Also known as pick-by-vision, this contemporary approach to warehouse picking works by providing order pickers with guided visual cues projected on their Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) throughout the picking journey. If there’s an error, the mistake is flagged and the picker can correct it immediately. This saves retailers from making costly mistakes brought on by returned orders.
Vision picking is rapidly growing in popularity because of its hands-free approach to order picking, as well as its ability to improve worker productivity. Surveys show that vision picking in distribution centers or warehouses can result in 25 percent more productivity and very minimal error.
This technology uses augmented reality to identify where the products are, as well as the shortest route to get to them. This drastically lowers the chances of picking errors and boosts picking accuracy. It also helps reduce travel time, which accounts for roughly 50 percent of picking time. This way, you don’t end up paying order pickers for walking instead of filling orders in a fast, efficient manner.
Vision picking combines augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies to deliver a seamless picking operation that not only improves the warehouse’s supply chain efficiency but it also improves the ability of workers to get the job done very quickly.
Compared to pick-by-paper methods, warehouse operations that incorporated vision picking saw their picking speed increase by an average of 37 percent. Worker productivity in warehousing operations is key to fast order fulfillment and customer satisfaction. This is why logistics giant, DHL, implemented vision picking in their warehouses.
The company reported a 15 percent increase in worker productivity and minimized picking errors from the use of vision picking technology. With vision picking technology integrated into your warehouse management and order management systems, retail operations will experience the following benefits:
- Faster picking speed
- Reduced picking errors and early detection of errors if any
- The elimination of dead, base, or travel time – Does this by identifying the shortest route to the pick items and providing the most efficient navigation to the extraction location
- Faster and effective training for order pickers
- Improves personal safety in the warehouse – For example, Amazon is testing an AR-based “safe space” program that alerts workers when they’re too close to each other. This is great for preventing and minimizing the spread of coronavirus and boosting morale among warehouse workers
- Provides audiovisual assistance to pickers
- Flexible system that adapts to demand requirements – this is great for high seasonal demand periods
- Fast inventory reconciliation between all channels – this ensures that customers don’t end up paying for items that are out of stock
- Provides pickers with a digital pick list, marks the extraction container, and alerts the system after a successful pick
Compare Voice Picking to Pick-by-Paper and Pick by Light.
Ox offers an augmented reality-based vision picking solution that incorporates heads-up displays (HUDs) and helps transform your distribution center’s operational efficiency.
With Ox, your retail warehouse and distribution center operations will run more efficiently. You’ll also reduce travel time and optimize pick paths, improve picking accuracy, drastically reduce picking errors, and boost warehouse worker performance.
