When Chinese e-commerce companies believe in the principle of "Fast beats slow" and burn money for advertising in exchange for a competitive advantage, Amazon has long seen that the essence of e-commerce is a retail enterprise, and refined operation is its core competitiveness.

In Mid-May, the reporter visited the Tianjin operation center of Amazon China, which is the backstage of Amazon China. For e-commerce companies, using simple and fresh web pages to attract users to shop is the first step, and warehousing and distribution are the most critical tests.

Dynamic balance of warehouse output and input

To put it simply, the daily work of the operation center includes two links: inbound and outbound. Just like customs clearance, each product needs to undergo a series of "physical examinations" when it comes to Tianjin Operation Center-measuring height, measuring "waist" circumference, and weighing. As long as it is in the warehouse, these data will be accompanied until shipment.

Zhou Tao, the regional director of Amazon China's northern and western warehouses, told reporters that in the warehouse, it doesn't matter what the product is. Length, width, and height are the important factors to measure the product. According to the length, width, and height, determine the location of each product, the size of the box, and the price of the package. When these data are scanned into the system, the computer and the handheld device will automatically make relevant judgments.

It usually takes 1 hour to 6 hours from delivery to display online, while home appliances need to be inspected face-to-face with the supplier, and it takes up to 12 hours to put in the storage.

In the storage part, Amazon is best known for its one-for-one, one-for-many, multi-for-many storage mode. Seen from the outside, the same kind of goods will be scattered in different places, but actually they are not. With its powerful IT system and standardized product management and processes, the sorters will never fails to find the goods.

This makes the competitiors envious, because using this storage method can maximize storage space. However, most domestic E-commerce companies often divide storage areas according to the volume of the goods, and the same kind of goods are often stacked together. This often results in a phenomenon that places with large storage space cannot allow small-volume goods to be stored. Moreover, the best-selling categories cannot be conveniently stacked at the picking entrance, but can only be placed in the originally divided area.

After the goods are placed in the warehouse, only after customer places an order, it has its own best opportunity to leave the warehouse. If unfortunately it becomes a slow-moving product, it will also be "forced" out of the warehouse and returned to the manufacturer.

The Amazon operation center outbound process is very meticulous, including a total of 15 steps: printing orders, picking goods, merging basket, assorting goods, scanning inspection, scanning packages, sorting, moving packages, order delivery, and allocating sorting, allocating packages , Move the allocation box, allocation and delivery, return to the factory packaging, return to the factory delivery and other processes.

When picking goods, the sorter will directly tie the printed task list to the goods with rubber bands. If the order requires to pick the goods in several warehouses, the sorter will tie the assembly list to the goods. After picking the goods, the goods come to the process of parcel processing. Each customer’s goods are placed in a basket. The packaging staff scans the goods and inspects them according to the task list. At this time, the IT system will automatically prompt how big the packaging box should be, and the packaging personnel only need to follow this to wrap and paste the parcel list. Finally, these packages are placed on the conveyor belt and send out one by one.

Now, there are nearly 6 million products in 28 categories on Amazon China's website. These products are being purchased every second, and the order volume of each operation center changes from time to time. Zhou Tao told reporters that Amazon has its own set of methods when sorters pick goods in batches and when orders are shipped. "Our principle is to achieve dynamic balance. The operation center is like a pool. We must ensure that the changes in the order volume are coordinate with the changes of outbound and delivery. The inflow and outflow water are consistent. This is the most efficient way" Zhou Tao said.

According to Li Xichang - general manager of Amazon’s Tianjin Operations Cente. Sorters pick goods for one hour at a time, and the average completed orders range from tens to hundreds. The IT system will automatically generate a most time-saving and also the most effective picking route map. The sorter only needs to pick the goods according to the route map and the prompt information on the mobile handheld device.

"Even when picking goods in the same subdivision warehouse, if there is no effective path, the sorters will run repeatedly, which will affect efficiency." Li Xichang told reporters that the warehouse of Amazon's Tianjin operation center is very large, and 45,000 square meters is now put into use. It takes nearly an hour to walk along the common avenue of each sub-storage. Without the support of the IT system, a lot of time will be wasted by walking in the storage, picking, and delivery shipment part.

It is understood that Amazon's Tianjin Operations Center has a total of 780 employees, of which 30% are sorters, 8 employees are responsible for the automatic packaging process, and there are approximately 20 operation managers. "Fine management and standardized operations are Amazon's strengths. We will carefully calculate how many employees are needed for a certain part, and how to solve problems when they have any questions?. "Zhou Tao said.

In addition to using the automation and intelligence of machines and IT systems, Amazon also uses people for management. "Each operation manager should arrange employees' positions and working hours in real time according to the system, the number of orders, and the number of employees, so as to ensure maximum overall efficiency." Zhou Tao told reporters that these non-automated management requires experienced managers.