Company Sees Huge ROI By Deploying Voice Solution

Jordano's, Inc., a 98‐year‐old foodservice and beverage organization, has obtained positive results from its deployment of Vocollect Voice in its Foodservice Division, including a 93% reduction in order errors and a 19% worker productivity improvement. Vocollect is a business unit of Intermec, Inc.

Jordano's Foodservice Division processes more than 14,000 SKUs six days per week across three shifts in its 100,000 square foot distribution center. The division services close to 800 stores in central and southern California. The operation deploys Vocollect Voice for case and pallet picking as part of a comprehensive warehouse management system (WMS) from BFC Associates.

"We selected BFC Associates as our technology partner due to its proven solutions for the grocery and food distribution market," said Dennis Merchant, director of operations, Jordano's Foodservice Division. "When BFC recommended Vocollect Voice, we knew our freezer, cooler and dry goods operations would experience significant improvement, but we were quite surprised to see such a major turn in order accuracy improvement and our bottom line."

Merchant noted that the solution helps his company save 10s of thousands of dollars annually. "Like every food business, we also have to effectively address the increasing number of government regulations for food safety and traceability, such as those emanating from the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)," Merchant added. "With the accurate order‐tracking that the BFC/Vocollect solution provides, now we can pinpoint who picked what order, in what quantity, at what time and date, and where the worker was stationed at the time the order was fulfilled."

In addition, Merchant's operation became a pilot site for the new SRX2 wireless headset, which is freezer‐certified. "Vocollect's SRX2 speech recognition quality is excellent, it's lightweight, and it's easy for our freezer workers to maneuver," Merchant said, adding that his employees are continually engaged in two‐way dialogue with the voice system, so they are far more focused on their task at hand.

"The ability to share headsets across shifts greatly reduces the number of required batteries, providing yet another cost saving," he said.

Results from the Vocollect Voice deployment have included:

• Ninety three percent reduction in order errors (up to 99.995 picking accuracy), saving 10s of thousands of dollars annually
• Nineteen percent productivity improvement
• Training time reduced by 50%
• Number of pickers reduced from 34 with paper to 24 with voice
• Strong worker satisfaction
• Enhanced customer satisfaction from more accurate orders
• Improved ability for order traceability and meeting regulatory requirements
• ROI in less than 12 months