As for Amazon, you see warehouse robots flattening the recruitment curve: a document

When Amazon unveiled the Robot of the Vulcan Touch Warehouse sensor warehouse last week, technology frams as a way to make the front lines functions safer and easier.

What the company did not mention is a broader ambition: the use of Volcan and its expanded fleet of warehouse robots to reduce its need to employ more human workers.

An internal document obtained by Business Insider reveals a long -term Amazon vision to automate many warehouse tasks. The document, which was history late last year, said that Volcan and similar robots “are decisive in flattening the Amazon employment curve over the next ten years” as the company adopts the “most advanced loyalty network in the world”.

This indicates that Amazon is trying to use automation to slow the new recruitment rate in the future, instead of replacing the current workers. According to the sources familiar with this issue, payment of automation is also in response to the increasing costs and a lack of a possible employment in the Amazon warehouses. These people, who are holding high positions in the company, have requested not to identify them because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The document, which bears the “Amazon Confidential” brand, was produced, by the Amazon retail team to review many important projects. It also identified many artificial intelligence initiatives designed to increase warehouse efficiency and employee productivity.

“High value tasks”

A spokesman for the Amazon told BI, noting that many future roles will include “higher value tasks.”

The spokesman added: “Our robots solutions are designed to automate tasks in an attempt to continue to improve safety, reduce repetition, and free our employees to surrender to customers in more skilled ways.” “Since the introduction of robots in Amazon operations, we have continued to employ hundreds of thousands of employees to work in our facilities and create many new job categories around the world, including attitudes such as flow control professionals, ground screens, and reliability maintenance engineers.”

The spokesperson also warned against extracting conclusions from a specific internal company document.

Automation

Amazon was a pioneer in Warehouse Automation for years, as she got KIVA systems in 2012 for about $ 775 million. The company has constantly simplified its operations through technology, combining more than 750,000 robots to work alongside more than a million employees in the confrontation lines in storing goods, choosing them, mobilizing and charging.

Almost a decade of time, the number of employees in Amazon has grown greatly, although he was hugging automation. However, this has gone to the opposite direction in recent years.

After doubling its operating power to 1.6 million between 2019 and 2021, the number of the main employees of Amazon decreased to 1.55 million last year.

Humans who work alongside robots

Amazon Vulcan was presented last week as the first touch robot, capable of sensing and adjusting the strength needed to choose products from crowded boxes and long baskets, and improving safety and speed.

According to the internal document obtained by the BI, the Amazon’s Robotics team is working on at least two models of artificial intelligence that will create new applications “that will greatly enhance the efficiency of our robots systems.” The document stated that the company is also working on a new model of artificial intelligence called “Tetris” aimed at reducing the costs of employment and variable transportation.

In the document, Aaron Barnes, the director of Applied Sciences at Amazon Robotics, confirmed the role of robots in enhancing efficiency and safety, which eventually allows the company to meet more requests and provide more shipments.

“We have always imagined a solution that works robots and humans working alongside,” Barnes wrote. “We believe that the total of the two together is better than the parts alone.”

He added that automation helps Amazon to keep the front lines employees in the competitive labor market by improving the work environment and providing new technical functional paths in maintenance and operations.

“You should be able to compete for workers,” Barnes said. “So that people want to work and stay in Amazon.”

A possible solution for employment deficiency

Some Amazon Bi employees told Volcan machines designed not only to enhance productivity but also to help address the growing business gap.

One of the employees said that the company has set aggressive goals to automate a lot of warehouse work over the next decade to reduce costs. This person explained that the Amazon is also conducting intensive research on how to raise the level of the current workforce to transfer it to more maintenance jobs.

As Amazon continues to grow, finding enough workers has become increasingly difficult, as another Amazon said from the inside. This person added that the company is not automated, and it will struggle to keep pace with the request. These employees asked not to know the discussion of internal matters.

A 10 billion dollar opportunity

Vulcan is one of several new systems presented by Amazon in recent years, including automatic weapons like Robin and Sparrow that are ordered, and mobile units like Proteus that transmit packages via warehouses.

The Atson Amazon strategy can provide up to $ 10 billion annually if it is fulfilled by 30 % to 40 % of the US orders through the next generation facilities by 2030, according to Moorgan Stanley estimates.

“We expect Amazon to continue to expand the warehouse network (to support growth) while upgrading the fingerprint towards robots from the next generation in new modifications and new modifications,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note earlier this year.

Andy Jaci, CEO of Amazon, confirmed the company’s commitment to automation during the February profit call, saying that its robot investments aim to enhance safety, productivity and cost efficiency.

“We have already seen a great value of our robotics innovations,” Jaci said.

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