Channel Island Co-operative Society to expand Voice picking operation

The Channel Islands Co-operative Society Ltd (CICS) operates at the forefront of one of the most dynamic and progressive retail societies in the British Isles.

CICS Food business operates from eleven locations in Jersey and eight in Guernsey. The Society take great pride in ensuring CICS members and customers are able to buy the very best fresh, packaged and ambient foods at a fair price and have to constantly review their procedures, operation, and the technologies employed to maintain their market share and exceed customer expectations.

CICS Jersey The Talk of the Island
As CICS has grown, the need to run an effective and efficient distribution operation has become critical. In January 2010, CICS implemented a Voice Picking Solution to support growth and increase productivity at their Food Distribution Facility in Bellozanne, St Helier. The success of the implementation resulted in numerous benefits for CICS through increased productivity and availability, accurate consignments and timely deliveries. The increased productivity within the warehouse reduced the need for overtime, and continues to deliver significant cost savings to Jersey.

Paving the Way to Guernsey Picking Success
With a full RF system already in place at Guernsey, CICS, in partnership with RCS, were confident that the success of the St Helier Voice Picking Solution could be easily replicated within their Guernsey operation. Ron Morris, General Distribution Manager for CICS comments, "The expansion of the Voice solution into our Guernsey operation is a very exciting prospect having already secured numerous benefits from our existing solution in Jersey." The existing RF solution utilising the RCS Streetwise System and Belgravium Atlanta handheld terminals is easily configurable the progression to a Voice system essentially requiring an add-on to the existing warehouse management system. The multimodal Atlanta handheld is Voice-enabled providing CICS with the flexibility to switch between traditional scanning, and with the addition of a Voice headset, can be instantly transformed to a Voice terminal. With the addition of the thin client software 'Voxbrowser', CICS has all the elements for a full Voice system.

CICS are excited by the potential of the solution with regards to further process improvements into Guernsey. Ron continues, "The additional capabilities will provide us with greater productivity and accuracy improvements which in turn will continue to drive our commitment to delivering a truly first-class service and product to our customer base."