Nahdi Medical Company (NMC), Saudi Arabia’s largest pharmacy retail chain and leading healthcare provider, is the first company in the Kingdom to implement Honeywell’s pioneering voice-picking technology in its Abha Distribution Center (ADC).
Spanning across an area of over 11,000 square feet, the center supplies more than 200 pharmacies and serves the growing demands of the local communities — predominantly young families — in the southern region.
Honeywell Voice allows warehouse employees to work both “hands-free” and “eyes-free” by using a wearable mobile device that utilizes “text-to-speech” and “speech-to-text” technology. This provides audible instructions to the operators — guiding mobile workers through warehouse facilities, directing them to the next location and supporting them through the required tasks or steps to complete each process.
NMC CEO Yasser Joharji said: “Amidst the unprecedented national lockdown due to COVID-19, we at Nahdi introduced pioneering technology that allowed for seamless delivery of essential health and medical supplies to our local communities across the southern region under the challenging circumstances. We are proud to be the first in the Kingdom to introduce Honeywell Voice in our distribution center in Abha, as we continue to foster the sector’s digital transformation in line with Vision 2030 and strive to exceed our guests’ expectations, everyday.”
Sayed Al-Sayed, Nahdi supply chain applications manager, said: “Within 45 minutes, our employees are comprehensively trained and ready to use their wearable devices. This is a significant operational benefit, compared to the eight-hour training session required for a standard induction. This allows us to accelerate delivery of products with precision, making a greater difference to the life of every guest we serve.”
Honeywell’s voice technology is supplemented by Oracle’s Cloud WMS software. Following a remote tech-implementation model due to the pandemic, NMC, with the support of Inspirage, an integrated supply chain specialist firm in Saudi Arabia, and SNS, a software implementation company specializing in supply chain innovation and digitization, was able to successfully deliver the complex execution of this new technology.
Within less than three months of introducing the Honeywell Voice and Oracle Cloud WMS technologies, Nahdi achieved incredible operational results, which include: Increased sustainability, by reducing the consumption of paper in the facility; increased accuracy, by ensuring products are delivered to the customers without any errors; increased efficiency, by reducing processing time and delivering products faster; and increased control, by monitoring the expiry dates on products leading to less wastage and loss of revenue.
