Co-op takes warehouse wireless

Co-op is installing wireless scanning and product picking technology at its warehouse in Ipswich.

East Anglia Federal Co-Op Society is spending £210,000 to install Vocollect's voice picking technology and Psion Teklogix's Workabout Pro handhelds, alongside AquiTec's Warehouse Management System, in its 140,000 square foot warehouse.

The handhelds will be used to check-in and scan newly received goods. Once the items are ready for picking workers will use Vocollect's Talkman T5 speech terminals which will tell them where the goods are and how many of each item to pick.

When all the products have been selected the Workabout Pros will be used again to check the cages onto waiting lorries.

Cisco wireless access points located around the warehouse will transmit all wireless data from both sets of device back to a central server where the warehouse management software will provide information on the location of goods and the progress of jobs.

The process will ensure that all products are logged electronically from the moment they arrive in the warehouse until they are driven out again for delivery.

The Co-op's IT manager, Steve Bentley, said that precision is vital in an operation which dispatches goods to 200 stores across the east of England. He said as a result of the new technologies accuracy and productivity could increase by at least 20 per cent and that the Co-op will gain a "significant" return on its investment within 18 months.