Vocollect Makes Pep Boys' Warehouses Talk; Voice-Directed Distribution Boosts Performance and Accuracy for Critical Warehouse Functions

PITTSBURGH--Feb. 2, 20058, 2005--Vocollect, the global leader in voice-directed work, today announced that The Pep Boys -- Manny, Moe & Jack , the nation's leading automotive aftermarket retail and service chain, has implemented the Vocollect Voice-Directed Distribution offering in two of its five national distribution centers and plans to roll it out shortly to the remaining three. Pep Boys is applying Vocollect Voice-Directed Distribution to increase productivity, accuracy and team safety in their distribution centers.

"Vocollect is making it possible for our warehouse management system to literally talk our team members through their daily order selection assignments," said Stuart Rosenfeld, vice president distribution at Pep Boys. "We expected productivity improvements and we achieved them. We expected an average 12 percent increase, but when we saw our accuracy rates increase over those we were attaining with RF scanning, we were very surprised. Our accuracy fill rate is averaging 99.63 percent considering we move more than 75 million items a year; a .5+ percent increase in accuracy is significantly better."

Vocollect Voice-Directed Distribution takes the warehouse management system (WMS) assignment output, such as a pick list or replenishment request, and applies text-to-speech and speech synthesis technology to use speech to guide workers step-by-step through their daily tasks. As a task is completed, the worker communicates with the WMS through a belt-worn computer and a speech recognition headset. Vocollect's speech recognition engine, designed specifically for demanding industrial environments, translates what the worker says into text and sends this information via a wireless network back to the WMS creating a real-time and dynamic working dialog.

"What impressed me most about our Voice-Directed Distribution effort was how quickly our team accepted this new technology," explained Mike Elmore, vice president - chief information officer at Pep Boys. "Since speaking is such a natural form of communication, Vocollect is making it possible for Pep Boys to drive more value from our warehouse management system investment. The results from our initial implementation made the decision to roll this out to all five of our national distribution centers easy. Two are already complete, the third will go-live in March, and the remaining DCs will follow suit as quickly as possible. Based on our success with this natural form of communications, we are investigating the possibility of applying voice technology to other areas both inside and outside the distribution centers."

About Pep Boys

Pep Boys has 595 stores and over 6,000 service bays in 36 states and Puerto Rico. Along with its vehicle repair and maintenance capabilities, the company serves the commercial auto parts delivery market and is one of the leading sellers of replacement tires in the United States. Customers can find the nearest location by calling 1-800-PEP-BOYS or by visiting pepboys.com.

About Vocollect

Each day, over 75,000 workers in hundreds of companies on five continents use Vocollect's voice-directed work solutions to increase fulfillment accuracy, boost productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. Since pioneering voice recognition for industry in 1987, Vocollect has set the standard for voice-directed business solutions that cut operating costs by eliminating errors and improving worker productivity shift after shift.

Leading WMS providers, material handling integrators and specialty voice solution providers around the world choose the performance and reliability of Vocollect to deliver hands and eyes-free distribution solutions. To learn more, please visit us at www.vocollect.com.