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SEIKO Optical’s lenses and frames for glasses meet the highest quality standards. Opticians who sell the company’s products don’t just expect faultless goods – they also expect efficient delivery processes. Every product is made individually, and incorrect or delayed deliveries can lead to hassle with customers. To guarantee high delivery quality at all times and substantially increase reliability across all logistical processes, SEIKO opted for the Lydia® Plug & Play voice solution for its UK operations as a first step. All processes from the UK were recently adopted at the company’s new logistics centre in Gelnhausen, Germany, as well. The move provides the company with a reliable complete system, while at the same time enabling it to benefit from topsystem’s specialist expertise. Productivity increased by over 40 percent and the error rate fell significantly, with SEIKO staff now carrying out over 3,500 picks per hour.
SEIKO Optical Europe GmbH and SEIKO Optical UK are subsidiaries of Japan-based SEIKO Optical Products Co. Ltd., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-tech lenses. “SEIKO”, the Japanese term for precision, mirrors the company’s pledge to deliver high performance. To honour this commitment in order picking and delivery, SEIKO introduced the Lydia® pick by voice solution – not just at one site, but two.
Cost-efficient and simple
Lydia® Plug & Play is a preconfigured all-in-one solution for use in voice-controlled working processes. Software, hardware and the related services are already included. Since introducing the Lydia® Voice Suite, SEIKO has been enjoying all the benefits provided by voice-controlled working processes. The pick by voice solution sees workers wearing a headset connected to a mobile voice computer called Voxter®. Workers are able to use their hands and eyes freely, thus enabling them to perform their tasks better and in turn leading to a substantial improvement in their quality of work. In addition, new members of staff are able to jump straight in, as individual voice profiles do not need to be set up. This enables the company to constantly guarantee the quality of work, even during seasonal peaks. If SEIKO’s requirements change over time, additional modules and functions can be added to the basic package. The company had previously relied on paper-based order picking, an extremely time-consuming and error-prone procedure that required deliveries to be checked manually after every pick. This is now a thing of the past. One of the main goals of the project had been to significantly speed up the quality-control process by enhancing efficiency. This ergonomic order-picking solution also enables the lens manufacturer to further optimise processes through multi-order picking. The Lydia® Control Center analyses the picks and provides detailed reports. The end result is that SEIKO has been able to boost pick efficiency from 2,500 items an hour to 3,500.
Greater efficiency within 24 hours
Installation, testing, going live – Lydia® Plug & Play was already in use on the day it was introduced. topVOX, topsystem’s British sales partner, trained up staff in four days – ten days quicker than originally planned. This step marked the completion of the project. The three warehouses at the company’s site in Gloucester, UK, were seamlessly integrated into the firm’s European IT system via an interface designed specifically for their needs. Connecting the new logistics centre in Gelnhausen, Germany, to the system also proved to be trouble-free. The pick by voice system is scalable and enables additional sites across Europe to be integrated if the need arises
“Lydia® gives us the flexibility we need in our day-to-day business. Combined with consistently high levels of process quality, we are optimally equipped for the future,” says Bertold Oestermann, Director Purchasing, IT & Logistics at SEIKO Optical Europe.
English publisher Business Logistics IT honoured the successful Lydia® Plug&Play solution in operation at SEIKO Optical UK in 2015, presenting it with an award in the “Wearable Devices & Voice Technology in Logistics” category.