Optimizing the order picking flow at Fabriek Logistiek

The essence

Fabriek Logistiek is a test centre where businesses can try and compare existing and new concepts regarding warehousing. They noticed a high rotation in order picking employees as warehouses often work with job students and seasonal workers. Fabriek Logistiek was looking for a way to make order pickers faster deployable, and to decrease the error rate that comes with less experienced employees. We came up with a HoloLens solution that guides employees throughout their complete order picking process.

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The challenge

More efficient order picking

Many logistic companies work with job students and interim or seasonal workers in their warehouses. They often have a fixed-term contract of only a few months. Logically, this means a lot of time is spent repeatedly training new employees. This rotation in employees also causes a higher error rate. Therefore, Fabriek Logistiek wanted to investigate a way for more efficient guidance during their first week, and a reduction in errors.

The Solution

After a functional and technical analysis of the desired needs, we created a digital twin of their warehouse environment. We used this for a HoloLens application that guides new employees throughout their order picking process.

To start, the device visualizes a list of items to be picked and uses holographic arrows to guide users to the products. We made this possible by connecting the application to the warehouse’s WMS. That way, we can exchange product information.

To minimize the risk of picking the wrong item, we added three ‘validation checks’ to the application. When arriving at the right aisle, the HoloLens will highlight the item to be picked. Next, the HoloLens will scan the QR code on the product to make sure that this is indeed the product on the list. And lastly, the HoloLens shows a picture of the product. Order pickers can then check for themselves if the image matches the item they’re about to pick.

On top of that, it’s important that the item has no damage whatsoever. Therefore, we added automatic damage detection to the app. By leveraging Computer Vision and AI, the HoloLens checks whether there are abnormalities to the products packaging.