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> He says he has to pick an item about every eight seconds, or 332 per hour, for a 10 hour day. Ignoring the math, it’s hard to imagine that pace. Are they for

> He says he has to pick an item about every eight seconds, or 332 per hour, for a 10 hour day. Ignoring the math, it’s hard to imagine that pace. Are they forced to continually be moving? Or is the person counting picking up, say 15 usb chargers as 15 separate things?

pardavis 7y ago
Pick workers at robotized FCs stand in one place at the nexus point of conveyors and robots. Robots bring them shelving units of products. Conveyor belts bring them empty containers. The human selects products from the robot and puts it in the container.
- pwinnski 7y ago
  If they're going to do that much automation, they might as well have the robot put the product in the container. Which they do. Amazon has both human and robot pickers.
  - pardavis 7y ago
    https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-fulfillment-center-tours/ https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-fulfillment-center-tours/
Eric_WVGG 7y ago
Yes. I read an article last week about a guy who got fired for "unnecessary motion." (will update this comment with a link if I can dig it up.) Here's a story about a patent on a wristband that enables this kind of tracking: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/31/amazon-warehouse-wristband-tracking https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/31/amazon-wa... It is humanly possible. As a teenager, I worked at UPS, where I was expected to stack boxes real-life-Tetris-style into a van at a rate of 45 per minute. They could get as heavy as 30 lbs. I actually got to enjoy it after a while (biceps!), but I could never get the hang of memorizing the zip codes (every truck has a list of 1-30 that we were expected to memorize instantly).
- reroute1 7y ago
  I also did this and have younger friends who still do. I much preferred that job to a customer service one where I had to deal with angry people all day. I was also sorting via zip codes and enjoyed the physical work... I don't understand what people accepting a factory job expect. It is repetitive, non-creative, work. That is the idea.
  - apendleton 7y ago
    I'm sure they expect it to be miserable, but expecting a miserable job and being happy about it needn't align. They might not have the necessary skills to be employable in not-miserable work, and might not have the necessary means or time to acquire those skills. What it ultimately comes down to, I think, is: we have enough wealth as a society that if we wanted to, we could allocate resources and labor in such a way that nobody (even unskilled workers) would have to do work that miserable, at that pace, for that low compensation. But it's not an emergent property of the market, and we'd have to sacrifice some economic growth, and some payout for people higher up the ladder, to do it. We have to collectively decide whether that tradeoff is worth it, and these folks (understandably) are arguing that it is, and asking the rest of us to have some empathy.
    - reroute1 7y ago
      OK but I'm saying I wasn't miserable and it was a better job than working retail to me. I agree it would be great to divide resources and labor in a more intelligent way I'm very open to ideas, but for now the reality is that some jobs are shitty and some are far better. And all the perks and benefits tend to come through hard to attain and coveted jobs. In my opinion you can't just create a system of equality, true equality will never exist. So why not just let it play out naturally? Drawing a line and effectively taking from people higher up is an astonishingly difficult line to draw and the overhead from a change like that could be devastating in itself, especially considering how Govt's are run in general.
    - malandrew 7y ago
      > We have to collectively decide whether that tradeoff is worth it We do exactly that every day. Price discovery in the market is the result of collective actions that determine if a tradeoff is worth it.
refurb 7y ago
I did a similar role when I was young and working at a warehouse. Basically pick, pack and ship orders. You basically worked until the orders are filled, 10, 11 hour shifts were not unusual. An item every 8 seconds is a rapid pace, but at least when I did it, the orders are sequential based on the layout of the warehouse. You grab one item, look at the next item, walk an aisle or two down, grab that item. I would estimate something between 10 seconds between picks? It is physically demanding work and boring as hell, but you end up in great shape! A couple decades ago when I did it the work paid really well for an unskilled job. Made putting up with it bearable.
theranfear 7y ago
Similar story to the other people here, having worked in a ups warehouse with unload rates of >1100 per hr I find it's not the physical nature of the job that's hard (in fact if you like moving around it's good) but mental stress of doing 1 dimensional things all day that is the real challenge!

