BMW does it, so do Daimler and DHL, and the logistics service provider Weertz uses them to pick Milka chocolate for Mondelez. We are talking about smart glasses. The major car manufacturers and DHL began initiating the first pilot projects a few years ago to test the benefits of pick-by-vision. Developments are progressing rapidly and smart glasses are now in productive use. For example, at steel trader Steel Service Krefeld, which uses eight smart glasses in its warehouses in Krefeld and Sheffield, England, and has completely replaced paper-based picking. Both the company and arvato rely on Picavi's picking solution. arvato operates a distribution center for Sennheiser in Gütersloh and uses five smart glasses for picking. According to Picavi Managing Director Dirk Franke, 30 of its customers are currently using smart glasses for live order picking - around half of them contract logistics companies, automotive suppliers and SMEs.

Companies such as BMW, on the other hand, are still experimenting. In November 2016, an initial prototype of data glasses was presented that helps logistics employees to sort components and shows them where to find and place the right part. According to a BMW Group spokesperson, the use of data glasses at BMW is still in the development phase, but the specialist department is following the ongoing product development on the data glasses market very closely. "In 2017, the first pilot applications will be launched at a plant in Germany with corresponding use cases in order to develop rollout plans based on this experience."

Time and efficiency gains

In a pilot project by DHL in a Dutch distribution center together with the customer Ricoh and the provider Ubimax, an increase in efficiency of 25 percent was achieved. The steel trader in Krefeld was even able to achieve a 40 percent time saving - although paper lists were also previously used for picking here. According to Dirk Franke from Picavi, a pure time saving of ten to twelve percent was achieved if handhelds were previously used for picking.

Pros and cons of Google Glass and Vuzix

Companies that use smart glasses for live order picking usually use either Google Glass or Vuzix smart glasses. The Fraunhofer IML team led by Dipl.-Inf. Benedikt Mättig has tested various glasses available on the market. The expert's conclusion on the Google Glass glasses: "In the long term, it is tiring for the eyes to look upwards to the right at the display area, and our test subjects sometimes had to struggle with headaches. Among other things, this shows that the technology is not yet fully developed." However, he and his team see the future in semi-transparent glasses that display information directly in the field of vision without the user having to avert their gaze. This is more ergonomic and more comfortable in the long term.

Picavi Managing Director Franke vehemently disagrees with this assessment. Nine out of ten people would accept Google Glasses as their own glasses after five minutes. "At 43 grams, Google Glass is similar in weight to normal glasses, which weigh around 30 grams". His verdict on the Vuzix M100: "In addition to the weight, the mechanical stability also plays a major role. The glasses are not balanced and all the weight is on the right side. When picking, you have to move around a lot and often bend down - with these glasses, you often have to touch your nose and adjust them again. But with the new M300, Vuzix has taken a big step in the right direction, the glasses are much more balanced thanks to the weight distribution on both sides and the frame also sets new standards.

Dipl.-Inf. Benedikt Mättig, an expert in AutoID technologies and a member of the Packaging and Retail Logistics department at Fraunhofer IML, believes that pick-by-vision solutions have a good chance of becoming the main technology of the future. This is the best way to support the picking process. He sees the advantage of pick-by-vision in the fact that visual information is absorbed much more quickly.

Despite all the euphoria, however, the Fraunhofer expert still sees challenges at the moment, particularly in terms of ergonomics. He criticizes the weight and lack of comfort of the glasses currently available. In his tests, some of the glasses he tested became uncomfortably warm. However, as soon as the glasses become a little more ergonomic, he no longer sees an obstacle to the further spread of data glasses in warehouses and distribution centers.