Voice: cutting costs, not trees

Burlington Drug Company ships pharmaceuticals and convenience store goods to over 1,000 locations spread over eight states. Founded in the late 1800s, the company has evolved from a manufacturer to a wholesale pharmaceutical business. Today, distribution services have evolved as a core competence, and the company has expanded to serve pharmacies and convenience stores through its Dowlings division.

"The way we separate ourselves from our competition is through our customer service. Our customers are our first and primary focus; everything else is secondary," said Jay Mitiguy, Assistant Vice President. With guaranteed next day delivery, the time consumed correcting shorts and mispicks is just too valuable to be wasted. 

Improving Service with Voxware 3 voice software
Burlington Drug saw Voxware 3 Voice software as a mean of improving the picking process. "It's about getting the right products to customers at the right time, in saleable condition, and that's where Voxware helps us out," said Mitiguy. Implementing Voxware 3 had an immediate effect. "We increased our pick rates and our accuracy; we're now picking at 99.95% accuracy, which means we get just 5 errors in every 10,000 pick lines. That's pretty phenomenal."

Additionally, productivity rose 20% thanks to a more efficient and paperless process. "It would take two or three hours to sort through all the paperwork and get it out to the warehouse. A lot of the pickers were waiting for this. With Voxware, there's no waiting. The pickers keep moving," said Daniel Kane, who manages the picking operation.

Customers appreciate Burlington Drug's quality service. "In any business you're going to get an occasional complaint, but we're getting fewer of them now," said Kane. "I was talking to a salesman last week who said it had been months since a customer had called him about a delivery problem."

Going Green While Cutting Costs
Burlington Drug is also committed to eco-friendly practices. Eliminating its paper picking process was a big step towards a goal of running a greener operation. "We were able to save a million pages of documents a year by utilising Voxware 3," said Mitiguy.

Shrinking their carbon footprint also cut operational costs. Switching from paper to Voice reduced operating cost and created productivity-driven labor savings. "We decided to go with Voice not only for the increased order accuracy and production that we would get out of it, but for the cost savings on paper as well."

Adapting to Changing Conditions
Voxware has helped Burlington Drug achieve goals of increased productivity, efficiency, and green profile. "We know that Voxware was a good decision because of our increased order accuracy and production levels with our staffing," said Mitiguy. But he also noted how the Voxware 3 software allowed the company to remain ahead of changes. "After we launched Voxware 3, we had to make some changes to our process. And using VoxStudio, it was done quickly and efficiently. Voxware has been great to work with."
 
Quick Facts

Objectives

• Increase accuracy
• Increase productivity
• Improve green operating profile

Solution

• Voxware 3 order picking software
• HX3 Voice-only wearable computers from LXE

Business Value

• 99.95% accuracy
• 20% productivity increase
• Decreased training time
• Eliminated paper usage and associated costs
• Increased customer satisfaction from consistently accurate shipments