WHSmith Voice Their Approval

Published 21st April 2008

WHSmith increase their use of voice technology by 50%...

10 April 2008: WHSmith PLC, one of the UK’s leading retail groups, is expanding its use of Voice-Directed Work® deployment in its travel division. This follows the impressive benefits the company has seen during the past four years of using VoiteQ’s voice solutions, based on the Vocollect Voice® offering. WHSmith Travel’s customer base has increased dramatically over the last 12 months, with the introduction of WHSmith’s stores within UK service stations. The increase in sales with these additional stores has had a significant impact on their travel distribution centre in Holford, with a 30% increase in stores being serviced by the centre. In order to maintain its high service levels, WHSmith is increasing its existing number of voice computers by 50%.

WHSmith first implemented VoiteQ’s VoiceMan middleware and Vocollect Voice in late March 2004. The voice solution interfaces into WHSmith’s existing warehouse management systems (WMS) and operates Vocollect’s belt-mounted, wearable computer. Operatives can work completely hands and eyes free by receiving picking commands from the WMS to the a plug-in headset and the computer, the system literally talks the operative through their task. The voice-directed application typically delivers accuracy levels exceeding 99.9% and greatly increases productivity – one of the key drivers behind WHSmith’s latest deployment of the technology.

Jim McCafferty, Site Manager for WHSmith’s says, “We’ve witnessed significant improvements to picking accuracy and productivity by using voice technology. As the workload in the DC increased, we knew the best solution to help us to cope, was to expand our use of voice within the warehouse.”

The additional voice computers will be Vocollect’s Talkman T5, which is an upgrade from the existing T2 computers that was installed 4 years ago. WHSmith’s continue to gain significant benefits from using their existing voice devices, which has led to the purchase of the additional Talkman units.

McCafferty concludes, “We’ve always found the VoiteQ team great to work with, they respond to our issues quickly and efficiently, and they are always willing to help, developing a solution to meet our specific needs. We’re looking forward to expanding our use of voice technology and our work with VoiteQ.”