’Bots will reduce ’Zon bottlenecks
Amazon will add a slew of new robotics and artificial intelligence technologies to its warehouses in an effort to reduce delivery times, speed up inventory operations and limit worker injuries, it said Wednesday.
The high-tech upgrade, which debuted at a warehouse in Houston this week, will be rolled out across the company’s 300 robotics operations sites worldwide come 2024 based on how it performs through the holiday season, an Amazon spokesperson told The Post.
The robotics system, named Sequoia, brings together a series of systems including mobile robots and robotic arms.
It will also allow Amazon to list items for sale on its website faster, and will be able to more easily predict delivery estimates, the company’s director of robotic storage technology, David Guerin, told The Wall Street Journal.
Sequoia is expected to reduce the time it takes to fulfill an order by up to 25%, and can identify and store inventory as much as 75% faster, Guerin said.
It is unclear if the new system will lead to any layoffs.
Amazon noted the company has “rolled out hundreds of thousands of robotics systems while also creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.”
Last month, Amazon announced it was hiring 250,000 employees for the holidays, and bumped up hourly wages.
Amazon has been investing aggressively in automation for years, using the tech to package orders and creating technology that enables cashier-less retail stores, among others.
Sequoia “works by having mobile robots transport containerized inventory directly to a gantry, a tall frame with a platform supporting equipment that can either restock totes or send them to an employee to pick out inventory that customers have ordered,” Amazon explained.
The system’s integrated robotics system then hands off the empty bins to an employee who will pick items for delivery.