Vocollect Voice Is The Technology Of Choice For Dairy Farm's Distribution Process Upgrade

"Vocollect engages our customers right at the beginning by developing a deep understanding of their unique challenges, and this is no exception for Dairy Farm," said Vance Lau, Vice President and Managing Director, Vocollect Asia Pacific. "By assisting them with this pilot trial, both Vocollect and our technology partner, Dematic, are able to sync our understanding towards their business motivations and drivers, thereby providing our extensive warehouse and industry experiences to tailor a solution for their immediate as well as future needs." The Dairy Farm Group, which operates over 5,250 supermarkets, hypermarkets, health and beauty stores, convenience stores, home furnishings stores and restaurants under well-known local brands in the Asia Pacific region, has total annual sales exceeding US$9 billion for 2010. Dairy Farm run significant warehousing and distribution operations, and is currently looking at process and technology innovation to improve the productivity and accuracy of their operations. "We wish to modernize our logistic operations and standardize our operations across the region, and have determined that a combined WMS and picking operations upgrade was necessary to achieve long-term cost savings. Dematic and Vocollect were selected for their joint track record of voice picking implementations. Their excellent support and technical expertise has made this pilot trial a tremendous success,” said Eric Van Der Merwe, Senior Manager, Group Supply Chain Systems, The Dairy Farm Co. Ltd. "The picking process will begin its overhaul this year with Vocollect Voice, and this chosen technology is the blueprint for progressive implementation and standardization across the different countries and retail banners," he added.

Proven Results
One of the retail formats in Singapore was selected for this pilot trial, due to the need for frequent replenishment of small but high value products like cosmetics and health supplements, which are particularly sensitive to human error, damages or loss. “Dematic has been implementing voice solutions globally and in Asia Pacific for over a decade, helping to deliver some tremendous results for our customers in a range of sectors including retail, wholesale & FMCG where accuracy, productivity and speed are essential. With the hands-free, eyes-free operation and real time wireless connectivity, we have seen some outstanding productivity and accuracy improvements at Dairy Farm. This is an ideal technology for Dairy Farm’s picking operations, and it is no surprise that the voice picking technology has been selected for wider deployment across their organization,” said Michael Bradshaw, Director, Integrated Systems, Dematic South East Asia. The pilot trial ran for 3 months and the format experienced a multitude of benefits during the period, including: Productivity and accuracy improvements in the order of 30% and 35% respectively. High levels of user acceptance and adoption across a workforce with diverse ethnic backgrounds and a wide range of English proficiency levels. Fast and easy training. Real time management of information to support KPI monitoring, with reporting tools to provide greater visibility. Improved worker motivation with the introduction of new technology and tools to enable staff to work more effectively.

With the pilot trial over, the decision has been made for full implementation of voice picking for the specific format in Singapore. Eric expects the technology will deliver a fast return on investment for this retail banner and other banners in the Dairy Farm group as they are converted from paper-based to voice-directed picking. Moving forward, this model of implementation will be adopted in other countries so that the benefits of voice can be experienced. Plans are currently in progress to advance the rollout to other countries. Pilot Trial Fast Facts:Dairy Farm's voice-directed distribution pilot was set up by Dematic for Dairy Farm, using Vocollect Voice. The solution consisted of Vocollect Talkman T5 Mobile Computing Devices and Vocollect SR Series Headsets. System integration with the Infor Warehouse Management System (WMS). Over 15 staff trained to use voice for order picking. Macro and individual performance results consolidated from operational data, store order audits, and operator feedback.

About Dairy Farm
Dairy Farm is a leading pan-Asian retailer. At 30th June 2011, the Group and its associates operated some 5,250 outlets; employed over 81,000 people and had total annual sales in 2010 exceeding US$9 billion. The Group operates supermarkets, hypermarkets, health and beauty stores, convenience stores and home furnishings stores under well-known local brands, including: Supermarkets – Wellcome in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, ThreeSixty and Oliver’s The Delicatessen in Hong Kong, Jasons MarketPlace in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Cold Storage in Singapore and Malaysia, Giant in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, Shop N Save in Singapore, Hero in Indonesia, and Foodworld in India; Hypermarkets – Giant in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei; Health and beauty stores – Mannings in Hong Kong, mainland China and Macau, Guardian in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei, and Health and Glow in India; Convenience stores – 7-Eleven in Hong Kong, Singapore, Southern China and Macau, and Starmart in Indonesia; and Home furnishings stores – IKEA in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Group has a 50% interest in Maxim’s, Hong Kong’s leading restaurant chain.

Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited is incorporated in Bermuda and has a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange, with secondary listings in Bermuda and Singapore. The Group’s businesses are managed from Hong Kong by Dairy Farm Management Services Limited through its regional offices. Dairy Farm is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group. For more information, visit www.dairyfarmgroup.com.

About Vocollect
Vocollect, a business unit of Intermec, Inc. (NYSE:IN), is the leader in creating and providing voice-centric solutions for mobile workers in distribution and warehouse environments worldwide. The speech recognition software and extreme recognition accuracy of in-vocabulary speech helps customers achieve a higher level of business performance through voice. Every day over 400,000 workers worldwide use Vocollect’s comprehensive voice solutions to distribute more than $4 billion in goods from distribution centers and warehouses to customer locations. A global team of over 2,000 supply chain reseller and channel partner experts supports Vocollect Voice offerings. Vocollect VoiceWorld Suite integrates with all major WMS and ERP systems, including solutions from SAP AG, and supports the industry’s leading mobile computing devices. For more information, visit www.vocollect.com. 

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