Even though Amazon says that it may be a decade before its warehouses are fully automated, the company isn’t just sitting around and waiting for the technology to catch up. It has been trying out new technologies to reduce labor and increase profits by automating some of the most common tasks at its fulfillment centers. According to a new report, Amazon is looking to use robots to pack your orders. This job is largely done by humans at its warehouses.
Reuters reports that Amazon has added machines to some of its warehouses which scan items coming down a conveyor belt and then wrap them seconds later in custom-built boxes. The company is reportedly considering installing two machines at dozens more warehouses which would remove at least 24 human employees at each. If the company were to deploy these machines across all of its U.S. fulfillment centers it would result in over 1,300 job cuts.
Two people who worked on the project told the scribe that with each machine costing $1 million plus operational expenses, the company expects to recover the costs in under two years. These machines would work faster than humans, building up to 700 boxes per hour, that’s almost five times faster than a human.
“We are piloting this new technology with the goal of increasing safety, speeding up delivery times and adding efficiency across our network,” a spokeswoman for Amazon said in a statement, adding that “We expect the efficiency savings will be re-invested in new services for customers, where new jobs will continue to be created.”
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