VoiteQ Furnish Marshtom Mill's Warehouse With Voice

Published 24th May 2007

Marston Mills roll out VoiteQ’s fully voice-controlled warehouse management system...

London, UK; 24 May 2007: Marston Mills (including Ponden Mill and Coloroll retail), a national retailer of linens and textiles, is implementing a fully integrated supply chain system from VoiteQ consisting of two core products. LogicMan, a fully voice directed warehouse management solution which will provide Marston Mills with a paperless, voice controlled warehouse operation. Additionally, the business management system (BMS), CentriQ, which offers central product maintenance, range control and much more.
The Keighley-based business currently has 265 retail outlets, employing over 1,400 staff. The £75m turnover company has become a household name, supplying direct to the public through city centre and out-of-town stores as well as operating contracts to supply hospitals, prisons and schools.
Graham Martin, Marston Mill’s logistics director commented “We needed a system which could provide us with improved stock control and warehouse efficiency. Having seen VoiteQ’s voice solution in operation before, I was confident that it could not only meet our requirements but also provide us with significant operational benefits, including increased productivity, accuracy and visibility of the operation.”

The voice directed WMS solution utilises Vocollect’s wearable computers which consist of a securely fastened belt-mounted voice computer worn by the warehouse operatives with a headset/microphone. Instructions about the task in hand are sent to the picker’s headset by his voice terminal from the WMS in real-time. The voice-directed system typically delivers accuracy levels exceeding 99.9 per cent and greatly increases productivity, which in turn delivers a very fast ROI.

Martin concludes, “VoiteQ are well known in the UK for their expertise in interfacing voice directed picking into incumbent third party warehouse management systems but not so well known for their own WMS. I’d seen it in operation a couple of years back and knew it would be a good fit for the Marston Mills operation when I joined the business. LogicMan will revolutionise our warehouse operation with real-time stock control, accurate deliveries to store, will give me full visibility of the entire operation and help to take the business forward.”