Soroptimist Bristol members joined the Rotary Club of Bristol for a tour of one of Amazon’s fulfilment centre storehouses in Swindon, the BRS2 facility. Prior to our arrival for the guided tour, we had lunch at Sally Pusseys.
The fulfilment centres are named after the initials of the nearest international airport, in this case Bristol Airport, hence BRS2.
We were given an extensive tour of the various stages goods pass through from arrival, sorting, packing and dispatch. The tour took 90 minutes and we walked approximately 2 km.
The fulfilment facility covers the size of six and a half football pitches and is the second largest in the UK. The particular storehouse is on four floors and holds over 30 million different items. From this facility goods are only sent to other storehouses which then deliver to customers.
The Swindon fulfilment centre is a robotics sortable facility. In these centres associates ship items smaller than a conventional microwave alongside robots. They do not process very large items here. Swindon employs over 3,000 people and robotics plays a significant role in all their processes.
We were told that robots benefit the people who work alongside them by reducing the distance employees have to walk. The robots are highly intelligent but do not compete for jobs; they create them. Robots enable more inventory to pass through their fulfilment centres, which requires more employees to handle that inventory.
The yellow robots transport towers of goods, the fulfilment centre has miles of conveyor belts carrying inventory in every direction and shipping labels are applied to boxes using air pressure. It was eye-opening to witness the incredible amount of technology and innovation that goes into the small brown boxes we often take for granted.
#SoroptimistBristol #Robotics #Amazon #BRS2