3 ms·

That's exactly how it works. They've already cost-cutted and streamlined it all about as much as it will get. Yet, it all reduces down to people pulling pallets

That's exactly how it works. They've already cost-cutted and streamlined it all about as much as it will get. Yet, it all reduces down to people pulling pallets from manufacturers off trucks, putting them somewhere, other people making custom pallets for stores from those pallets, shipping them, and then breaking those down at store for sale to customers. The only time I saw real innovation in that was Costco and its predecessor's brilliant decision to eliminate the store to just let people shop off the pallets and such in the warehouse. I think Amazon did try some stuff like having storage containers robotically come toward workers. They might have some tricks up their sleeves. The fundamental model is pretty basic and optimized, though, with competition driving margins down making it harder to optimize over time.

Animats 9y ago
I think Amazon did try some stuff like having storage containers robotically come toward workers. They bought that technology from Kiva, then bought the company, and all their current-generation distribution centers use it. (Amazon has distribution center generations; they don't upgrade existing buildings while in operation, but build new ones with newer technology. Some pre-Kiva centers are still running.) Automatic picking is still an R&D problem. Amazon has put some effort into that; they have an annual competition where people can compete to win a few thousand dollars solving a billion dollar problem. Automatic mixed-case picking and palletizing can be automated. It isn't quite fast enough, quite general enough, and quite cheap enough to take over.[1] Except inside frozen food warehouses.[2] Humans are not very productive at -23C, but special-purpose automation machinery is. Amazon has the scale to push that gear into being cost-effective. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7fvrdTCgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7fvrdTCgs [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrP1QKsdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrP1QKsdk
- nickpsecurity 9y ago
  They're really neat tech videos. The first confirms how slow and expensive I'd expect it to be. The second looks really complicated compared to humans picking off pallets with PITS guiding other pallets or rollers. First vid I found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VOg4NE6M-_I?t=46s https://youtu.be/VOg4NE6M-_I?t=46s So, they have pallets all over the place. The order pickers are driving something automated to grab the stuff. They get a good amount at once. They can stack it on new pallets or ship it as shown. Pretty straight-forward. I could see some addition speeding up dealing with the vertical pallets. Those self-driving forklifts from show Silicon Valley could be nice. Yet, the automated versions are so expensive that some (all?) DC's in both Walmart and Kroger got rid of the pallet-wrapping machines per conversations with employees. It wasn't cost effective to maintain vs just having low-paid people do it they said. So, it will be interesting to see what happens with all this. I like the idea of doing frozen first as people might be moving slower. I do also recall those having boxes that are more similar to each other compared to other loads. I'd start with pallet or roller optimization software that tells people to get the stuff in the order that stacks or ships easiest. That might exist already. I only have second-hand info from the DC's so don't know. Maybe have robots that move things automatically dropping pallets or adding them as in the video with the humans order picking off them. Maybe some lights or something on the dolly to show where to drop the next box for ideal stacking. There's possibilities..

Animats 9y ago

I think Amazon did try some stuff like having storage containers robotically come toward workers. They bought that technology from Kiva, then bought the company, and all their current-generation distribution centers use it. (Amazon has distribution center generations; they don't upgrade existing buildings while in operation, but build new ones with newer technology. Some pre-Kiva centers are still running.) Automatic picking is still an R&D problem. Amazon has put some effort into that; they have an annual competition where people can compete to win a few thousand dollars solving a billion dollar problem. Automatic mixed-case picking and palletizing can be automated. It isn't quite fast enough, quite general enough, and quite cheap enough to take over.[1] Except inside frozen food warehouses.[2] Humans are not very productive at -23C, but special-purpose automation machinery is. Amazon has the scale to push that gear into being cost-effective. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7fvrdTCgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7fvrdTCgs [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrP1QKsdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrP1QKsdk

nickpsecurity 9y ago
They're really neat tech videos. The first confirms how slow and expensive I'd expect it to be. The second looks really complicated compared to humans picking off pallets with PITS guiding other pallets or rollers. First vid I found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VOg4NE6M-_I?t=46s https://youtu.be/VOg4NE6M-_I?t=46s So, they have pallets all over the place. The order pickers are driving something automated to grab the stuff. They get a good amount at once. They can stack it on new pallets or ship it as shown. Pretty straight-forward. I could see some addition speeding up dealing with the vertical pallets. Those self-driving forklifts from show Silicon Valley could be nice. Yet, the automated versions are so expensive that some (all?) DC's in both Walmart and Kroger got rid of the pallet-wrapping machines per conversations with employees. It wasn't cost effective to maintain vs just having low-paid people do it they said. So, it will be interesting to see what happens with all this. I like the idea of doing frozen first as people might be moving slower. I do also recall those having boxes that are more similar to each other compared to other loads. I'd start with pallet or roller optimization software that tells people to get the stuff in the order that stacks or ships easiest. That might exist already. I only have second-hand info from the DC's so don't know. Maybe have robots that move things automatically dropping pallets or adding them as in the video with the humans order picking off them. Maybe some lights or something on the dolly to show where to drop the next box for ideal stacking. There's possibilities..