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Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

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Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#31

Post by minthd »

Lunarsm wrote: post #27

Despite popular belief, most Amazon facilities do NOT use kiva robots. The fulfillment center would have to be completely rebuilt on the inside to accommodate them. Heck, even some new facilities still don't use them. I work over at Amazon in one of their largest fulfillment centers in the USA. To answer your question regarding where a tote is sent in the facility is simple. During each shift, there are any number of…

How does the work for stowers is arranged ? do the computer give them specific sets of items to stow ? or is arranged according to the order the goods arrive ?

And what is this pallet land ? what's the benefit?

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#32

Post by Lunarsm »

minthd wrote: post #31
Lunarsm wrote: post #27

Despite popular belief, most Amazon facilities do NOT use kiva robots. The fulfillment center would have to be completely rebuilt on the inside to accommodate them. Heck, even some new facilities still don't use them. I work over at Amazon in one of their largest fulfillment centers in the USA. To answer your question regarding where a tote is sent in the facility is simple. During each shift, there are any number of…

How does the work for stowers is arranged ? do the computer give them specific sets of items to stow ? or is arranged according to the order the goods arrive ? And what is this pallet land ? what's the benefit?

Work is arranged by what truck is being processed, we attempt to follow FIFO as much as possible. Queues are determined, to the best of my knowledge, by which area of the FC has the most space (but they probably do it arbitrarily, I'm not in charge of any of that, so I don't really know their method). When a truck is being received, all cartons will be placed inside totes (or "juice carts") and sent up to the queues (there's usually only a couple queues that are "dropping" totes). Stowers are advised to take the totes, which are placed on u-boats, by using the FIFO method. Stowers are not given specific sets of items to stow; they only stow what's given to them.

Pallet land is the part of the FC for products we carry in large quantities (i.e. enough to fill a pallet, quarter pallet, or half pallet). Pallet land is just a nickname we give part of the pallet area. We also have a 3-story rack area full of pallets (at my FC). Some items we have on pallets include some Starbucks, Sonicare, and Darth Vader costumes (omg we have so many).

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#33

Post by Lunarsm »

pervycreeper wrote: post #5

He doesn't specify exactly how cubbies are selected at the "inbound" stage, beyond saying it's random. I assume it's left up to the associate's own whims and judgements? I imagine the "no identical items in adjacent cubbies" rule improves the potential for picking the same item in parallel while preventing too much concentration, improving availability from different locations. I wonder what other constraints they ar…

It is indeed quite random. Each stower has a rate, and in order for us to make that rate, we can stow in almost any bin. Some other constraints include using the smallest bin possible for each item and not stowing heavy items up high (the scanner restricts stowing "heavy" items up top).

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#34

Post by Lunarsm »

EGreg wrote: post #15
Animats wrote: post #6

That's a old manual Amazon facility. The newer ones use Kiva robots to bring the shelving units to the pickers, rather than the pickers going to the shelving units. The manual system isn't that different from the Sears "schedule system" introduced in 1908.[1] Note the line "pickers don't necessarily pick items for a single or even complete order." That's crucial. Orders are split apart and combined pick lists generat…

By the way, wouldn't segways bringing people to the shelves have to expend less energy and be more efficient than kiva robots bringing shelves to the people?

At my FC, pickers are moving way too quickly and navigating around all kinds of obstacles for a Segway to be practical. I believe one of the primary advantages to the Kiva method is density. Aisles can be stored closer together.

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#35

Post by Lunarsm »

minthd wrote: post #26
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #9

The thing I took away from this was mistake minimization. As shipping the wrong item likely results in a mess of expensive actions down the road, it is much much better to make sure that the right item is shipped the first time. To this end they are willing to shuffle their entire warehouse just to prevent similar items from being set next to each other.

I don't think it's really random.Since it's dictated by the computer, even though it looks random, i'm sure there are some patterns in the order(for example there are items that statistically sell together) ,But maybe they keep it as a trade secret , only to be known by a small group of developers and managers.

We only have a few queues to stow into per shift where all the product comes in, so I doubt the computer determines THAT much of it, but I could be wrong.

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#36

Post by Lunarsm »

marincounty wrote: post #14

As I read through the notes, the one thing I really liked was the 4 day work week. Three days off just makes sense? I belonged to a union, and we had the opportunity to work 4 10hr. days, and the members voted it down. I still don't know why they voted it down.

I like it. I have half the week where I can goof off and do whatever, and then 4 days of graveyard shifts. It works out quite nicely, especially when paired with the benefits offered. To each their own.

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#37

Post by pencerw »

All, thanks so much for the comments. We wrote this up so long ago; it's really interesting to get feedback now.

FWIW, The Infrastructure Observatory is working on more tours like this one, mostly in the NYC area. If you want to get involved (or have an idea for a tour that we should organize), get in touch at http://infraobservatory.com or @NYInfraObserve on Twitter.

-Spencer

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#39

Post by Animats »

nmridul wrote: post #28
Animats wrote: post #6

That's a old manual Amazon facility. The newer ones use Kiva robots to bring the shelving units to the pickers, rather than the pickers going to the shelving units. The manual system isn't that different from the Sears "schedule system" introduced in 1908.[1] Note the line "pickers don't necessarily pick items for a single or even complete order." That's crucial. Orders are split apart and combined pick lists generat…

I was wondering if the robots have to really carry the whole shelf ? The shelves could be modified to be like automatic wending machines. The robots could just go to the shelf and the shelf will dispose the correct item to that robot. Then the robot goes to the next shelf for that order and collect all the items required for the order from different shelves and return to the packer. The packer need to only arrange th…

There are systems like that, but they're much more expensive than the Kiva system. Kiva just needs a standard, simple mobile robot base and a lot of sheet metal shelving units. It's reliable, because no one robot is essential; if one fails, another one takes over. All you need is a big warehouse with a flat floor; there's not a lot of custom mechanical engineering of conveyors and tracks.

The Kiva system is low-maintenance and low-skill. All you need on-site is someone to replace batteries and tires and clean the things; anything more than that, just ship the robots back to Kiva HQ in Massachusetts. No need for any on site engineering talent or on call maintenance.

Dispensing racks for picking systems are complex, expensive, and have single points of failure for each item. They're essentially huge vending machines. They do exist, though.[1]

Amazon has an R&D program under way to automate the picking process where the Kiva shelf unit reaches a human. They have a competition for robot picking.[2] The prize is $26,000 for a solution that will save Amazon billions.

[1] http://www.ssi-schaefer.de/en/conveying-and-picking/automati... [2] http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/

Re: Notes on a tour of an Amazon distribution facility (2014)

#40

Post by veidr »

sengork wrote: post #11

And something unrelated I've learnt about Google Docs: "Wow, this file is really popular! Some tools might be unavailable until the crowd clears."

Yep that was interesting. I am part of a Google Apps trial at work, but we don't have the resources to stress test it so I have never seen it under large simultaneous load (seemed to handle it fairly well though).
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