Voice picking uses computer-generated speech to guide warehouse workers through each step of the order-picking process. Workers hear automated voice commands telling them where to go and what to pick, and they confirm their actions by speaking back to the system.
A warehouse management system (WMS) plays an important role in voice-picking systems. It guides workers with real-time data and automates repetitive tasks like grouping orders, picker routing, and single-item picking.
This article covers what is voice picking in a warehouse, how it works, and its benefits.
What is Voice Picking in a Warehouse?
Also known as the pick-by-voice method, this is a hands-free picking technology in a warehouse where workers wear headsets to hear real-time voice commands that guide them through the picking process.
It mainly has three components:
- Warehouse management system (WMS): The software that organizes, processes, and tracks orders in real-time.
- Voice server: A server that converts order data into clear, spoken, computer-generated instructions for workers.
- Wearable voice terminal: A device that delivers commands through a wireless headset, allowing operators to work hands-free.
By leveraging voice technology, your workers receive step-by-step audio instructions to move through aisles with precise picking locations and quantities, allowing them to complete tasks without looking at a screen.
How Does Warehouse Voice Picking Work?
Here’s how it works:
- Receiving instructions: The WMS assigns tasks, optimizes routes, and sends them wirelessly to the wearable voice terminal (a device like a mobile phone that delivers the voice command), which converts data into audible commands using text-to-speech (TTS) technology.
- Wireless transmission to voice terminal: The generated audio is transmitted via RF (radio frequency) or Wi-Fi to the worker’s voice terminal.
- Walking to the designated location: Following the wireless transmission, the terminal relays the spoken instructions to guide the picker through the warehouse.
- Confirming picks: The worker responds with a verbal confirmation (e.g., stating a check digit or item quantity), which the system recognizes and converts back into data using speech-to-text (STT) technology.
- Real-time updates: The system verifies the confirmation and updates inventory levels instantly in the WMS.
- Next assignment: The system provides the next task immediately, keeping the workflow continuous and efficient.
The technology helps 3PLs adopt single-pick item storage with greater accuracy in order fulfillment, but not all warehouse voice-picking systems work the same way. Some rely on structured, system-driven workflows, while others offer more flexibility for workers.
Difference Between Voice-Directed and Voice-Assisted Picking Systems
- Voice-Directed Picking Systems: These systems follow a structured, step-by-step workflow, where workers receive real-time voice commands from a WMS and confirm tasks verbally. It is ideal for repetitive, high-volume tasks like order picking, replenishment, and inventory management. Voice-directed tasks can reduce mis-picks by 50%, but workers have minimal control over task execution.
- Voice-Assisted Picking Systems: In voice-assisted picking, workers receive real-time voice instructions while using barcode scanners, tablets, or wearables for verification and data entry. For example, a store associate gets a voice prompt to restock shelves and then uses a tablet to check inventory levels before picking items. The system allows workers to switch between tasks without relying solely on voice input, making it ideal for multi-tasking environments.
5 Benefits of Voice Picking Technology in a Warehouse
Here are the benefits of using voice picking:
Enhanced Productivity
According to Körber Supply Chain, organizations adopting voice-based solutions see a 35% increase in worker productivity. With voice commands, workers can pick orders accurately and manage multiple tasks like replenishment, inventory counting, and putaway processes (optimizing how items are placed in a warehouse) simultaneously.
Improved Accuracy
According to one study, this technology increases picking operations by up to 40% and accuracy by up to 99.9%, which ensures delivering the right product to the right customer. Instead of stopping to check a screen or scan a barcode, pickers listen to voice commands, reach the right location, pick the item, and confirm it.
Cost Reduction
It cuts warehouse and labor costs by automating repetitive tasks through a WMS. For example, a cloud-based WMS like Da Vinci can provide real-time inventory tracking and prevent delays by redirecting incoming shipments to outbound trucks.
Faster Worker Training
Voice-activated warehouse picking accelerates onboarding. New hires simply wear a headset, receive step-by-step guidance, and start picking orders with minimal training. They walk to the right location, grab the correctly labeled items, and give a confirmation.
If they make a mistake, the WMS corrects them in real-time.
Inventory Management
Voice-directed picking method with WMS provides real-time inventory status, which helps you track stock levels and inventory counts, especially useful during peak seasons.
5 Best Practices to Implement Voice Picking With WMS
Here’s how you can implement a voice-picking system with a WMS in your 3PL warehouse:
1. Choose a Compatible WMS
Integrating the technology requires specific WMS capabilities. Some legacy or basic systems may lack the necessary features or flexibility, leading to compatibility issues and potential disruptions during voice command implementation.
A WMS is considered compatible if:
- It supports your existing system and future requirements, such as robotics and other automation tools.
- It can adjust your warehouse layout, storage palletization, organization, and picking methods to implement the technology
Da Vinci’s cloud-based WMS can quickly integrate with your existing system and has advanced capabilities to automate order-picking processes like grouping single-item orders, choosing the best picking methods (batch picking, zone picking, or wave picking), and smart routing.
2. Ability to Handle Complex Orders
3PLs with omnichannel fulfillment have a high SKU variability that requires complex single-order picking methods. Voice-picking systems alone cannot process multiple orders accurately without a WMS.
A WMS can help:
- Break down multiple orders into small batches by a specific priority (e.g. prioritizing same-day delivery orders first).
- Use batch picking, where workers can receive voice commands to pick multiple orders simultaneously from similar locations.
- Assign orders dynamically based on picker location and workload balance, ensuring even distribution across teams.
