As Amazon prepares for a busy Cyber Monday, the company provided information and images about its 8th generation fulfillment center. The warehouses are upgraded with new technology and innovations to increase efficiency and speed up delivery times.
Some of the highlights Amazon discussed included:
- Kiva robots of which Amazon currently has more than 15,000 operating across the U.S.;
- Robo-Stow, one of Earth’s largest robotic arms moving large quantities of inventory for customer order fulfillment;
- New vision systems enabling the unloading and receipt of an entire trailer of inventory in as little as 30 minutes instead of hours; and
- New, high-end graphically oriented computer systems for employees to use while fulfilling orders for customers.
The video and images below are from the 8th generation fulfillment center.
The upgrades should help Amazon deal with the busy holiday season with Cyber Monday today. The company also announced that they sold 3x as many Fire Tablets and 4x as many Kindle E-Readers this Black Friday.
Full press release:
Amazon Unveils its Eighth Generation Fulfillment Center
On Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, Amazon reveals its newest generation fulfillment center utilizing robotics, vision systems and high-end technology to speed up order delivery times for customers
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 1, 2014– Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today unveiled its eighth generation fulfillment center, which utilizes robotics, Kiva technology, vision systems and almost 20 years’ worth of software and mechanical innovations to fulfill holiday orders. The company is currently operating 10 of this new generation of fulfillment centers across the U.S.
An Amazon employee picks items in the company’s newest generation fulfillment center.
“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. The advancements in our latest fulfillment centers hit all three of these customer desires while continuing to provide a work environment that is great for employees,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations and customer service.
Some features of Amazon’s eighth generation fulfillment center include:
- Kiva robots of which Amazon currently has more than 15,000 operating across the U.S.;
- Robo-Stow, one of Earth’s largest robotic arms moving large quantities of inventory for customer order fulfillment;
- New vision systems enabling the unloading and receipt of an entire trailer of inventory in as little as 30 minutes instead of hours; and
- New, high-end graphically oriented computer systems for employees to use while fulfilling orders for customers.
Amazon recently announced it will hire 80,000 seasonal employees to fulfill customer orders this holiday, a 14 percent increase over last year. The company expects that thousands of those employees will stay on in regular, full-time roles.