RFID and Voice Enhance Productivity
on Pick-to-Tote Operations
By Tom Kerr
Voice applications in the distribution center (DC) have been proven to significantly increase
worker accuracy, productivity, safety, and job satisfaction throughout the global supply chain.
Voice technology enables workers to move smoothly through their tasks each day by creating
a two-way dialogue between the worker and a host computer running a warehouse management
system (WMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or any other type of host information
system. Workers wear a small, wireless-enabled voice computer and headset that interprets data
from the WMS, speaks commands to the worker, and recognizes their responses. Workers can
fulfill their tasks — such as order selection, replenishment, and put-away — without
having to handle a cumbersome data capture device. Because their eyes and hands are freed
up, the work environment is made safer, and productivity and error rates are improved.
Vocollect, a 20-year veteran in Voice-Directed Work, has been investigating the potential of
integrating the complementary technologies of voice and RFID for some time. RFID provides
automatic data capture and direct verification of selected items as they pass into the range of a
RFID reader’s signal. A wearable RFID reader integrated with voice moves the data capture
and verification step directly to the point of work and replaces manual operations such as barcode
scanning. The voice system understands the workflow and can automatically trigger the RFID
reader at the appropriate time, without the need for the worker to explicitly command the reader.
Nowhere do these two technologies fit so well together as when they are used to perform the
common warehouse process of pick-to-tote. Pick-to-tote begins with an order selector receiving
a tote as it moves along a conveyor. The tote is a type of container used to organize small items
or quantities sent to one location or common locations within the DC or other end destination,
such as a store. Totes are uniquely identified with a barcoded “license plate” label.
The order selector is first directed by the voice system to identify the tote. Without RFID, this is
accomplished by either scanning the barcode on the label or speaking the identifier. The order
selector is then directed by the voice system to place certain items into specified totes and to
verify the quantities. The WMS keeps track of what items were placed into which totes and
directs where those totes will go to next. This process is repeated thousands (or even tens
of thousands) of times a day.
Identifying a tote with a barcode scanner involves several steps: 1) receive the tote, 2) take
the scanner out of a holster, 3) scan the barcoded ID, 4) receive an audible confirmation that
the scan succeeded, and 5) place the scanner back into the holster. These steps can take
several seconds each time they are performed. Speaking a tote ID also takes time. Order
selectors need to correctly read an ID that can contain a combination of 10 to 20 letters and
numbers. They may need to bend over, or maneuver themselves in a way to read the ID. Or,
the label may have been damaged or smudged, and the order selector is left guessing the
correct ID through trial and error. The voice system verifies the ID and alerts the order selector
if the ID he or she spoke is correct; if incorrect, the operator must repeat the ID again. Both of
these methods require order selectors to take their hands away from a tote to scan or read an
ID, potentially disrupting the flow of totes and slowing down the overall process.
Using wearable RFID with a voice system eliminates manual steps and reduces the time needed
for tote identification. A small, specially-designed RFID reader similar in size to the voice wearable
computer is worn on a special belt and positioned to read directly in front of the order selector.
The reader is intentionally designed as a low-power, short-range device, and uses special
algorithms to identify a single tag during each read operation. The voice computer and wearable
reader communicate using either a wired or wireless connection. The tote label contains the same
information as before; the information also is encoded in an RFID tag located underneath the label.
As before, the order selector is first directed by the voice system to identify the tote. This time,
however, the worker simply tells the system when the tote is in front of him or her and the RFID
reader automatically reads the ID label. No additional manual steps are required.
A typical DC has 8,000 to 12,000 totes processed each day, which are handled by different
workers, on average, three times as they are processed. One worker can handle as many as
1,600 to 3,200 totes per day. Vocollect’s research has found that combining its voice
wearable computers and RFID for use during pick-to-tote saves one to three seconds per tote
over barcode scanning or speaking tote IDs. With the implementation of voice and RFID at a
DC operating at this capacity, up to 10 hours of productivity can gained overall per day. This is
roughly equivalent to having an additional worker on the line.
With current technology, the cost of consumables for RFID labels sometimes presents a barrier
for implementing RFID to improve a process. In a pick-to-tote operation, however, this is not the
case — since each tote identification label is used many times over. The cost of consumables
for RFID labels thus becomes much more manageable and the business case becomes much
more attractive.
The inherent short-range nature of identification for a pick-to-tote operation also opens up multiple
options for the choice of RFID technology. Both UHF and HF wearable readers have been
demonstrated. Passive UHF systems employing EPC Gen 2 protocols are dominant in the U.S., but
in Europe there appears to be a broader mix of UHF and HF systems in use. Either one could be
used for tote identification.
Over time, as RFID technology continues to mature, more and more goods at the item level will have
tags. This same voice with wearable RFID system can be used to verify products and quantities as
they are being placed into the tote. Not only will accuracy improve, but additional applications will be
enabled such as lot code verification and track and trace.
