In Bristol sits one of the largest Amazon fulfilment centres in the UK. It is a 500,000 sqft building, as big as eight football pitches, with around 2,000 employees who ensure that your Amazon orders are packaged and quickly delivered to your doorstep.
The BRS1 fulfilment centre is one of many sites in the UK that use innovative robotics, solar panel installations, and many other high-tech pieces of machinery.
Here’s how your parcels are packed, picked and shipped to make their way to your door, starting at the huge Bristol facility.
The BRS1 Amazon fulfilment centre
The sheer size of BRS1 is awe-inspiring. It’s hard to miss what a massive scale of an operation it is – with its huge conveyor belts, large boxes and busy employees.
Not only that, but you can immediately see that it’s more than just work at an Amazon fulfilment centre – it’s play too, with its brightly coloured cafeteria and games area with ping pong and table tennis for employees to have fun while on their break.
The Amazon smart robots
Where the magic happens, on the floor where products that arrive at the fulfilment centre are put away, Amazon smart robots help employees every step of the way.
In the ‘Stow’ and ‘Pick’ areas, there are numerous workstations where employees store or pick items from huge, yellow-tiered pods that are transported to them by smart robots. BRS1 has more than 3,000 robots that can lift products that weigh as much as a grand concert piano.
The robots are equipped with tiny cameras on the front and underneath to scan QR codes on the floor, enabling them to locate their position and avoid collisions with other robots as they move around the floor. They even automatically move to a charging point when their batteries are low and are powered by the fulfilment centre’s solar panels.
To ensure everyone’s safety, strict rules govern who can access the robots. An AI-powered safety vest, ‘Cerberus Vest’, connects to a tablet that displays the exact location of all the robots on the floor and with the vest on, any robot near the person is prompted to slow down, change course or even stop completely.
Single and multi-packing with automated systems
The packaging section is where Amazon associates pack items in single or multiple packages. Each workstation is fully equipped with all the necessary materials, including a scanner, labels, and boxes in 14 different sizes.
As soon as the items are scanned, the system automatically determines the appropriate box and label size to ensure nothing is wasted.
After packing, the items are conveyed onto SLAM (Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest) machines where shipping labels are applied, a quality control check is performed, and then they are moved to the final stage for shipment.
See first-hand how the fulfilment centre’s passionate employees and exciting technology work hand-in-hand to ensure that Amazon orders are fulfilled and delivered right to our doorsteps.
You can find out more about fulfilment centres or book your very own tour here.
