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Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#441

Post by throwvatars »

dzmien wrote: post #350
smpetrey wrote: post #303

Anyone parading around like this is bad news has never worked in an assembly line or warehouse job. This might reduce the workforce overall long-term, but honestly this is hard back-breaking long-workday labor. Anything that improves the livelihood of the warehouse workers is a win in my book.

I worked for Amazon in what was then a brand new warehouse for a few months in 2015. I worked 10 hour shifts, from 20:00 to 07:00 (the extra hour was for lunch and breaks). My job was picking orders. It seemed easy at first (and it was, but mentally, not so much). All I had to do was stand in one place while robots brought me pod after endless pod of products. There was nothing to it, and that was the problem. The po…

Too bad this can't be outsourced.

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#442

Post by eykanspelgud »

yhoneycomb wrote: post #436
lifekaizen wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a pipetting robot now: https://opentrons.com/

This is awesome! But... PIs everywhere: “Why would I buy this robot when I could get an undergrad to do the work for free?” Although if they hated taking the time to train undergrads maybe they’d give it a shot Then again, they don’t train the undergrads, postdocs do

Eh, I get mixed reviews from people who own this, which is why I opted not to get one for my lab. Some labs never use it to its fullest capabilities, either and use it for show. A student is cheaper, and arguably more reliable when fully trained.

There are better systems out there, but not every academic lab is willing to fork over the cash.

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#443

Post by crazygringo »

asdkhadsj wrote: post #290
crazygringo wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know overall jobs will decrease? It's also totally possible that each warehouse will be made twice as efficient per employee... but also deliver twice the merchandise... maintaining the same total number of jobs. Kind of the same way that automation of the past 100 years across the economy has still resulted in record-setting employment right now.

Curiously, what does the homelessness & (true, ie not unemployment) jobless rate look like in that graph? Of course though, they're tough metrics. More importantly though, we're on the cusp of some pretty hairy water. Imagine we drop all of the truck drivers, taxi drivers, Uber and Lift drivers tomorrow. How many millions of people will that be - where can they go? I'm not against automation in the slightest, but to…

> I don't think the past 100 years even remotely indicates how we'll handle this as a society. We aren't talking about taking away one job. We're talking about taking away a skill category.

We did it with farmers. 80% of jobs in early 1800's, close to 40% in 1900, 20% by 1930, 5% by 1965, and 1.7% now. A whole "skill category" like driving doesn't even come close to farming.

Automation, and even displacing drivers, is going to continue happening gradually, not overnight. E.g. only the easiest driving jobs in the easiest areas are automated first, then gradually more difficult ones... There's no "overnight". It'll take many years, and it will be fine just like it has each decade over the past century.

[1] https://azizonomics.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/farmjobs.jpg

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#444

Post by blairanderson »

petra wrote: post #429
blairanderson wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned two processes that have been in place with Amazon Vendors/Manufacturers for many years. 1. Amazon Direct Fulfillment (dropship): Order is shipped directly from the manufacturer to the customer. Amazon pays for the shipping label and contractually "own" the item once it leaves the MFR doors. Amazon incentivizes Manufacturers by paying the freight and loosening shipment deadlines. [1] 2. Ships In Own Cont…

A side question: Blair, how do you Amazon's private label effort ? How will that end, would we buy mostly Amazon exclusive brands ?

Yes its going to continue in a huge way.

Their retail team used to consist mostly of buyers. Most of those resources have shifted to private label.

Imagine a thousand people previously managing external brands now focused on finding/creating private label brands with the data of sales volume at their fingertips.

They have something like 150 private label brands right now.

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#445

Post by mamon »

geodel wrote: post #392
georgespencer wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite likely, but unknowable, that folks would accept the income:cost of living ratio of the US if it came with the associated sociological benefits. I think you're underestimating how disproportionately impoverished many people around the world are.

Well people here keep ranting about 1 percenters without ever realizing that >$100K earners are among one percenters in the world.

