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This field study examined the automatic speech recognition (ASR) of voice‐directed computerized systems for order selectors employed in large industrial settings (e.g., fulfillment centers, distribution centers, warehouses, and manufacturing plants). Voice‐directed systems for order selection require selectors to listen to instructions via a headset and speak into a microphone, directing each worker to select products for store orders throughout the facility. Originally, ASR used voice recognition that required "voice enrollment" (voice setup) for each worker plus a trainer's time required as part of the setup. Voice setup generally averaged about 60 min for both the worker and the trainer. Lately, a newer technology now utilizes "speech recognition," which eliminates voice enrollment altogether. This study measured order selector voice setup times between voice recognition and speech recognition in five facilities. In two distribution centers where speech recognition was implemented, all voice setup hours for all order selectors (n = 55) plus the trainer's time were eliminated. This amounted to a total savings of 110 h. Moreover, using speech recognition becomes a recurring saving for each new employee entering the organization. Now the focus of training is shifted from voice setup to immediately training workers to select orders via voice, an ergonomic improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic performance monitoring can monitor employee performance, while providing proximal goals and immediate feedback. A warehouse management system was enhanced to depict goal and performance on handheld wireless computers to improve order selection in an auto-parts aftermarket distribution center. Upon the onset of the intervention of an engineered labor standard and electronic performance monitoring, performance immediately increased by 24 units picked per hour per person and was maintained for the duration of the study, an increase of 12.9%. Evidence from this study suggests that performance goals and feedback can be aggregated beyond the work-unit level without decreasing the effectiveness of the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study conducted in two auto-parts after-market distribution centres, immediate performance goals and feedback were delivered to employees in a warehouse on wireless vehicle-mounted computers. Engineered labour standards (ELS) calculated work-unit goal times and presented the driver with immediate performance feedback. Ultimately, the ELS feedback was linked to the company's forklift driver team pallet-per-hour quota achievement. Replenishment performance for forklift drivers (N = 12) was improved by 2.14 pallets per hour when an intervention package that included the depiction of goal times and immediate performance feedback on wireless vehicle- mounted computers and a newly developed ELS. The implications of these findings, limitations, and safety issues are discussed in terms of operational issues regarding ELS in large industrial settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a systematic replication of a study applied to student recycling behaviors in university academic buildings. Results of daily observations; Increase in the percentage of cans recycled daily; Percentage of cans discarded.