Faster order picking with smart glasses

Dirk Franke, Managing Partner at Picavi GmbH, has more than 20 years of experience in the development and sales of software systems for paperless order picking. He’s eager to pass on this extensive knowledge base since Picavi is simultaneously a software developer and a full-service provider. sweets processing reported in Issue 9-10/2017 on order picking using smart glasses.

sweets processing: Mr Franke, how can the confectionery industry in particular benefit from your company’s solutions, such as its smart glasses?
Dirk Franke: As in the food products industry in general, there is also a relatively short timeframe available for the logistical handling of confectionery since these products are perishable and have to be on the supermarket shelves on time during the appropriate season. Our visual step-by-step process control using the smart glasses display allows pickers to use both of their hands freely for their core ­duty, making Pick-by-Vision decisively faster than other order picking solutions. And simultaneously all of the goods movements are also automatically documented in real-time.

“Time savings of up to 30 percent are possible”

sp: What developments do you foresee for this segment?
Franke: Pick-by-Vision has proven its viability in practice, and it has the potential to become the most frequently used order picking solution in every area of intralogistics. Add-ons like the Power Control developed by Picavi, consisting of an external battery with expanded control capabilities, or ring scanners for hard-to-reach barcodes make the smart glasses a process-secure solution compatible for industrial use.

sp: What other technical solutions are you currently working on?
Franke: There are still plenty of possibilities for Pick-by-Vision on the road to reaching Logistics 4.0. The wide range of sensors integrated into the smart glasses, the different types of labelling for warehouses and goods including automatic RFID chip identification and localisation, close-meshed networking with elements of permanent condition monitoring – all these open up exciting opportunities for the future.

sp: What are the timeframes for amortising the costs of the investment?
Franke: This depends on the initial situation at the start. Time savings of up to 30 percent can already be achieved now in order picking thanks to having free hands and visual process control, including optimized walking and driving routes. The amortisation period generally takes significantly less than two years. The effort required for implementation in the existing warehousing and IT infrastructure is very manageable, taking only a few weeks. Prerequisites are few and do not include physical conversion measures to buildings or warehouse spaces. Real-time communication with the inventory management system only requires corresponding WLAN coverage throughout the warehouse.

sp: How can the system be used in the worst case scenario of a power failure?
Franke: This depends on the failsafe performance of the inventory management system. This would not directly affect the smart glasses; Picavi Power Control provides enough energy for more than a single work shift. The smart glasses also store enough residual energy on their own to bridge any short-term loss of contact with the system IT.•