no difference, these are all phrases that refer to distribution solutions that using voice technology to increase productivity, accuracy and safety. |