Online retail behemoth Amazon is well into building the country’s largest warehouse in western Sydney and has flagged that more of its massive fulfilment centres will be opened as demand for online shopping surges.
The company and developer Goodman have completed the building shell and are preparing to offer about 1500 jobs in the warehouse that will sport more robots than people.
The facility outshines most rivals and spans about 200,000sqm — the land size of Chadstone shopping centre or 24 rugby league fields — and is on track for completion in the Oakdale West industrial estate later this year.
Aside from its massive scale the inside of the Amazon warehouse sets it apart from other facilities — partly to accommodate its robotic inhabitants.
Amazon Australia director of operations, Craig Fuller, says the concrete floor has a “very, very high level of finish”. “The robots don’t like bumps. The robots really like smooth surfaces,” he said.
Incoming staff will work alongside about 1600 advanced robots.
The company is aiming to be ready for the late November Black Friday online sales event.
Much of the work will be less physical than most warehouse jobs as robots handle the bulk of the movement. “In a building like this we don’t need forklifts,” Mr Fuller said.
Amazon warehouses have been both lauded for their efficiency and scrutinised for their working conditions, but the company says with robots used for heavy work workers are directed towards more skilled tasks.
The scale of the fulfilment centre means it will house up to 11 million items — and it will take the most advanced Amazon robotics technology to make it work.
Mr Fuller said automation was part of supermarket distribution centres.
Amazon’s point of difference is its “random stow” technology which saves space, allowing for 50% more items to be stowed per square metre.
“We don’t care where the product is stored in a fulfilment centre,” he said. “You could see in one location a toothbrush, a paint brush, a computer. We don’t care because the computer tells us that there’s the product in that location and it just drives a lot of efficiencies and drives a lot of storage and storage capacity.”
The complex will be Amazon‘s fifth fulfilment centre and effectively doubles the company’s local operational footprint.
Mr Fuller said using robotics would enhance the efficiency of the company’s operations as they pick, pack and ship the millions of items around the country.
Jobs on offer span IT, HR and robotics to packers who work with robots to ship smaller items such as books, beauty products, electronics and toys.
“The robots basically do all the heavy lifting and moving the inventory inside the building, and then we still need people to do the picking and the packing of the product,” Mr Fuller said.
The facility will be Amazon’s second fulfilment centre in western Sydney, and fifth in Australia, and it can deliver to about 85% of the local market.
Amazon has four Australian fulfilment centres — Dandenong South in Melbourne was followed by Moorebank in Sydney and then Perth and Brisbane.
Mr Fuller predicted Amazon‘s network would start to get more specialised as it grew and sites like Moorebank could focus on bigger items like barbecues.
“Robots don’t like that type of product,” he said.
Amazon is growing rapidly and Mr Fuller flagged there could be more facilities once the Oakdale complex is done.
“Then we’ll think about, well, do we need another like this? Or do we need to start to specialise and have a fulfilment centre that might be just totally focused on apparel?” he said.
In more mature markets where Amazon has been in full swing for up to two decades fulfilment centres have started to specialise.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property