Da Vinci’s WMS has algorithmic capabilities to forecast demand patterns and assign high-demand SKUs closer to the picking zone, allowing pickers to quickly collect commonly grouped item orders during the picking process.
3. Support Automation
Many 3PL warehouses still rely on legacy systems that lack native support for automation. Without fast integration, these systems may require costly workarounds, slow down adoption, and create data silos that hinder real-time tracking.
A cloud-based WMS like Da Vinci can help:
- Easily integrate with any automation systems to match your workflow with voice picking.
- Dynamically integrate barcode technology, robotics, and automation tools with the technology.
4. Optimize Warehouse Layout for Voice Picking
This technology works best when high-turnover SKUs are placed in easily accessible locations, minimizing travel time. You need to divide your warehouse into voice-directed picking zones, where workers use hands-free voice instructions to complete tasks.
A WMS can help:
- Use warehouse slotting optimization features to position high-moving SKUs closer to pickers’ routes.
- Redesign pathways to minimize congestion and maximize picking accuracy when using voice commands for navigation.
5. Train Employees for Voice Picking Accuracy
Training your workers to use voice commands effectively allows them to fully leverage the technology to optimize picking speed and accuracy.
A WMS simplifies onboarding by automating complex tasks. It can:
- Help new hires pick the right items from the shelves
- Provide step-by-step navigation to pick single items faster
- Monitor real-time order processing, error rates, and worker productivity using data analytics.
When to Use Voice Picking in a Warehouse
Here’s when voice-picking technology is right for your warehouse:
- High-volume order fulfillment: If your warehouse processes a high volume of orders daily, voice picking is more cost-effective and faster than pick-to-light systems, which use LED lights and digital displays to guide pickers.
- A diverse number of SKUs: 3PLs and e-commerce warehouses with high SKU variability can combine this technology voice picking with barcode scanning or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to improve accuracy and speed.
- Large warehouse layout: If your warehouse has complex storage zones, voice-directed picking can help workers navigate through the facility quickly and reduce unnecessary travel time.
- Dynamic & changing inventory: It is effective in warehouses with frequent inventory updates, as voice commands adapt in real-time. A WMS can assist in forecasting demand patterns to prepare your storage for quicker order fulfillment.
- Cold storage: In freezer warehouses storing grocery products, this technology allows workers to pick or move items safely without removing gloves or handling screens.
Applications of Voice Picking in a Warehouse
Here are some applications of voice picking:
- Putaway: Voice picking simplifies how items should be placed in a warehouse to save storage space and move high-demand items closer.
- Cross-docking: It instructs workers on unloading incoming shipments, sorting them, and sending them directly to outbound trucks without entering the facility for storage.
- Returns management: Voice picking in reverse logistics guides workers to handle returned products through inspection, sorting, and restocking processes.
- Replenishment: It helps workers quickly restock shelves by giving real-time voice instructions on where to place items.
- Automation: With this technology, workers receive real-time voice commands to coordinate with automated picking arms, sortation systems, or AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots). For example, voice commands direct workers to verify and place items onto conveyor belts, while robots handle movement and sorting.
- Packing: This strategy can guide workers on the correct box sizes, packing materials, and weight limits based on order data pulled from WMS. For example, Da Vinci’s WMS provides intelligent auto-packing (cartonization) to determine optimal carton sizes for reduced shipping costs and scan pack operations, where staff use barcode scanners at packing stations to verify items and select appropriate cartons during the packing process.
Future Trends in Voice Picking Systems
Here are some future trends that will change how 3PLs and warehouses operate using voice-picking technology:
- AI-powered voice recognition: Advanced AI-driven voice assistants can improve speech recognition, adapt to different accents, and reduce misinterpretations, making the technology more accurate. Currently, researchers are developing accent adaptation techniques, such as accent-specific codebooks and residual adapters (modify models for AI adaptation) to recognize accented speech.
- Augmented Reality (AR) & wearables: Smart glasses and AR overlays can combine the technology with visual instructions. According to a study, AR-supported picking systems have been shown to reduce search times by 89% and picking times by 18%.
- 5G & edge computing: Faster data transmission with 5G and localized processing through edge computing can reduce latency in voice commands, enabling real-time order updates, inventory tracking, and picker guidance without delays.
- Multi-modal picking: Voice-directed systems can integrate with barcode scanning, RFID tracking, and vision-based picking to verify orders, reduce mispicks, and support hybrid picking workflows.
- IoT (Internet of Things): IoT sensors can track picker movement and warehouse traffic. For example, these sensors can analyze if certain aisles slow workers down and recommend storage re-slotting for faster access.
Global voice-picking solutions are projected to grow at a 15.3% CAGR between 2024 and 2030, driven by rising demand for automated fulfillment. But a pick-to-voice system requires real-time data to fulfill orders accurately. Cloud-based WMS can integrate with the technology to align workflows based on specific priorities like demand patterns or order volume.
Learn more about how Da Vinci’s WMS features can optimize your order-picking operations. Contact our team today.
FAQs
Q. What is the most common application for voice technology in warehouse management?
Voice-directed picking (VDP), also known as pick-by-voice, is the most common application in voice technology. It guides warehouse workers through hands-free, real-time voice commands, allowing them to navigate aisles, locate items, and confirm picks verbally without using screens or handheld devices.
Q. What equipment is needed for voice picking?
Voice picking requires a voice server to convert text into voice, and a terminal device like a mobile phone, connected to a headset with a microphone, allowing workers to hear and verbally confirm picked orders. The WMS software also plays a crucial role for real-time order processing in the system.