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ProQuestDocuments 2023 12 08
ProQuestDocuments 2023 12 08
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Amazon.com is introducing an array of new artificial intelligence and robotics capabilities into its warehouse
operations that will reduce delivery times and help identify inventory more quickly.
The revamp will change the way Amazon moves products through its fulfillment centers with new AI-equipped
sortation machines and robotic arms. It is also set to alter how many of the company's vast army of workers do their
jobs.
Amazon says its new robotics system, named Sequoia after the giant trees native to California's Sierra Nevada
region, is designed for both speed and safety. Humans are meant to work alongside new machines in a way that
should reduce injuries, the company says.
It is unclear how the new system will affect Amazon's head count, and the company declined to provide details
about its expectations except to note that it doesn't see automation and robotics as vehicles for eliminating jobs.
Sequoia enables the company to put up items for sale on its website faster and be able to more easily predict
delivery estimates, said David Guerin, the company's director of robotic storage technology. The new program
reduces the time it takes to fulfill an order by up to 25%, the company said, and it can identify and store inventory up
to 75% faster. Amazon launched the system this week at one of its warehouses in Houston.
"The faster we can process inventory, the greater the probability that we're going to be able to deliver when we said
we could," Guerin said. He said Amazon expects the new system to make up a significant portion of the company's
operations in the next three to five years.
Faced with fresh competition in the U.S. , Amazon has worked to become faster at delivering its products. The
company transformed its operations to a regionally focused model meant to store items closer to customers, The
Wall Street Journal previously reported. Executives see a connection between delivery speeds and growth.
In the new structure, vehicles transport products inside tote containers to a new sortation machine equipped with
small robotic arms and computer vision. From the sortation machine, the bins are routed to an employee who picks
items for delivery. Remaining inventory is consolidated by Sparrow, a robotic arm Amazon unveiled last year .
In the previous system, vehicles moved around Amazon products, but the new sortation machine, tote containers
and Sparrow weren't involved. Previously, employees might have to reach high up on a shelf to pick a heavy item,
but now the new system delivers containers around the waist level, with a goal to reduce injuries.
Amazon is among several companies that have chased what is known as the "holy grail" of robotics , or machines
as dexterous, quick and adaptable as a human arm and hand. Rivals such as Walmart are changing jobs of moving
boxes into roles managing robotic arms .
What Amazon and others have realized is that in order to integrate more robotics, the workflow of warehouses has
to be transformed, said Rueben Scriven, research manager at market research firm Interact Analysis. Amazon's new
system, for example, makes sense for its robotic arms because such robots have an easier time identifying objects
inside of bins than shelves, which have been a part of previous Amazon systems.
DETAILS
Business indexing term: Subject: Artificial intelligence Warehouses Employees Inventory Employment;
Industry: 49311 : Gener al Warehousing and Storage
column: Technology
Section: Tech
e-ISSN: 25749579
Copyright: Copyright 2023 Dow Jones &Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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