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Amazon hid its safety crisis

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Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#11

Post by jedberg »

Aperocky wrote: post #4

> The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled, according to a former senior operations manager who saw the transformation. And they kept climbing. At the most common kind of warehouse, workers called pickers – who previously had to grab and scan about 100 items an hour – were expected to hit rates of up to 400 an hour at robotic ful…

I'm curious as to what political issue you think they will face by replacing all their warehouse workers with robots? Do you think people would demand they pay more in tax? Wouldn't that be a political issue that all large companies face together?

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#12

Post by an_opabinia »

causality0 wrote: post #7

Amazon's abysmal safety standards are no secret. There's an expose about them every six months. So far nobody with the power to change anything cares. What would it take to get actual change? Even politicians who hate Amazon don't seem to care about their workers.

Maybe the public isn’t wrong and correctly ascertains that it’s exaggerated.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#13

Post by ShimmyGuy »

jedberg wrote: post #11
Aperocky wrote: post #4

> The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled, according to a former senior operations manager who saw the transformation. And they kept climbing. At the most common kind of warehouse, workers called pickers – who previously had to grab and scan about 100 items an hour – were expected to hit rates of up to 400 an hour at robotic ful…

I'm curious as to what political issue you think they will face by replacing all their warehouse workers with robots? Do you think people would demand they pay more in tax? Wouldn't that be a political issue that all large companies face together?

The issue is the one that Andrew Yang built his platform around. If full automation outpaces the rate that people can retrain, you end up with a growing unemployed population. This in turn can drive political change to account for that fact (such as the institution of a UBI system, possibly funded in part by taxes on large automated companies).

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#14

Post by d1zzy »

jedberg wrote: post #11
Aperocky wrote: post #4

> The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled, according to a former senior operations manager who saw the transformation. And they kept climbing. At the most common kind of warehouse, workers called pickers – who previously had to grab and scan about 100 items an hour – were expected to hit rates of up to 400 an hour at robotic ful…

I'm curious as to what political issue you think they will face by replacing all their warehouse workers with robots? Do you think people would demand they pay more in tax? Wouldn't that be a political issue that all large companies face together?

Depends on if those companies are negotiating lower local taxes when opening a local office with the argument of "hiring people". If so, that argument won't hold anymore.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#15

Post by Klinky »

Animats wrote: post #8
Aperocky wrote: post #4

> The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled, according to a former senior operations manager who saw the transformation. And they kept climbing. At the most common kind of warehouse, workers called pickers – who previously had to grab and scan about 100 items an hour – were expected to hit rates of up to 400 an hour at robotic ful…

The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled Here's an old Kiva Robotics video that shows how picking works.[1] It's an utterly mindless job. An automated laser pointer points to the bin from which to take an object. A lighted button shows which box to put it in. A new bin then moves into position, and this goes on. Training time req…

Well, until it's fully automated, human safety is still important.

I think the problem we have is that destroying a human body with mindless repetitive tasks is often still "cheaper" than engineering an automated solutions. It is simply cheaper to feed off desperation than to value human lives, and there is the engrained notion that humanity cannot be productive without putting humans into positions of desperation. This is a mindset issue that needs to eventually change.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#16

Post by ColanR »

Judgmentality wrote: post #10

> Jeff Bezos’ 14 leadership principles are famous inside and outside Amazon for vividly articulating what is expected of the company’s leaders. The first is customer obsession. “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards,” it reads. And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem, the same way it has no real interest in solving its safety problem. I feel like it's all PR and bullshit at…

> And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem

I don't get this Amazon hate. Weren't they the ones who originally came up with the idea for putting purchaser reviews with the product, and the 5-star rating system? It seems like their solution was to 'crowdsource' the problem. Now people have learned to game the system, but I buy plenty of electronics from amazon and from ebay, and I'm careful enough that I've never ended up with a counterfeit.

Edit: I've noticed that ebay gives seller ratings, and amazon does product ratings. I guess that belies the different focus they each have. It would be cool (and probably a big improvement) if amazon put both product and seller ratings in equally prominent positions.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#17

Post by Aperocky »

jedberg wrote: post #11
Aperocky wrote: post #4

> The robots were too efficient. They could bring items so quickly that the productivity expectations for workers more than doubled, according to a former senior operations manager who saw the transformation. And they kept climbing. At the most common kind of warehouse, workers called pickers – who previously had to grab and scan about 100 items an hour – were expected to hit rates of up to 400 an hour at robotic ful…

I'm curious as to what political issue you think they will face by replacing all their warehouse workers with robots? Do you think people would demand they pay more in tax? Wouldn't that be a political issue that all large companies face together?

We've already seen the large tech hate, it's just going to be more intense after even the most menial jobs are automated out of existence.

That and potential driverless trucks are going to create a potential jobless future of the less fortunate/educated, that is an enormous political issue - though the burden will not be completely on Amazon, it will be a huge part of that.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#18

Post by buildbot »

Judgmentality wrote: post #10

> Jeff Bezos’ 14 leadership principles are famous inside and outside Amazon for vividly articulating what is expected of the company’s leaders. The first is customer obsession. “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards,” it reads. And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem, the same way it has no real interest in solving its safety problem. I feel like it's all PR and bullshit at…

Yep, I got counterfeit parts for my 3d printer that resulted in it need a lot of repair, and fighting with Amazon only got them to pay half the cost of the repair...It's the last thing I'll order from them for sure. Canceling prime, just done with them.

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#19

Post by logicslave »

Judgmentality wrote: post #10

> Jeff Bezos’ 14 leadership principles are famous inside and outside Amazon for vividly articulating what is expected of the company’s leaders. The first is customer obsession. “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards,” it reads. And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem, the same way it has no real interest in solving its safety problem. I feel like it's all PR and bullshit at…

No interest in solving the problem? I work at Amazon, we are hiring all the top ML people to work on this problem. Legions of ML PhDs. Its not easy and you are just making stuff up

Re: Amazon hid its safety crisis

#20

Post by MattGaiser »

logicslave wrote: post #19
Judgmentality wrote: post #10

> Jeff Bezos’ 14 leadership principles are famous inside and outside Amazon for vividly articulating what is expected of the company’s leaders. The first is customer obsession. “Leaders start with the customer and work backwards,” it reads. And yet Amazon has no real interest in solving its counterfeit problem, the same way it has no real interest in solving its safety problem. I feel like it's all PR and bullshit at…

No interest in solving the problem? I work at Amazon, we are hiring all the top ML people to work on this problem. Legions of ML PhDs. Its not easy and you are just making stuff up

Fulfilled by Amazon products ship with offers to buy reviews inside them, lol.

Could start by inspecting the merchandise. You don’t need legions of PhDs. You need eyes and ears on the ground doing checks.

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