Case Study

Pick-by-Voice: Nespoli’s warehouse management speaks for itself

Nespoli Deutschland

Nespoli Deutschland is part of Nespoli Group, a leading designer and manufacturer of paint tools, metal tools, aerosol paint sprays and cleaning tools. Reply, through logistics consulting services and a digital transformation program, enables Nespoli to improve the efficiency of warehouse processes on multiple sites using Click Reply™ WM with an integrated voice picking solution.

Nespoli Deutschland was aimed at reviewing all processes of its logistics department, considered too expensive with respect to standard KPI. The main effort was directed to raise the productivity of the shipping department, increasing the efficiency of picking and delivery. Another goal was to achieve a real time global stock visibility over the supply chain network, allowing speeding up the order fulfilment, starting from production sites.

Paper based activities were to be replaced by real time technologies, like mobile and voice equipment. Ultimately, Nespoli intended to increase the service level thanks to optimized processes.

The challenges

Managing multiple sites and the transfers in between and providing a global stock overview
High volume pick seasonality: up to 15.000 order picks a day
Creating automated processes from a mostly paper-based system
Change management: warehouse people used to work with legacy technologies Complex Item Master data management, with presence of variances, alternative codes and private labels

Value added services, promotional kitting, returns management
Interfacing with freight forwarding system
Customer ERP interface not providing distributed order management functionality

The solution

The solution provided by Reply simplifies the operators' work, allowing them to focus on the task at hand while intuitively interacting with the WMS via voice, eliminating the need for a keyboard or a hand-held terminal.

At the beginning Reply had been appointed to provide logistics consulting services for Nespoli to better understand and improve their existing processes, and select the right technology to achieve the goal.

Reply analyzed and improved the existing logistics processes in Nespoli's warehouses on multiple sites and set up its own logistics software, Click Reply™ WM, to support the logistics operations of Nespoli Deutschland, where most things had been managed paper-based.

As a first step, Click Reply™ WM was implemented with the objective to support both internal warehousing activities and those linked to the distribution of goods. The solution’s distributed order management feature optimally supports Nespoli to efficiently manage all aspects of multi-site warehouse operations, ranging from internal production to delivery to the end customers.

A key aspect was the integration of an innovative voice recognition software into the Warehouse Management platform to support the picking process. Now, Nespoli's operators can pick their goods guided by voice instructions received via a head-set directly from the WMS. The WMS tells the operator the directions to the next item on the list and provides information about the required quantities. This technology enables a real-time dialogue with the Warehouse Management System.

Thanks to the Reply voice solution, warehouse supervisors can measure in real time actual pick time and travel time. Highly useful information has been derived on how to change the stock allocation in the building and how to optimally manage and serve large retail chains.

Change management required a period of 4 months for ramp up; after that a 35 % increase of efficiency in picking and shipping could be measured - this even exceeded the target initially set by Nespoli.