Voice-directed warehousing activities have come a long way since they were first introduced. The biggest physical benefit that generally comes to mind is the ability to remove distractions such as scanning guns and pick lists, freeing both of the operator’s hands to perform work.
A significant financial benefit, however, is the short amount of time in which a new operator can come up to productive speed using a properly deployed system. Still, voice technology seems to be a tough sell, even in some of the most ideal applications where documented payback is often less than 12 months.