Amazon's warehouse in Rugeley, Staffs, is the size of nine football pitches. Inside, hundreds of people in orange vests are pushing trolleys, glancing down at the screens of their handheld satnav computers for directions on where to walk next and what to pick up when they get there. They do not dawdle – the devices in their hands are also measuring their productivity in real time. They might each walk between seven and 15 miles today, ‘a sort of robot, in human form’.
At Christmas, the people working in this building, together with those in seven others like it across the country, were dispatching a truck filled with parcels every three minutes or so. According to the FT, before they go home at the end of their eight-hour shift, or go to the canteen for their 30-minute break, they must walk through a set of airport-style security scanners....
Products are stored anywhere there is free space, with only the computer ‘in the know’.
For a fascinating insight into Amazon ‘continuous improvement’ operations, recruitment, wage rates and its positive influence on other organisations’ operational efficiency, see this comprehensive FT article.
A ‘must-read’ for any organisation that feels they have cracked their online presence development….
In practice, Amazon’s operational bar-raising is (or should be) even more scary for online competition than their 1-click ease-of-use…
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