Amazon Fulfilling Holiday Orders With Robotic Technology
By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer
Just in time for the hustle of the holiday season, Amazon is making sure they are well-positioned to satisfy all customers this year with the grand opening of the newest eighth-generation fulfillment center, featuring state-of-the-art mechanical and software innovations, advanced vision technology, and a staff of robotic “elves” working at speeds that far surpass their human counterparts.
“The Amazon fulfillment teams are dedicated to innovating in our fulfillment centers to increase speed of delivery while enabling greater local selection at lower costs for our customers,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations and customer service. According to Clark, the latest innovations not only benefit Amazon customers, they enhance the workforce carried out by the fulfillment center’s employees.
The new center is among ten Amazon U.S. warehouses that utilize the Kiva Robots—more than 15,000 orange Kiva robots are distributed throughout all ten centers to efficiently perform tasks and complete Amazon orders in half the normal time. The robots are designed to quickly retrieve items from Amazon’s vast inventory, bringing it to employees for packing and shipping—the average time it takes for a robot to fetch a product is roughly 15 minutes compared to an hour plus, pushing 50 percent more inventory out faster than human employees. This allows for orders to be made in proper time while allowing human employees to place more focus on intricate details involved in the packaging and shipping process.
Amazon has been working toward improving the functions of the Kiva team since they acquired the company in 2012. The robots are programmed to follow a computerized system allowing them to pinpoint the exact location of each product throughout Amazon’s sea of shelved products. Each machine has unique built-in sensors and communications with their fellow computerized team members—enabling them to avoid collisions as they sweep across the floors at a rapid pace. Amazon’s engineers are always on-hand for repairs of faulty robots as they ensure that no more than ten robots are out of service at once on each floor.
The incorporation of Kiva robots works along with Amazon’s fulfillment technologies including the Robo-Stow, one of the world’s largest robotic arms used to transfer bulk amounts of Amazon’s inventory. Amazon is also shaving more time at the fulfillment centers with the installation of their new vision platforms—making it possible for a whole trailer of inventory to be unloaded in just a half-hour compared to the traditional time of many hours. Even with help from these innovative systems, Amazon plans to add even more jobs this holiday season, announcing that up to 80,000 holiday positions will be turn into regular full-time positions throughout all Amazon fulfillment centers.