"Organized is overrated" - Anonymous
I watches a story on TV today that talked about Amazon's ability to fulfill orders. In case you missed it, Amazon ships more than books.
In the story it mentions a few interesting facts. One was that the warehouse had 1.2 Million square feet. Impressively huge!
Second fact, and the one that caught my ear, is that they do not shell items in specific spots. They just put it anywhere it can fit. So when items are received they are placed anywhere they fit and the system knows what it is and where it is. When items are ordered, a person goes and retrieves it from the shell, places it in a box which size is specified by the system, and it goes out in a specific truck, and specific flight to get to you.
The idea of just shoving items into a place that it can fit is amazing. No need to worry order if you have a system to retrieve what you need easily. The only cost to amazon is that the people have to go find it. You would think that automating the process would be better. I am sure Jeff Bazos has crunched the numbers and decided that this is better.
What is hard to get my mind around is that their strategy is to use chaos to serve their clients in orderly fashion. The size of the business might be the reason it works. This is opposite of what one would believe the strategy should be for extremely large fulfillment centers.
Today's question is:
"How much order is really needed in your life?"
I watches a story on TV today that talked about Amazon's ability to fulfill orders. In case you missed it, Amazon ships more than books.
In the story it mentions a few interesting facts. One was that the warehouse had 1.2 Million square feet. Impressively huge!
Second fact, and the one that caught my ear, is that they do not shell items in specific spots. They just put it anywhere it can fit. So when items are received they are placed anywhere they fit and the system knows what it is and where it is. When items are ordered, a person goes and retrieves it from the shell, places it in a box which size is specified by the system, and it goes out in a specific truck, and specific flight to get to you.
The idea of just shoving items into a place that it can fit is amazing. No need to worry order if you have a system to retrieve what you need easily. The only cost to amazon is that the people have to go find it. You would think that automating the process would be better. I am sure Jeff Bazos has crunched the numbers and decided that this is better.
What is hard to get my mind around is that their strategy is to use chaos to serve their clients in orderly fashion. The size of the business might be the reason it works. This is opposite of what one would believe the strategy should be for extremely large fulfillment centers.
Today's question is:
"How much order is really needed in your life?"
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