DHL to roll out vision picking in its warehouses

DHL Supply Chain is expanding vision picking in its warehouses following the completion of a series of augmented reality pilots.

And it is now looking into additional applications for augmented and virtual reality such as trainings, maintenance, dimension calculations and more.

The vision picking trials showed an average improvement of productivity by 15 per cent and higher accuracy rates. DHL also found that on-boarding and training time was halved.

The smart glasses provide visual displays of order picking instructions along with information on where items are located and where they need to be placed on a cart, freeing pickers’ hands of paper instructions.

DHL said the technology had matured to become a standard, replicable solution for customers, allowing faster and easier implementation in their operations, helping them to benefit from productivity gains with increased speed of operations and better picking accuracy.

“Digitalization is not just a vision or program for us at DHL Supply Chain, it’s a reality for us and our customers, and is adding value to our operations on the ground. Customers have been very happy about the productivity gains and are equally excited about using innovative technology at their warehouses,” said Markus Voss, chief information officer & chief operating officer, DHL Supply Chain.

DHL has been working with three partners in the pilot: Ubimax provided the augmented reality software xPick, while the recently announced Glass Enterprise Edition and Vuzix M100 and M300 glasses were used as hardware.