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[TheShadowLord]

Amazon says fully automated warehouses are at least 10 years away

Amazon dismissed the idea of running a fully automated warehouse in the near future, noting that the technology is at least a decade away.

venturebeat.com

(Reuters) — Amazon.com dismissed the idea of running a fully automated warehouse in the near future, citing the superior cognitive ability of humans and limitations of current technology.

Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment, said technology is at least 10 years away from fully automating the processing of a single order picked by a worker inside a warehouse.


There is a misperception that Amazon will run fully automated warehouses soon, Anderson said during a tour of Amazon’s Baltimore warehouse for reporters on Tuesday.

The technology for a robot to pick a single product from a bin without damaging other products or picking multiple products at the same time in a way that could benefit the e-commerce retailer is years away.

Amazon is exploring a variety of technologies to automate the various steps needed to get a package to shoppers, Anderson said.

The tour came at a time when the company has come under fire from labor groups and other Amazon critics for allegedly poor working conditions in its warehouses and for increasingly automating jobs and reducing its dependence on human labor.

The largest online retailer is also not employing robots in its warehouses that handle fresh food, said Derek Jones, global director of environment, health and safety, who oversees Amazon’s fresh food offerings like Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry.

Amazon runs 110 warehouses in the United States, 45 sorting centers and about 50 delivery stations. It employs 125,000 full-time warehouse workers in the country.

The warehouses that employ robots mostly handle general merchandise, which includes everything from lamps and clothing to kayaks and bikes.

The company said it is not changing the level of productivity at its warehouses to catch up with its recent one-day shipping announcement. It is instead making changes to the transportation and delivery process.

Last month, Amazon said it plans to deliver packages to members of its loyalty club, Prime, in just one day instead of two.

Anderson said Amazon’s current target is four hours from the time a product is ordered to the time it leaves the warehouse, and the company is sticking with that.

The e-commerce company did not share details on how the decision to raise its minimum wage to $15 had impacted workforce turnover.

However, it said applications for seasonal jobs doubled to 850,000 at the end of October last year from the record number of applications the company received in August 2017, when it held a national job fair.

Amazon raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour for U.S. employees in November, giving in to critics of what they said was poor pay and working conditions.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Baltimore, Maryland; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Bill Berkrot)

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Amazon says fully automated warehouses are at least 10 years away

Amazon dismissed the idea of running a fully automated warehouse in the near future, noting that the technology is at least a decade away.

venturebeat.com

(Reuters) — Amazon.com dismissed the idea of running a fully automated warehouse in the near future, citing the superior cognitive ability of humans and limitations of current technology.

Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment, said technology is at least 10 years away from fully automating the processing of a single order picked by a worker inside a warehouse.


There is a misperception that Amazon will run fully automated warehouses soon, Anderson said during a tour of Amazon’s Baltimore warehouse for reporters on Tuesday.

The technology for a robot to pick a single product from a bin without damaging other products or picking multiple products at the same time in a way that could benefit the e-commerce retailer is years away.

Amazon is exploring a variety of technologies to automate the various steps needed to get a package to shoppers, Anderson said.

The tour came at a time when the company has come under fire from labor groups and other Amazon critics for allegedly poor working conditions in its warehouses and for increasingly automating jobs and reducing its dependence on human labor.

The largest online retailer is also not employing robots in its warehouses that handle fresh food, said Derek Jones, global director of environment, health and safety, who oversees Amazon’s fresh food offerings like Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry.

Amazon runs 110 warehouses in the United States, 45 sorting centers and about 50 delivery stations. It employs 125,000 full-time warehouse workers in the country.

The warehouses that employ robots mostly handle general merchandise, which includes everything from lamps and clothing to kayaks and bikes.

The company said it is not changing the level of productivity at its warehouses to catch up with its recent one-day shipping announcement. It is instead making changes to the transportation and delivery process.

Last month, Amazon said it plans to deliver packages to members of its loyalty club, Prime, in just one day instead of two.

Anderson said Amazon’s current target is four hours from the time a product is ordered to the time it leaves the warehouse, and the company is sticking with that.

The e-commerce company did not share details on how the decision to raise its minimum wage to $15 had impacted workforce turnover.

However, it said applications for seasonal jobs doubled to 850,000 at the end of October last year from the record number of applications the company received in August 2017, when it held a national job fair.

Amazon raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour for U.S. employees in November, giving in to critics of what they said was poor pay and working conditions.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Baltimore, Maryland; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Bill Berkrot)

Then SkyNet is born and we all die

But enjoy that same day shipping in the meantime!