Actually, the threshold to be in top 1% income bracket worldwide is $32,400

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/05061...

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#446

Post by nerdponx »

rootusrootus wrote: post #393
nerdponx wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't known for low prices? They are known for having the same prices as everyone else, with free or cheaper shipping, meaning that effectively the price is lower. And no, I'm not implying that they are a monopoly.

They have that reputation, but be watchful. Lots of things are more expensive at Amazon, now. What they're selling me is convenience more than anything else. I can often find lower prices elsewhere but it's more work.

I'd argue that convenience is part of the price.

I actually suspect that one big competitor to Amazon will not be another online store, but local stores providing free or cheap local delivery, and by extension services like Postmates.

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#447

Post by pennaMan »

atonse wrote: post #113
irrational wrote: post #5

This sounds like good news. I've read lots of negative stories about the working conditions in Amazon warehouses. It would be great if all the jobs could be automated.

Honestly the best proposal I've seen for slowing down such automation is to add a tax on these machines. That'll make the cost-benefit equation less obvious. These machines won't pay for themselves in a year and then be practically free. They'll continue to cost a lot. This kind of tax would help slow the progress of such automation to a speed where society can better adjust. And I say this as someone who absolutely…

Won't they just mass up in the inevitable tax havens?

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#448

Post by JudgeWapner »

myself248 wrote: post #200
shiftpgdn wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority (95%, including lots of oddball pcbs, fasteners, etc) of my recent Amazon deliveries have come from an Amazon van. I'm almost surprised they don't offer a reusable bin or something of that nature. It feels wasteful to throw away so many boxes.

Especially with the recent news that a lot of what we thought was recyclable really isn't. I presume that clean brown corrugated is still OK, but I don't know that for sure.

oh it is "recyclable", just (for several materials) takes more energy to recycle it than toss it in a landfill. You get to feel good that cardboard gets a "new life", instead of a new one (which extracts more carbon from the atmosphere) being created, we can burn more CO2 to have a second truck travel down your street to pick up renewable cardboard and haul it around town till it eventually gets cleaned and processed (at the cost of even more energy).

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#449

Post by mabbo »

0xffff2 wrote: post #276
mabbo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was YYZ4. YYZ3 doesn't do tours. If you're interested in helping make it better, Amazon's got an office full of developers here in Toronto[0] working on these problems. It's a lot of fun, the pay is better than most in Toronto, and the 7 years I've been here have almost always involved me being mentored by really great folks. Feel free to reach out[1]. [0]120 Bremner, between the ACC and Rogers Center. [1]This ali…

Off topic, but you're literally the first Amazon developer I've ever seen say anything positive about working there. Do you feel that the work culture is unusually good for your office compared to Amazon as a whole?

The hiring bar at Amazon is high enough that anyone unhappy would have little trouble getting a job elsewhere. Plus, there's an internal policy that any dev in good standing is welcome to join any team that wants them. So most managers treat their devs very well.

I had a coworker join in January. Very talented, great to work with. Wasn't really into what we did. So he found a team doing what he was interested in and transferred last week. Sorely missed, but better to have him happy in the company than unhappy until he leaves.

The culture itself is something special. The leadership principles mean something here. For certain types (of which I am one) it really works well. My only displeasure with the culture is the times the company makes choices that seem to go against the LPs.

Re: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

#450

Post by NoodleIncident »

gxx wrote: post #33
zdw wrote: post #15

Video of the CarltonWrap mentioned in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1yw05mWnXw It's actually pretty neat - creates boxes to size on demand. Doesn't seem like this would be possible with humans at a store, and could really cut down on box inventory.

If it results in the elimination of oversized boxes it should save on cardboard, also reducing shipping volume. This would be financially and environmentally be a good thing. Maybe they could also include in the box sizing algorithm the optimization of shapes for efficient packing.

IIRC, some boxes are intentionally oversized, in order to completely fill the truck, so that things don't move around. That's not going to change because of this new machine.
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