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Inside an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Poland [video]

43 points by thedogeye 11y ago

hengheng 11y ago
Amazing how much of the work isn't yet automated.
- edpichler 11y ago
  Probably because it's not worthwhile yet considering the laboring costs.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  They're working on it: https://www.amazonrobotics.com/ https://www.amazonrobotics.com/
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
comboy 11y ago
Well, that didn't make a great impression on me. I guess they were filming it right after the opening, so most people were still learning the job. I'm surprised now that they have these robots[1] already designed and tested it's still more efficient for them to hire humans to walk around instead. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM
- johansch 11y ago
  Unqualified labor is still quite cheap in Poland.
- moonchrome 11y ago
  Average wage in Poland is 634,49€/month (>4€/hr), minimum wage is ~3€/hr so I assume labor still compares positively to automation cost.
  - xyzzyz 11y ago
    Minimum wage in Poland is actually around 2.50 EUR/hr, and average wage is around 5.70 EUR/hr (median is considerably lower, but statistics office hasn't published it in a while). Amazon pays around 3.30 EUR/hr.
    - moonchrome 11y ago
      Do you mind me asking - what's the standard rate for developers there (assuming you are in the field/scene) ? Also what's developer availability - do most young people just move to Western Europe or do they stick around in programming ? Poland is interesting to me - it's large enough that you can have a decently sized pool of people to recruit from (unlike smaller EU countries like mine - Croatia), you also seem to have OK taxes. Not sure what the regulatory/legal system looks like but since I haven't heard anything horrible I'll assume same or better than the rest of Central/Eastern Europe. You have very low cost of living compared to Western Europe, it seems like it would be the ideal place to create start up incubators in EU.
      - xyzzyz 11y ago
        There is no standard rate, the pay scale is extremely wide. You can easily find people who'll churn out shitty PHP for 700 EUR/mo. It's not much harder to find someone who has considerably more skill and experience, and will require at least twice that. Highly skilled people who know their worth won't work for less than 2500 EUR/mo, and have no trouble finding employers who'll pay them that much, or more. Google pays around 3500 EUR/mo for new grads. All of these are gross numbers, and refer to Warsaw market. For other cities, there are fewer candidates, and salaries are 20-30% lower. Overall though I'd say that developers here don't know how much they're worth, and sadly most employers get away with paying them less than they should. The reason it happens is that everyone else in other occupations are paid even less, so developers feel like they have it good, even though they can easily have it better. As for the regulatory/legal system, there are some issues, but I don't think it's any better or worse than anywhere else. There are some incubators here, Google has opened Campus[1] just last week, but I think the biggest issue for wannabe-unicorns here is lack of the access to capital. Some of my friends bootstrapped their companies though, and it worked out quite well for them. [1] - https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en
nodesocket 11y ago
I wonder if US facilities operate the same? I'm actually surprised this video is public, since it contains core (? confidential ?) business operations and processes. Usually Amazon is super secretive about their special sauce.
- mdlowman 11y ago
  If you want to, you can just go visit an FC and get a tour, you know. It's not exactly closed. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011 http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011
timothybone 11y ago
I felt like I was watching a visual piece of software.
radoslawc 11y ago
"Work hard. Have fun. Make history" this was cringe worthy, like from Veridian Dynamics commercials (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347789C3D0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347...) but irl not comedy show

43 points by thedogeye 11y ago

hengheng 11y ago

Amazing how much of the work isn't yet automated.

edpichler 11y ago
Probably because it's not worthwhile yet considering the laboring costs.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
They're working on it: https://www.amazonrobotics.com/ https://www.amazonrobotics.com/

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

comboy 11y ago

Well, that didn't make a great impression on me. I guess they were filming it right after the opening, so most people were still learning the job. I'm surprised now that they have these robots[1] already designed and tested it's still more efficient for them to hire humans to walk around instead. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM

johansch 11y ago
Unqualified labor is still quite cheap in Poland.
moonchrome 11y ago
Average wage in Poland is 634,49€/month (>4€/hr), minimum wage is ~3€/hr so I assume labor still compares positively to automation cost.
- xyzzyz 11y ago
  Minimum wage in Poland is actually around 2.50 EUR/hr, and average wage is around 5.70 EUR/hr (median is considerably lower, but statistics office hasn't published it in a while). Amazon pays around 3.30 EUR/hr.
  - moonchrome 11y ago
    Do you mind me asking - what's the standard rate for developers there (assuming you are in the field/scene) ? Also what's developer availability - do most young people just move to Western Europe or do they stick around in programming ? Poland is interesting to me - it's large enough that you can have a decently sized pool of people to recruit from (unlike smaller EU countries like mine - Croatia), you also seem to have OK taxes. Not sure what the regulatory/legal system looks like but since I haven't heard anything horrible I'll assume same or better than the rest of Central/Eastern Europe. You have very low cost of living compared to Western Europe, it seems like it would be the ideal place to create start up incubators in EU.
    - xyzzyz 11y ago
      There is no standard rate, the pay scale is extremely wide. You can easily find people who'll churn out shitty PHP for 700 EUR/mo. It's not much harder to find someone who has considerably more skill and experience, and will require at least twice that. Highly skilled people who know their worth won't work for less than 2500 EUR/mo, and have no trouble finding employers who'll pay them that much, or more. Google pays around 3500 EUR/mo for new grads. All of these are gross numbers, and refer to Warsaw market. For other cities, there are fewer candidates, and salaries are 20-30% lower. Overall though I'd say that developers here don't know how much they're worth, and sadly most employers get away with paying them less than they should. The reason it happens is that everyone else in other occupations are paid even less, so developers feel like they have it good, even though they can easily have it better. As for the regulatory/legal system, there are some issues, but I don't think it's any better or worse than anywhere else. There are some incubators here, Google has opened Campus[1] just last week, but I think the biggest issue for wannabe-unicorns here is lack of the access to capital. Some of my friends bootstrapped their companies though, and it worked out quite well for them. [1] - https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en https://www.campus.co/warsaw/en

nodesocket 11y ago

I wonder if US facilities operate the same? I'm actually surprised this video is public, since it contains core (? confidential ?) business operations and processes. Usually Amazon is super secretive about their special sauce.

mdlowman 11y ago
If you want to, you can just go visit an FC and get a tour, you know. It's not exactly closed. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011 http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8947548011

timothybone 11y ago

I felt like I was watching a visual piece of software.

radoslawc 11y ago

"Work hard. Have fun. Make history" this was cringe worthy, like from Veridian Dynamics commercials (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347789C3D0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHuVS5OAo6k&list=PLFA32C1347...) but irl not comedy show