Vy Nguyen 101275348 1. How does the picking process work? The picking process, in which the desired products are picked up in the picktowers, begins the outbound stream. Robots assist with the picking process at the OAK4 Amazon fulfillment center. The same robots that carry the pods for stowing also transport the pods for picking. Surprisingly, inventories are kept on the pods at random, rather than by category, size, or color. This makes it easy for personnel in the picking process to choose and check product details. The worker at the picking station is equipped with three instruments to complete the process: pods, a screen, and yellow totes. The picker sees the next item on a display, which includes an image of the item, how many of it there are, and which slot in the yellow tote the item is in. The employee just takes the item from the pod, scans it, and places it in one of the totes designated by a computer. The worker just held the item under the scanner before placing it into the tote, similar to a supermarket checkout. Depending on the kind of shipment, items are housed in different yellow totes. Single-item orders are likely to be placed in one tote, whereas multi-item orders are likely to be placed in another. The yellow totes are then placed onto a conveyor belt for the next station, which might be a packaging station for single-item orders or other picking stations for incomplete multi-item orders. 2. How does the replenishment process work? Replenishment is a part of the inbound process. More than half of Amazon's products are sold by small and medium-sized businesses. Their inventory arrives in trailers at the inbound yard at predetermined delivery times. Amazon employees then unload the items and transport them to receiving stations. Workers known as water spiders will check every piece of information pertaining to an inventory to ensure that it is 100 percent correct before making it available for purchase to customers. Products are loaded inside the pods on Amazon robot drives after all information is verified. The inventories will then be automatically transported to their assigned locations by the robot drives. This is the final step in the replenishment process. 3. Do they apply Lean principles? How? Describe when and how lean methods/tools are used. Amazon, the world's largest retailer and one of the most advanced technological firms, strives every day to meet its customers' every demand. Amazon has always applied Lean principles throughout the company's evolution to attain this accolade. The company's core value resides in its consumers, and this value is firmly established within the organization. Once the firm's focus is determined, every employee will align their goals to that value. And, as Shane noted in the video, Amazon staff work hard every day to enhance the working process and develop a more strategic plan to cut the preparation time of each order as much as possible. Furthermore, Amazon has effectively built a perfect blend of operations in which humans and technology work together to deliver the best value. Amazon also uses a four-day workweek to increase staff productivity and decrease human resource waste. The virtual tour demonstrates that Amazon has successfully implemented Lean principles throughout its operations, from establishing a core value to developing a working flow that maps individual workers' objectives to the big goal, and implementing a pull system that not only reduces inventory waste but also human resource waste. 4. Describe the automation in the process. Advantages? Disadvantages? Robot assistance is available throughout the Amazon fulfillment center, from receiving items from sellers to storing inventories, creating packages, sorting packages, and finally shipping packages. Scanners and large databases are used to verify the information of each item within each center. Robot drives are used to transport inventories to their designated locations automatically. Furthermore, the same robots are used in the picking process to locate products and send them directly to the assigned picker. Computers can automatically print and stick labels on boxes at high efficiency during the SLAM process. Following that, mathematical algorithms and conveyances are used to categorize customers' packages based on shipping type, carrier, and geographic region. Packages are now ready for distribution. Amazon can ship a package in as fast as 13 minutes because they can fully utilize the robotic system. Furthermore, one fulfillment center can ship over a million packages in a single 24-hour period. 5. The inventory is organized randomly. Advantages? Disadvantages? According to Ryan from the DEN3 center, randomly storing inventories makes it easier for downstream processes. Putting two items of similar color next to each other, for example, makes it more difficult for workers in the following processes to pick out the correct items. Workers in the picking process would be able to efficiently pick out and place two completely different objects, say a book and a phone charger, by placing them close together. Random organization can reduce the occurrences of incorrect orders. Randomization works perfectly well for single-item orders, but it is time-consuming for multi-item orders in the same category. For instance, if a customer orders a dark blue t-shirt and a light blue t-shirt, and those two items are not placed together due to randomization, this customer's order must go to a different picking station, increasing the time it takes to complete the order.