In a global supply chain setting
where seconds count and costs matter, the potential impact of using voice with wearable RFID holds
great promise for improving DC operations. Pick-to-tote is one area where today’s technology
can provide a measurable benefit.
Tom Kerr is Director of Applied Research at
Vocollect, where he leads technology
development efforts for new products that improve the performance of active mobile workers. He
also serves as RFID Technical Editor for IEEE Applications and Practice Magazine.
Oracle Acquires BEA Systems
Oracle has completed its acquisition of BEA Systems, Inc. BEA is now a wholly owned subsidiary of
Oracle. Together, Oracle and BEA plan to provide a complementary, best-in-class middleware portfolio
that spans Java Application Servers, transaction processing monitors, SOA, business process
management, user interaction and Web 2.0, identity management, business intelligence, and
enterprise content management.
Judson Althoff, Group Vice President, Worldwide Alliances and Channels, says: “Our primary
focus is 100% customer and partner satisfaction. We plan to make the combination of our companies
as seamless as possible for you and your customers, and to deliver added and immediate value.
Our commitment to middleware and the success of our middleware customers is reflected in: our
comprehensive portfolio of products; our adoption of standards; and our customers’ ability
to run, secure, adapt, and expand their businesses with the world’s fastest growing family of
middleware products.”
Oracle has set up channels for questions and feedback. Visit the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN)
portal at partner.oracle.com for
communications from OPN about enhanced opportunities regarding Oracle’s middleware
portfolio. Also, at Oracle
OpenWorld from September 21-25 in San Francisco, Oracle will host a series of sessions on
Oracle Fusion Middleware that will include a BEA content rich program. More detailed information
about our plans for the combination as well as a customer FAQ can be found at
www.oracle.com/bea.
Vibrant RFID Markets
Submitted by IDTechEx
The global RFID market continues its rapid growth as record orders up to $0.5 billion each
are serviced. This year, demand for RFID is on target for $5.3 billion globally as it powers its
way to $27 billion in 2018.
Recent substantial additions to the global RFID orderbook include A$350 million (Australian dollars)
from the State of Melbourne to boost its public transport RFID card scheme and a forecast by
transport analysts that the national RFID card for transport being progressed in the UK will cost
$2 billion.
Indeed, much is now happening in Europe, although it is the U.S. and China that share top
slot as RFID spenders at present. For example, also in the UK, Raytheon, partnered with Serco,
Accenture, Detica, QinetiQ, CapGemini, and Steria has received an additional $184 million for
the infrastructure of the UK RFID e-passport scheme.
U.S. analyst Baird has noted that retailer Metro in Germany has taken leadership in introducing
RFID into general retailing now the Wal-Mart schemes have slowed. However, it is in apparel
that we see a huge surge across the world and this is covering everything from tracking the bolts
of cloth in the factories to pallets, cases, and above all individual items of clothing, where Marks
and Spencer is world leader, with approaching 350 million tags used yearly.
Apparel RFID goes even further because there are now hundreds of commercial laundries in
the world that are washing uniforms and other clothing, such as hospital garments, with the
aid of RFID. Indeed, St Olaf's Hospital in Norway is an example of a hospital with its own RFID
driven laundry. The hospitality industry also has its own laundries that are RFID savvy. Through
this value chain, the benefits of RFID vary from efficiency in the factory and reducing stockouts
in retailing to error prevention, faster service, reduced cost, and eliminating tedious procedures
in the laundry and rented garment sectors.
The majority of the money spent on RFID relates to passive tag systems of course, and here
there is both simplification and huge leaps forward in technology. The simplification comes from
most Low Frequency RFID migrating to HF or UHF to save cost and improve performance and
little or no growth in sales of passive RFID at other frequencies. That means that HF and UHF
are very much on top and the resulting higher volumes at these frequencies, underwritten by
new application specifications that allow nothing else, are helping both quality and cost.
HF is responsible for over half of the money spent on RFID, thanks to cards, tickets, passports,
library books, drugs, and so on. Despite having been around a long time, there is now a surge
of new technology at HF that is sharply improving all parameters including cost. UHF is similarly
seeing a surge of innovation.
Applications are continuing to widen as well. For instance, European card leader Gemalto is
working with Telecom Italia Mobile to permit NFC (RFID-enabled) mobile phones to be used to
pay for public transport, initially in the province of Trento in Italy. Behind that, we see robust
investments in new RFID companies such as the additional $10 million just raised by Ekahau in
Finland for their WiFi Real Time Locating Systems. RTLS is currently the hottest form of active
RFID.
All these trends will be fully explored at the IDTechEx conference "RFID Europe"
in Cambridge, UK, September 30-October 1, Europe's largest RFID show. Visit
http://rfid.idtechex.com/rfideurope08/en.