pardavis 7y ago

Pick workers at robotized FCs stand in one place at the nexus point of conveyors and robots. Robots bring them shelving units of products. Conveyor belts bring them empty containers. The human selects products from the robot and puts it in the container.

pwinnski 7y ago
If they're going to do that much automation, they might as well have the robot put the product in the container. Which they do. Amazon has both human and robot pickers.
- pardavis 7y ago
  https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-fulfillment-center-tours/ https://www.aboutamazon.com/amazon-fulfillment-center-tours/

Eric_WVGG 7y ago

Yes. I read an article last week about a guy who got fired for "unnecessary motion." (will update this comment with a link if I can dig it up.) Here's a story about a patent on a wristband that enables this kind of tracking: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/31/amazon-warehouse-wristband-tracking https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/31/amazon-wa... It is humanly possible. As a teenager, I worked at UPS, where I was expected to stack boxes real-life-Tetris-style into a van at a rate of 45 per minute. They could get as heavy as 30 lbs. I actually got to enjoy it after a while (biceps!), but I could never get the hang of memorizing the zip codes (every truck has a list of 1-30 that we were expected to memorize instantly).

reroute1 7y ago
I also did this and have younger friends who still do. I much preferred that job to a customer service one where I had to deal with angry people all day. I was also sorting via zip codes and enjoyed the physical work... I don't understand what people accepting a factory job expect. It is repetitive, non-creative, work. That is the idea.
- apendleton 7y ago
  I'm sure they expect it to be miserable, but expecting a miserable job and being happy about it needn't align. They might not have the necessary skills to be employable in not-miserable work, and might not have the necessary means or time to acquire those skills. What it ultimately comes down to, I think, is: we have enough wealth as a society that if we wanted to, we could allocate resources and labor in such a way that nobody (even unskilled workers) would have to do work that miserable, at that pace, for that low compensation. But it's not an emergent property of the market, and we'd have to sacrifice some economic growth, and some payout for people higher up the ladder, to do it. We have to collectively decide whether that tradeoff is worth it, and these folks (understandably) are arguing that it is, and asking the rest of us to have some empathy.
  - reroute1 7y ago
    OK but I'm saying I wasn't miserable and it was a better job than working retail to me. I agree it would be great to divide resources and labor in a more intelligent way I'm very open to ideas, but for now the reality is that some jobs are shitty and some are far better. And all the perks and benefits tend to come through hard to attain and coveted jobs. In my opinion you can't just create a system of equality, true equality will never exist. So why not just let it play out naturally? Drawing a line and effectively taking from people higher up is an astonishingly difficult line to draw and the overhead from a change like that could be devastating in itself, especially considering how Govt's are run in general.
  - malandrew 7y ago
    > We have to collectively decide whether that tradeoff is worth it We do exactly that every day. Price discovery in the market is the result of collective actions that determine if a tradeoff is worth it.

refurb 7y ago

I did a similar role when I was young and working at a warehouse. Basically pick, pack and ship orders. You basically worked until the orders are filled, 10, 11 hour shifts were not unusual. An item every 8 seconds is a rapid pace, but at least when I did it, the orders are sequential based on the layout of the warehouse. You grab one item, look at the next item, walk an aisle or two down, grab that item. I would estimate something between 10 seconds between picks? It is physically demanding work and boring as hell, but you end up in great shape! A couple decades ago when I did it the work paid really well for an unskilled job. Made putting up with it bearable.

theranfear 7y ago

Similar story to the other people here, having worked in a ups warehouse with unload rates of >1100 per hr I find it's not the physical nature of the job that's hard (in fact if you like moving around it's good) but mental stress of doing 1 dimensional things all day that is the real challenge!