FROM AN ARTICLE BY JASON DEL REYAT

ALL THINGS DDEC. 2013

AND OTHER SOURCES

How Does Amazon “Git ‘Er Done”?

Humongous Online Retailer

80 huge regional warehouses

“fulfillment centers”

Each close to shipping hub

Fulfillment Center

One of Four in Phoeniz

Fulfillment Center

Loading docks from 1 to infinity

Work Hard, Have Fun

Make History

Work Hard, Have Fun

Get metal detected

1.2 million sq. feet

Of American industrial process power…And software

Chutes, Conveyers

Amazon started as books

More Books, CDs, etc.

More Books

They Have “Everything”

More Everything

More Everything

More Etc.

How to Organize “Everything”

They have “everything”

How does one organize and keep track of everything?

A first class COMP 523 project

Inside those Loading Docks

Every box incoming scanned into software system, virtual record for every item

Items “filed” onto shelves wherever workers find space.

Shelf barcode is scanned and item location saved in system

Chaotic Storage

Chaotic Storage

Like hashing into buckets, a little

But no hash, just buckets

Volleyball in with 2 packs of gum balls

No there is no rhyme or reason

Chaotic Storage

Now what?

Items in the order generate retrieval instructions

“Pickers” dispatched to go gather items from the chaos

Customer clicks “checkout”

Might walk 10-15 miles a day

Scanner sends to the exact shelf location for the item

Directed by various orders being compiled by pickers all over

Optimized path is computed bin to bin, aisle to aisle

Pickers

Garbage Collection

Items found off shelf go in bins for re-entry later

Order Build

Picker carts end up here

Each slot is a customer order

Software sends builder to items in carts, to slots

Order Packing

Built orders go to packing

Software tells packer what box, envelope size to use

Order Weighing

They call it the “slam” line

because…

Order Addressing

Mailing labels “slammed” onto the packages after weighing

Address labels guide conveyors

Orange sliders push package down the right chute to shipping bundles for various shippers, destinations

Chutes and Conveyors

Watch it in Action

A Day In the Life of Amazon

Travel with an item point to point

Fun Facts to Know and Tell

Work Campers

Now… Kiva Acquisition

A Kiva Managed Warehouse

Discovery channel on Kiva

BettyBot at Quiet Logistics

Quiet Logistics II