Aldata Solution, Inc., announced today that IT Europa, an European publisher and market intelligence company, recognized Aldata’s innovative PDA-based voice order picking solution as an industry best. Aldata’s G.O.L.D Vocal PDA won Best Solution in the ISV category, communications and mobility, at IT Europa’s European IT Excellence Awards. The company won against competition from 49 organizations in 16 countries for the implementation of the G.O.L.D Vocal solution at Leclerc Lecasud, the central buying and distribution group of E Leclerc.
At Leclerc Lecasud, the G.O.L.D. Vocal solution is used for all order picking in the dry goods warehouse. The solution enables warehouse operators to use PDA terminals with headsets to receive and transmit voice commands to the Warehouse Management System, which has complete visibility of the operators and the warehouse stock. This enables the operators to carry out order picking assignments in real-time for maximum efficiency and productivity without the administrative overhead of paper-based operations. It has also been proven to reduce the number of pick rate errors.
Alain Robeau, support services director, Leclerc Lecasud, said: “The voice order picking solution that has recently gone into production at Leclerc Lecasud operates in a PDA environment. We already have experience with a voice solution with voice-dedicated terminals but Aldata’s PDA solution appealed to us for many reasons:
Compatibility with existing systems: G.O.L.D. Vocal in a PDA environment is compatible with other picking systems that we are already using. This allows us to protect existing investments;
Independence in hardware selection: G.O.L.D. Vocal now enables us to be independent of the hardware supplier;
Speech recognition system: G.O.L.D. Vocal is a system that operates without any voice pre-registering. This represents significant gains in time for temporary and seasonal personnel; and
Second generation voice solution future-proofs our investment: G.O.L.D. Vocal’s ability to fully utilize the PDA multi-modal applications (screen, pistol, keyboard, voice, scanning, RFID and barcodes, etc.) means that we can apply this technology to operations other than order picking and inventory.”
Robeau concluded: “The benefits brought by the implementation of this system include increased quality because the error rate is divided by eight. It has increased productivity by approximately 12 percent and improved stock management because we can integrate perpetual inventory during order picking. The multi-modal opportunities offered by G.O.L.D. Vocal enable us to consider redesigning other processes, such as truck loading. We can certainly see there may be additional gains in quality and productivity due to multi-modal processes, something which is not available in a voice-dedicated environment.”
“We are very proud of this award. It recognizes that Aldata increases efficiency in warehouses,” said Jean-François Le Garrec, G.O.L.D. Vocal development director, Aldata Solution.
A film showing how the solution was implemented at Leclerc Lecasud is available at:
About Aldata Solution, Inc.
Aldata helps retailers differentiate and excel. Focused exclusively on retail, Aldata empowers retailers and their suppliers to sharpen the focus on what is essential for success – achieving the optimal balance to effectively and profitably manage and fulfill consumer demand. With a single, integrated solution and data model, Aldata customers realize unparalleled efficiency from headquarters to stores and everywhere in between. Aldata’s “Core Retail Suite” includes merchandising, sales, replenishment, logistics and store operations – providing retailers the visibility, flexibility and responsiveness they need to support the evolving customer, competitive and compliance landscape