The biggest e-commerce company in the world keeps developing new ways to optimize their resources.
How could them reduce costs without decreasing effectiveness?
Some warehouses are already automatized using robots that move the shelve where the product that is required is located to where the employee is preparing the delivery, (I have found a nice post in this blog about this: ROBOTS IN AMAZON WAREHOUSE) but what about those ones that are not robotized yet?
Amazon has patented a wristband that, using ultrasonic tracking technology, can precisely track where warehouse employees have their hands and use vibrations to guide them to where the product that they have to pick up is placed, with more or less intensity depending on the closeness. This will help them to find the location of the product easily and to avoid mistakes while choosing the product.
This new technology, would also help to analyze efficiency of employees, such as time that is not used and other factors that could be improved, in order make more efficient all the processes that are done since you click the desired product in their web-site until it is delivered in your door.
Despite this innovation, Amazon already has a reputation for turning low-paid staff into “human robots” carrying out repetitive packaging tasks as fast as possible in an attempt to achieve their objectives, and that’s why this innovation adds another layer of vigilance to an already difficult working environment.
What do you all think?
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/31/amazon-warehouse-wristband-tracking
https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2018/02/02/actualidad/1517591256_241404.html
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 