Amazon is replacing some fulfillment center jobs with robots that pack orders

{1} 亚马逊正在更换其配送中心的一些员工。这些机器正在自动化人们掌握的亚马逊最常见的工作岗位之一：包装订单。此次推出可以在55个履行中心裁减1,300多个工作岗位。访问Business Insider的主页了解更多故事。亚马逊正在推出机器，以自动化数千名员工的工作：提升客户订单。该公司开始向少数人提供技术近几年来，仓库扫描货物从传送带上扫描出来并在几秒钟内为每件物品定制包装箱内，两名参与该项目的人告诉路透社。亚马逊考虑在几十个仓库安装两台机器，拆除这些人说，每个人至少有24个角色。这些设施通常雇用2,000多人。对于标准规模的库存，55个美国履约中心的削减量将超过1,300。消息人士表示，亚马逊预计将在两年内收回成本，每台机器100万美元加上运营费用。此前未报告的计划显示，亚马逊正在推动减少劳动力和提高利润，这是最常见仓库任务的自动化 - 拿起一件物品 - 仍然无法触及。这些变化尚未最终确定，因为在重大部署之前审核技术可能需要很长时间.Amazon以其尽可能多的自动化业务而闻名，无论是为货物定价还是在仓库中运输物品。但该公司处于不稳定的地位，因为它考虑更换已经获得补贴和公众善意的工作。“我们正在试行这项新技术，目标是提高安全性，加快交付时间并提高整个网络的效率，”亚马逊发言人在一份声明中说。 “我们预计效率节省将重新投入到为客户提供新服务的地方，这将继续创造新的就业机会。”亚马逊上个月淡化其自动化工作，以便访问其Baltim重新实现中心，说完全机器人的未来远远不够。其员工基础已发展成为美国最大的员工之一，因为该公司开设了新的仓库并提高了工资以吸引劳动力市场紧张的员工。其目标是实现更精简的劳动力，其中一个来源就是消耗。说过。这位知情人士表示，世界上最大的在线零售商有朝一日不会重新填补包装角色，而不是裁员。那些人的营业额很高，因为在10个小时内每分钟装箱多次订单是值得工作的。与此同时，留在公司的员工可以接受培训，从而承担更多的技术职责。新机器，即意大利公司CMC Srl的CartonWrap，包装速度比人类快得多。消息人士称，他们每小时发出600到700箱，或者是人类包装机的四到五倍。这些机器需要一个人来装载客户订单，另一个人需要库存纸板和胶水，还有一个技术人员有时会修理卡纸.CMC拒绝发表评论。尽管亚马逊宣布它打算加快其Prime忠诚度计划的运输速度，但最新一轮自动化并不专注于速度。 “这真的是关于效率和节省，”其中一位知情人士表示。包括其他被称为“SmartPac”的机器，该公司最近推出了用专利信封邮寄物品，亚马逊的技术套件将能够实现其大部分自动化人类包装工。这个人说，一个设施的五排工人可以变成两个，辅以两台CMC机器和一台SmartPac。该公司将此描述为一种“重新定位”工人的努力。该人说。无法学到的地方角色可能会首先消失，哪些激励措施（如果有的话）与这些特定工作挂钩。但亚马逊与政府的招聘交易往往是慷慨的。例如，亚马逊去年在阿拉巴马州宣布的1,500个工作岗位，该州承诺该公司10年内将获得4,870万美元，其商务部表示。亚马逊并不是唯一一个测试CMC包装的人技术。据知情人士透露，JD.com公司和Shutterfly公司也使用过这些机器，沃尔玛公司也说道.Walmart在3.5年前启动，此后在美国的几个地方安装了这台机器。说过。该公司拒绝发表评论。拳击技术的兴趣揭示了电子商务巨头如何接近当今物流业的一个主要问题：找到一个能够抓住不同物品而不会破坏它们的机器人手。亚马逊雇佣了无数的工人每个履行中心谁做同一任务的变化。一些人收集库存，而其他人则选择客户订单，还有一些人抓住这些订单，将它们放在正确尺寸的盒子中并将其贴上。许多风险投资支持的公司和大学研究人员正在竞相实现这项工作的自动化。虽然人工智能的进步正在提高机器的准确性，但仍然无法保证机器人手可以防止橘子酱罐子滑倒或破裂，或者无法从拾取橡皮擦到抓取真空吸尘器.Amazon测试了不同供应商的技术一位熟悉亚马逊实验的人士表示，它可能有一天会被用于采摘，包括来自波士顿地区的初创公司Soft Robotics，它从章鱼触角中获取灵感，使夹具更加通用。 Soft Robotics拒绝就其与亚马逊的合作发表评论，但表示已经为多家大型零售商处理了各种各样的广泛产品。鉴于抓住技术尚未准备好迎接黄金时段，亚马逊在打包客户订单时自动解决了这个问题。人类仍然将物品放在传送带上，但是机器然后围绕它们构建盒子并且处理密封和标签。这不仅可以减少劳动力，还可以减少浪费的包装材料，从而节省资金。这些机器并非没有缺陷。 CMC每年只能生产这么多。他们需要现场技术人员，他们可以解决出现问题的需求两位消息人士称，亚马逊宁愿不这样做。关闭箱子的超热胶可以堆积和停止机器。其他类型的自动化，如Ocado Group PLC的机器人杂货组装系统，是业界关注的焦点。但拳击机已经证明对亚马逊。据知情人士称，该公司已经将它们安装在距离西雅图，法兰克福，米兰，阿姆斯特丹，曼彻斯特和其他地方很近的繁忙仓库中。这些机器有可能在每个设施中自动化超过24个工作岗位。根据物流咨询公司MWPVL International的说法，该公司还在建立了近二十多个美国小型和非专业库存履行中心，这对于机器而言已经成熟。这只是自动化的预兆。“A'灯一位知情人士表示，”仓库最终成为目标。（旧金山的杰弗里·达斯汀报道;华盛顿的Nandita Bose和上海的Josh Horwitz的报道; Greg Mitchell和Edward Tobin编辑） { 1}{0}{1}

