Amazon has a lot of work on its hands, and it seems that human labor doesn’t cut it anymore. The online retailer has enriched its employees with lots of robots in order for their fulfillment centers to reach maximum efficiency. It was revealed by Amazon on Monday that the inclusion of robotic employees will not only lower costs for customers but also increase the speed of product delivery. Amazon spent a huge chunk of money (775 million dollars to be precise) for this to happen. The robotic Kivas are specifically designed to manage orders in giant warehouses.
While this is not the only robotic addition, Amazon has assured the people that a full machine-based operation is not an option, so workers will not be in fear for their jobs. Besides Kiva, Amazon has added robotic arms to their workforce called Robo-Stow. They will be responsible for handling large quantities of products when customer orders are peaking. This technology, according to the retailer, has only one purpose and that is to reduce the time it takes between ordering and getting said product. This type of inventory management may prove handy in the long run as we have seen that throughout history machines have lessened our labor hardships. Also, another form of improving their fulfilment centers has been added and that is a new system that will cut down the receiving of the inventory by half an hour. This may prove handy when it comes to same-day delivery.
These additions arrived just in time for the holiday buzz as the fulfillment centers will be ,no doubt, buried in merchandise. Luckily, the hockey-puck shaped Kivas can lift up to 3.000 pounds. Multiply this little guy by 15.000 and you just may have a well-oiled ship for Amazon. It remains to be seen, though, if there will actually be an improvement. Judging from Amazon’s track record and seeing that the Kiva acquisition has been made in 2012, we’ll surely be getting our things faster.