The “Pick-A-Little Talk-A-Little” song in the 1962 musical “The Music Man” features the gossipy, hat-and-feather-wearing matrons of River City, Iowa, telling Professor Harold Hill unsavory things about the town librarian. Although today’s voice picking technology focuses on warehouse operations instead of a library’s “dirty book” selections, the technology is drumming up its own attention thanks to its ability to escalate productivity and accuracy, improve safety and ergonomics, and aid in pickup, delivery and in-store workflows.
Since its initial utilization in beverage plants about eight years ago, voice picking technology is becoming more widely accepted and now features better hardware and software, the ability to be wirelessly integrated via Bluetooth, and to function in applications both inside and outside of the warehouse, says Stephen E. Hoffman, technology specialist for software engineering at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Dematic Corp.