Amazon is replacing some workers at its fulfillment centers. The machines are automating one of Amazon's most common job roles held by people: Packing orders. The rollout could cut more than 1,300 jobs across 55 fulfillment centers.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Amazon is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders.The company started adding technology to a handful of warehouses in recent years, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for each item, two people who worked on the project told Reuters.Amazon has considered installing two machines at dozens more warehouses, removing at least 24 roles at each one, these people said. These facilities typically employ more than 2,000 people.That would amount to more than 1,300 cuts across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers for standard-sized inventory. Amazon would expect to recover the costs in under two years, at $1 million per machine plus operational expenses, sources said.The plan, previously unreported, shows how Amazon is pushing to reduce labor and boost profits as automation of the most common warehouse task – picking up an item – is still beyond its reach. The changes are not finalized because vetting technology before a major deployment can take a long time.Amazon is famous for its drive to automate as many parts of its business as possible, whether pricing goods or transporting items in its warehouses. But the company is in a precarious position as it considers replacing jobs that have won it subsidies and public goodwill.“We are piloting this new technology with the goal of increasing safety, speeding up delivery times and adding efficiency across our network,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement. “We expect the efficiency savings will be re-invested in new services for customers, where new jobs will continue to be created.”Amazon last month downplayed its automation efforts to press visiting its Baltimore fulfillment center, saying a fully robotic future was far off. Its employee base has grown to become one of the largest in the United States, as the company opened new warehouses and raised wages to attract staff in a tight labor market.A key to its goal of a leaner workforce is attrition, one of the sources said. Rather than lay off workers, the person said, the world's largest online retailer will one day refrain from refilling packing roles. Those have high turnover because boxing multiple orders per minute over 10 hours is taxing work. At the same time, employees that stay with the company can be trained to take up more technical roles.The new machines, known as the CartonWrap from Italian firm CMC Srl, pack much faster than humans. They crank out 600 to 700 boxes per hour, or four to five times the rate of a human packer, the sources said. The machines require one person to load customer orders, another to stock cardboard and glue and a technician to fix jams on occasion.CMC declined to comment.Though Amazon has announced it intends to speed up shipping across its Prime loyalty program, this latest round of automation is not focused on speed. “It's truly about efficiency and savings,” one of the people said.Including other machines known as the “SmartPac,” which the company rolled out recently to mail items in patented envelopes, Amazon's technology suite will be able to automate a majority of its human packers. Five rows of workers at a facility can turn into two, supplemented by two CMC machines and one SmartPac, the person said.The company describes this as an effort to “re-purpose” workers, the person said.It could not be learned where roles might disappear first and what incentives, if any, are tied to those specific jobs.But the hiring deals that Amazon has with governments are often generous. For the 1,500 jobs Amazon announced last year in Alabama, for instance, the state promised the company $48.7 million over 10 years, its department of commerce said.Amazon is not alone in testing CMC's packing technology. JD.com Inc and Shutterfly Inc have used the machines as well, the companies said, as has Walmart Inc, according to a person familiar with its pilot.Walmart started 3.5 years ago and has since installed the machines in several U.S. locations, the person said. The company declined to comment.Interest in boxing technology sheds light on how the e-commerce behemoths are approaching one of the major problems in the logistics industry today: finding a robotic hand that can grasp diverse items without breaking them.Amazon employs countless workers at each fulfillment center who do variations of this same task. Some stow inventory, while others pick customer orders and still others grab those orders, placing them in the right size box and taping them up.Many venture-backed companies and university researchers are racing to automate this work. While advances in artificial intelligence are improving machines' accuracy, there is still no guarantee that robotic hands can prevent a marmalade jar from slipping and breaking, or switch seamlessly from picking up an eraser to grabbing a vacuum cleaner.Amazon has tested different vendors' technology that it may one day use for picking, including from Soft Robotics, a Boston-area startup that drew inspiration from octopus tentacles to make grippers more versatile, one person familiar with Amazon's experimentation said. Soft Robotics declined to comment on its work with Amazon but said it has handled a wide and ever-changing variety of products for multiple large retailers.Believing that grasping technology is not ready for prime time, Amazon is automating around that problem when packing customer orders. Humans still place items on a conveyor, but machines then build boxes around them and take care of the sealing and labeling. This saves money not just by reducing labor but by reducing wasted packing materials as well.These machines are not without flaws. CMC can only produce so many per year. They need a technician on site who can fix problems as they arise, a requirement Amazon would rather do without, the two sources said. The super-hot glue closing the boxes can pile up and halt a machine.Still other types of automation, like the robotic grocery assembly system of Ocado Group PLC, are the focus of much industry interest.But the boxing machines are already proving helpful to Amazon. The company has installed them in busy warehouses that are driving distance from Seattle, Frankfurt, Milan, Amsterdam, Manchester and elsewhere, the people said.The machines have the potential to automate far more than 24 jobs per facility, one of the sources said. The company is also setting up nearly two dozen more U.S. fulfillment centers for small and non-specialty inventory, according to logistics consultancy MWPVL International, which could be ripe for the machines.This is just a harbinger of automation to come.“A 'lights out' warehouse is ultimately the goal,” one of the people said.(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; additional reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; editing by Greg Mitchell and Edward Tobin)

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