Voice Picking System

A voice picking system, also called voice-directed warehousing, replaces a paper pick list or handheld scanner with a wearable headset that speaks each pick instruction to the worker, telling them where to go and what to take, and listens for a short spoken confirmation, typically a check digit read back from the location label, before moving on to the next task. Because both of the worker's hands and eyes stay free for the actual work of reaching, lifting, and placing items, the method is faster and safer in narrow aisles and cold storage than systems that require reading a screen or a paper list between picks. The technology spread through grocery and general merchandise distribution centers from the 1990s onward, where the underlying task, walking a warehouse floor filling totes from many different locations for many different orders in a single shift, changes little from one system to the next but benefits directly from removing the need to look down at a device between picks.