Morrisons invests £6m in automated voice system

System expected to support improvement in quality of business data

Morrisons' new voice-based system will be fully operation next year

Supermarket chain Morrisons is to implement a voice-based system to improve the efficiency of stock picking at its warehouses.

Morrisons invested over £6m in the new platform, which will replace a paper-based system and is intended to enhance the quality of business data and reporting capabilities for its Oracle warehouse management system.

Under the platform, operators receive computer-generated voice instructions and can track and trace products from the picking point to the delivery destination.

The system and belt-mounted computers to be used by pickers will be provided by Zetes. The roll-out will be conducted in phases starting this month and is set to complete by 2010.

Morrisons awarded the contract following a successful three-month pilot. The trial is claimed to have provided benefits such as improved picking accuracy, better operational efficiency in areas such as task allocation, and the ability to support multilingual pickers.