5 Ways Labor Management Can Extend the Benefits of a Voice System

The benefits of voice technology in the warehouse are indisputable. From increased throughput and accuracy to reductions in training time, errors and employee turnover, voice solutions are becoming an essential asset in the DC operations manager's toolkit. But what if they could extend those benefits even further, and in doing so create a performance-driven culture of excellence that addresses today's rising labor challenges? By pairing voice with labor management software (LMS), they can.

It's estimated that order fulfillment and replenishment activities account for up to 65 percent of total warehouse expenses. And with the ever-increasing complexities of omnichannel and direct-to-order fulfillment, some say this is a conservative estimate. Couple that with rising labor costs, changing workforce demographics, and the difficulty attracting and retaining qualified employees, and the importance effective labor management becomes even more imperative.  It's no surprise then that many businesses are combining LMS software with their voice systems to maximize employee productivity and DC performance.  Here are five ways LMS helps achieve these goals: 

1. Increase employee engagement: LMS helps employees connect their individual performance with the company's larger objectives to help them feel empowered and understand their impact on their employer's overall success. This transparency also opens the lines of communication between management and employees to create a continuous improvement loop.

2. Incentivize performance: Both monetary and non-monetary incentive programs have proved extremely effective in driving performance. LMS allows companies to tune their incentives so that every 50¢ increase paid in incentives nets the company a $1 increase in throughput.

3. Improve labor planning: During peak periods, operations managers often overstaff up to 25 percent to ensure all orders are fulfilled. Across different areas of the facility and a larger DC network, this overstaffing quickly adds up. LMS allows managers to pull up historical data to develop more accurate staffing models during peak periods, even when sometimes eliminating the need for additional resources. 

4. Adapt to the unexpected: Inevitably, things will not go as planned. With real-time execution monitoring, LMS helps managers quickly adapt to increases in demand before service level agreements are impacted.

5. Drive measurable performance improvements: Returns on an LMS investment depend on where DCs currently are in their performance optimization continuum. But, through the processes of developing labor standards and establishing performance incentives, a typical LMS implementation drives anywhere from 25-60 percent average throughput gains - with some statistical outliers even exceeding 100 percent improvements. 

Intelligrated's GoalPost® LMS has been successfully deployed on countless occasions - in combination with our Voice Solutions or other voice systems - to enable these benefits in the warehouse. While robust data and reporting are at the core of our LMS offering, it's the tangible transformation of the workplace culture that is the true measurement of success. If you're ready to instill a culture of accountability, reward and retain your best employees, and realize true throughput gains, consider the benefits labor management software can bring to your operations. 

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