Evaluation of Alternative Voice Picking Solutions

• [SITUATION]:
As part of a company-wide Operational Excellence and Cost Reduction program, this project aimed to evaluate alternative voice-picking technologies for warehouse order preparation.
The existing market-leading system offered high reliability and robustness, but its acquisition and maintenance costs were increasingly difficult to sustain - especially since a large share of the device fleet was damaged and required replacement, posing operational risks for several distribution centers.

• [TASK]:
As Logistics Solutions Manager, I was responsible for identifying alternative technologies with lower total cost of ownership (TCO), conducting a comparative study, and presenting a recommendation to senior management on whether to replace or maintain the current system.

• [ACTION]:
➢ I established a structured evaluation plan with clear milestones and deadlines.
➢ After conducting market research, I engaged with an Italian vendor offering a cost-effective voice-picking solution that emulated voice commands on Android smartphones through a middleware compatible with any WMS. This setup significantly reduced equipment and maintenance costs while maintaining the same functional logic as the incumbent solution.
➢ I coordinated with Procurement, IT, and Operations teams to gather technical and financial data, validate integration requirements, and prepare a feasibility study including cost-benefit and risk analysis.
➢ A pilot implementation was prepared for one DC to test operational robustness and system performance under real conditions.

• [RESULT]:
➢ The final report presented a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative comparison between the two technologies, including TCO analysis and risk assessment.
➢ Although the new solution showed a potential TCO reduction and strong scalability advantages, the executive board decided not to proceed with the technology switch, mainly due to corporate IT alignment requirements and global system standardization constraints.