Nah but automation clearly fits some industries more than others. I just am curious how the “exception to the rule” flare ups of reported accidents here or there get handled/treated

 

[iconmaster]

Oh no they don't. I've seen how this ends. Someone gets access to a supposedly unfinished depot because of his dad's job with Amazon, then is met by a shrouded Jeff Bezos who reveals the power of his fully automated and operational warehouse.

 

[Woo-Fu]

It seems to me that if you have the technology to fully automate a warehouse you no longer have the need for the warehouse, cut that out and move all the technology closer to the production side. The real bits that need some serious work are on the delivery/routing side.

 

[Winter John]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're worried they'd lose the tax benefits and sleazy rebates they're getting for employing people

 

[Vicetrailia]

Warehousing tech today isn't that impressive yet, and the fully automated sorting centers just don't work well yet. Trust.

 

[Yoda]

Full robotic automation is hard. Toyota tried years back to fully automate some of their assembly lines and failed. Tesla tried to same for the Model 3, failed, and had to scramble to get up to capacity for the Model 3.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Fully automated stuff is good for functions that are super repetitive, linear and easy for the robot to do, and easy for the programmer to make. What fucknut wants to drone on 9-5 doing some repetitive shit all day anyway? Name one piece of fancy automation that has replaced a job requiring human intervention, analysis, a human brain to quickly fix things if it doesn't work, business strategy, judgement calls, agility etc....?

Nobody has even figured out how to roof a house with shingles yet with a robot. You'd think there would be some way to automate spitting out roof tiles like a machine. But all I see is roofers doing it by hand.

Warehousing and shipping seems like something that can be 100% automated but it wont be.

People think automation is going to kill jobs. It doesn't. All it does is shift people to different jobs. Unemployment rates in western countries are at lows. If automation was so killer, unemployment would be at 30%.

What companies do is automate junky jobs (or specialized jobs no human can do like making millions of microchips at nanometer specs), and shift employees to other jobs. Companies are greedy. Many could probably cut jobs and live off robotic slave labour, but they always have to grow bigger, so that means keeping a full staff.

 

[neobiz]

At least 10 years away?!

I better get some sweet sweet dead end job time in while the gettings good

 

[Kamina]

I work in the storage automation industry and i agree. The stuff being conveyed and stored is too different to leave it unattended at all times, and certain tasks need human input or humans to fix issues. We will see what the future brings, but i cant imagine warehouses without workers either in the near future, and neither does the company i work at.

 

[Mihos]

I have been in a few of their automated warehouses. They need at least 50 red badges just to pick up all the crap that falls out of the pods and gets pushed around the floor all day

 

[Dontero]

Bullshit.

Video from actual amazon warehouse. Robots are already here, they just need to get that 1% of other rare cases:

 

[SoraKH3]

Fully automated stuff is good for functions that are super repetitive, linear and easy for the robot to do, and easy for the programmer to make. What fucknut wants to drone on 9-5 doing some repetitive shit all day anyway? Name one piece of fancy automation that has replaced a job requiring human intervention, analysis, a human brain to quickly fix things if it doesn't work, business strategy, judgement calls, agility etc....?

Nobody has even figured out how to roof a house with shingles yet with a robot. You'd think there would be some way to automate spitting out roof tiles like a machine. But all I see is roofers doing it by hand.

Warehousing and shipping seems like something that can be 100% automated but it wont be.

People think automation is going to kill jobs. It doesn't. All it does is shift people to different jobs. Unemployment rates in western countries are at lows. If automation was so killer, unemployment would be at 30%.

What companies do is automate junky jobs (or specialized jobs no human can do like making millions of microchips at nanometer specs), and shift employees to other jobs. Companies are greedy. Many could probably cut jobs and live off robotic slave labour, but they always have to grow bigger, so that means keeping a full staff.

Maybe it won't be 100% automated but it could be 50 or 60%. A lot of jobs will definitely be lost I think.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I worked in a warehouse that was 90% automated (the operators did some picking of products). If the warehouse is only shipping games, books or anything with a standard size, then you can go 'fully automated' today.

The funny thing is, these warehouses will never be fully automated because the kit breaks down all the fucking time, not that i'm complaining because those breakdowns paid my bills

 

[infinitys_7th]

It's interesting - for all the talk on both sides about effects of:

1. Declining birth rates
2. Immigration of low-skill labor
3. Immigration as population replacement
4. Automation and job elimination

These things are inter-related - in the long term, #4 renders #1-#3 moot. You would want population to decrease as well as to limit immigration (especially of low-skilled immigrants).