Ama2on warehouse. Yikes

10 months ago

I went on a long drive out to rural Pennsylvania yesterday. A gorgeous day and caught the end of the fall foliage in the mountains. On the way home I could see an absolutely enormous structure off in the distance. Got closer and realized it was an an A warehouse. The thing must have been more than half a mile long and several stories high. Huge trucks were coming and going, some with the logo, some not.

I wonder what is in there. Despite its size and considering that you can buy just about anything through A, how do they decide what to have in the warehouse? I know much of what people buy comes directly from smaller businesses. The whole thing fascinated me.

PS As an aside, Pennsylvania countryside is gorgeous. Sometimes I forget.

Featured Answer

mtnrdredux_gw

10 months ago

I will relate my favorite story about Amazon warehouse, which we toured with my son as part of a school project.

The items are stored randomly. Meaning the dog food may not be next to the catfood or other pet supplies. And twin sheets are not next to comforters.

Here is why:

First, random storage makes finding the toothpaste faster in an era of on-demand efficiency. If there were a dedicated “toothpaste shelf” and someone ordered toothpaste, a “picker”—how Amazon refers to employees who gather items—would need to travel there, whether he were 10 feet or 100 yards away from that location. But if the warehouse stores toothpaste in 50 different locations, there’s a much better chance that there’s a tube close to some picker. There’s also a greater chance that the second item the customer ordered is also nearby.

“With the millions of items that we ship, every opportunity to improve a process by a second is relevant,” Alperson says.

Randomness is also preferable when it comes to managing the wide range of items customers now order online—most practically by saving space. Amazon warehouses carry a huge variety of items that can be ordered at any moment, but they do not carry a huge number of each item. “They may only have one box of Cheerios,” says Tom Galluzzo, the founder of Iam Robotics, which makes warehouse robots. “If you were to have a space for every product, you would need a gigantic warehouse.” Amazon’s largest warehouse is already 1 million square feet, which is about 17 NFL football fields in size. Reserving empty space on the “toothpaste shelf” while waiting for the next shipment of toothpaste would mean its warehouses would need to be even bigger. It’s more efficient to use any free shelf space available.

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Comments (11)

ilikefriday
10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago
This is according to ChatGPT. 1000-1500 workers for a facility that is 1.1 million square feet. How many workers would they need to employ if robots were not a thing? How much money are they saving?

🤖 Fun Fact

The Mount Joy facility alone typically employs 1,000–1,500 workers, plus hundreds of delivery drivers and support staff — and operates 24/7.

🏭 Amazon MDT2 – Mount Joy, PA
- Size: Approximately 1.1 million square feet (about 19 football fields).
- Opened: 2022.
- Type: Robotics-enabled fulfillment center (Amazon Robotics / “AR Sortable”).
- Function:
  
  Stores and ships small to medium-sized consumer products (electronics, home goods, clothing, beauty, etc.).
  
  Uses thousands of mobile robots to move shelving pods to human packers.
  
  Capable of handling hundreds of thousands of packages per day.
It's not even close to the largest facility.

🌎 Other Massive Amazon Warehouses (for comparison)

LocationSizePurpose

Mt. Juliet, TN (BNA3)3.6 million sq. ft.Largest in the U.S. – general fulfillment

Beaumont, California (ONT2)3.4 million sq. ft.Fulfillment for West Coast

Little Rock, Arkansas (LIT2)3 million sq. ft.Robotics center

Tijuana, Mexico~3.3 million sq. ft.One of Amazon’s biggest global sites

BRS2 – Bristol, U.K.2.3 million sq. ft.Europe’s largest Amazon warehouse
dedtired thanked ilikefriday
nicole
10 months ago
Colorado Springs has a massive AM-zon facility. I hear they're laying off workers. They over estimated how busy they'd be.

Quote:

In a note on Tuesday, Amazon human-resources executive Beth Galetti said the tech giant would cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, or about 4% of its workforce.1 day ago
dedtired thanked nicole
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lascatx
10 months ago
The warehouse nearest my house is a paltry 219,000sq ft.
dedtired thanked lascatx
dedtired
Original Author
10 months ago
Thanks for your sleuthing, Ilikefriday. I had no idea these behemoths are out there. Although this isnt Mt Joy, its close to the same size, according to chatgpt — thanks for reminding me to use that!

I cant even imagine what the others must look like.

Im surprised that they are having layoffs, al though I suppose that reflects the uncertainty of the ecenomy at the moment.
ilikefriday
10 months ago
MTN that is interesting. I am taking a class in Lean Six Sigma. One of the specific principles deals with efficiency and storage. Storage of products is costly. It's funny to hear that Amazon uses that principle in action.
maire_cate
10 months ago
You picked the right time for your driving adventure. The rain we’re getting today and the wind tomorrow will probably knock down a lot of leaves. But you are so right - PA is beautiful and the fall is spectacular.
dedtired thanked maire_cate
Still trailing
10 months ago
The reason AZ and others are decreasing humans is because they are ramping up AI to permanantly replace them.
dedtired
Original Author
10 months ago
Maire, it is raining buckets today! Im watching the leaves pile up on the lawn. Im wondering how the wind will affect Halloween tomorrow. We really did catch the last nice day and the views were spectacular. We stopped at Blue Marsh on the way home. So pretty and we saw some rare-ish buzzards in a tree.

The random plan for storage makes sense in a way. Its almost like having small warehouses inside of a big warehouse, so you dont have to run back and forth for stuff.
salonva
10 months ago
Hmmm where we used to live in Central Nj there was a huge A facility that used to give tours. Probably similar to what Mtn took? By the time I checked into it, they were no longer doing the tours. It might have been around covid era.

I 'm sure this doesn't comare, but there is a huge warehouse we pass in Gap, for Urban Outfitters. 1.2 million sf.

DH and I frequently marvel at how stunning the state is. Truly. Even just driving around locally, some of these roads are just so gorgeous. I just went with a friend on Monday ( talk about beautiful weather) to September Farms. IYKYK.

DH and I did a road trip end of summer, and wow. Wellsboro, Eagle's Mere, Milford.

Just beatuiful.
dedtired thanked salonva
dedtired
Original Author
10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago
All the leaf peepers who head to Vermont in the fall should discover PA. I hope we get some nice days in November to get in some more road trips.