Jordano’s Achieves Significant Business Results from Voice Solution from BFC and Vocollect

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vocollect, a business unit of Intermec, Inc. (NYSE:IN) and the world leader in voice-enabled solutions for mobile workers, together with Total Solution Provider BFC Associates, today announced that Jordano’s, Inc., a 98-year-old Southern California foodservice and beverage organization, has obtained positive results from its deployment of Vocollect Voice in its Foodservice Division, including a 93 percent reduction in order errors (up to 99.995 percent picking accuracy) and a 19 percent worker productivity improvement.

“Vocollect’s SRX2 speech recognition quality is excellent, it’s lightweight, and it’s easy for our freezer workers to maneuver. The ability to share headsets across shifts greatly reduces the number of required batteries, providing yet another cost saving”

Headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, Jordano’s Foodservice Division processes upwards of 14,000 SKUs six days per week across three shifts in its 100,000 square foot distribution center, servicing close to 800 stores in Central and Southern California. The operation deploys Vocollect Voice for case- and pallet-picking as part of a comprehensive Warehouse Management System (WMS) from BFC Associates.

“We selected BFC Associates as our technology partner due to its proven solutions for the grocery and food distribution market. When BFC recommended Vocollect Voice, we knew our freezer, cooler and dry goods operations would experience significant improvement, but we were quite surprised to see such a major turn in order accuracy improvement and our bottom line. Vocollect Voice helps us save tens of thousands of dollars each year. Additionally, while our worker productivity was already good, we were able to achieve an additional 19 percent productivity improvement,” says Dennis Merchant, Director of Operations, Jordano’s Foodservice Division.

“Like every food business, we also have to effectively address the increasing number of government regulations for food safety and traceability, such as those emanating from the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). With the accurate order-tracking that the BFC/Vocollect solution provides, now we can pinpoint who picked what order, in what quantity, at what time and date, and where the worker was stationed at the time the order was fulfilled,” says Merchant.

Not one to ignore opportunities to test out new technology solutions, Merchant’s operation became a pilot site for Vocollect’s new SRX2 wireless headset, which is freezer-certified. “Vocollect’s SRX2 speech recognition quality is excellent, it’s lightweight, and it’s easy for our freezer workers to maneuver. The ability to share headsets across shifts greatly reduces the number of required batteries, providing yet another cost saving,” Merchant says.

“One of the big plusses for us is that our workers are continually engaged in a two-way dialogue with the voice system, so they are far more focused on their task at hand. Our people really enjoy using Vocollect Voice, and even more so with the addition of the SRX2 headset,” according to Merchant.

Results from the Vocollect Voice deployment have included:

93 percent reduction in order errors (up to 99.995 picking accuracy), saving tens of thousands of dollars annually
19 percent productivity improvement
Training time reduced by 50 percent
Number of pickers reduced from 34 with paper to 24 with voice
Strong worker satisfaction
Enhanced customer satisfaction from more accurate orders
Improved ability for order traceability and meeting regulatory requirements
ROI in less than 12 months

“Our WMS is designed specifically for foodservice operations like that of Jordano’s, and Vocollect Voice is an important component of the total solution we provide to our customers,” says Lyle Castle, President, BFC Associates. “Jordano’s is a classic case of a mid-sized company that continues to improve its business operations through seeking best-in-class technology applications.”

“We are excited to see that Jordano’s has reaped major benefits from its use of Vocollect Voice, including the deployment of our new SRX2 headset,” says Marc Osgoodby, Vice President – Americas, Vocollect. “The company’s dramatic improvement in order accuracy has had a strong impact on overall customer satisfaction,” he said. “Our goal at Vocollect is to help our customers run a better business – through optimizing their operations, making improved business decisions, and providing a premier experience for workers.”

About Vocollect
Vocollect, a business unit of Intermec, Inc. (NYSE:IN), is the leading provider of innovative, high-quality voice solutions for mobile workers around the world. Vocollect’s market-leading technology, products and services help customers achieve a higher level of business performance through voice. Together with a global team of over 1,700 certified voice professionals, we enable more than 500,000 workers at almost 2,000 companies around the world to distribute US$5 billion in goods every day. Vocollect Voice integrates with all major WMS and ERP systems and supports the industry’s leading mobile computing devices. For more information, visit www.vocollect.com.

About BFC Associates
Headquartered in Batavia, Illinois, BFC Associates is a leading provider of standalone Warehouse Management Systems for the foodservice and grocery industry. At BFC, we have been designing warehouse management systems for 15 years. Our team of programmers has worked side- by-side with foodservice distribution professionals with the simple goal of creating a better product for customers. We understand the demands of the foodservice industry and have designed and developed our products to meet these demands. We continually update and improve our systems to meet the changing environment of the foodservice distribution industry. For more information, visit www.bfcsoftware.com.

About Intermec
Intermec Inc. (NYSE: IN) is the workflow performance company. We design the leading data capture and information management solutions at the interface between mobile workers, assets, and customers. For more information about Intermec, visit www.intermec.com or call 800-347-2636.