This robot snuck up beside me
Uh-oh. This is one of the primary sites where Amazon designs, tests, and builds its fleet of more than 750,000 robots
We wanted to have this visual of the engineers being able to look out the windows and say
I can see my product. I built it, I designed it here, I can go downstairs, I'm on with the test engineers
And they sound sort of like R2-D2. The decade-plus, multi-billion-dollar investment into robotics is key to Amazon's efficiency goals
especially as the delivery behemoth faces accusations about worker safety in its fulfillment centers
Before we start talking about productivity and efficiency, we start with safety. As we think about the opportunity
within the fulfillment centers to innovate and improve, we tend to look at the most challenging tasks
lifting, manipulating, moving things. So will Amazon's big robotics bet pay off
As humans work side-by-side with robots, what will this mean for Amazon's workers
and the future of its shipping business. We are about an hour outside of Boston at Amazon's robotics hub
This is a relatively new facility they bought a few years ago. We're here to look at Amazon's unique approach to robotics
which is to have the entire life cycle of the project and of the products under one roof
from development to testing to manufacturing. So Joe, we're about an hour outside of Boston
What's the history of this facility? We opened this facility about three years ago
and you can see on this road there's a number of Amazon facilities. Our mother's site was the original site, which is the bus 12 up in North Reading
and we'd grown quite a bit, and we wanted to open another development site. And so we landed in Westboro, Massachusetts
The talent and ear is rich from previous generations of technology. They had been up and down the corridor here
We built this about three years ago. You know, when we opened it, we were a little worried, you know, would they come, and they have come
which is pretty exciting. Amazon has two robotics sites in the greater Boston area The North Reading location was part of the acquisition of Kiva in 2012 which then became Amazon Robotics What unique about this space is how many roles it houses under one roof
from designers to scientists to testing engineers. Can I drive one? Yeah, absolutely
It's the result of a decision to not outsource and maintain control of the supply chain
They seem to be communicating their own little language. This one's got a bin. This one I'm controlling
This one has a mind of its own. I don't really know what it's doing, but it's chirping a lot. So, seems to be happy
I pursue this strategy of vertical integration, of building every aspect of the supply chain and manufacturing the robots
Well, one, speed, right? The thing is having N10 control, full vertical, as we think gives us speed
And every time you start decoupling things, you're going to lose that speed. And then you're also going to lose the insight that the other processes have
or the other functions have. By having it all together, that feedback loop is super tight
The second thing is innovation, right? We get lots of great insight from those other teams
So the teams that are building the manufacturing team have a large voice into the design cycle
And it influences our design and impacts our design. The folks that are deploying it also here have a large voice into the impact
This is where a lot of the software development is done for these products. And you can start with an idea on a whiteboard
Nine months later, you can see it all of a sudden being a prototype in the test lab
18 months later, you see your product rolling off the line. That is like super empowering
When new candidates come in and think, what's the Amazon special sauce in robotics
This is it. Amazon is number seven on this year's most innovative companies list
and its robotics program is helping lead the charge on innovation. Multiple robots are developed or tested here in Westboro
fulfilling different roles from lifting to sorting to getting out of the way of humans
We're going to see our favorite robot. Proteus, yeah. When we started that, there was a team of six
And often, where innovation gets stifled is when you overstaff a program too early
And sometimes the best path to success is to keep it super small with highly talented people who can move at a pace that a larger team will slow us down Is the main thing that you working on these arms and testing out the Proteus So Proteus is my specialty These are very complicated systems
And are you working on the engineering side as well or is it more on the testing once it's actually out here in production
So, my particular job is with testing. We'd rather find problems here, get them fixed
and then push the fixed version with the improvements and updates out to production in order to make the system even better
What's it like working alongside robots? Oh it's great. I really enjoy this. I've been doing this
for quite a while so I've really really taken a liking to the robots, both the arms, the drive
units, the combination of the two of them working together. It's really fun. Robotics are going to
fundamentally change what their jobs are right, what tasks they're doing every day. So how do you
think about that? And that's super exciting too. It's creating new opportunities. I think we've all
seen there's always this tension between how does this impact people and I think we've always seen
that automation and technology breakthroughs create opportunities and create new jobs. And I think it's hard to argue that Amazon has not been a great job creator in almost every domain you can think about
But automation is still inevitably going to come with concerns over worker replacement
And I know Amazon has invested a lot more than a billion dollars in this process of upskilling or teaching new skills to workers
Do you think upskilling is the solution to fears of replacement? There are two things
We continue to grow at a very high rate. And so the number of facilities, the number of jobs we're creating has been exciting to see
And then the second part is, yeah, the upskilling is creating new, exciting jobs and opportunities
for potentially a group of people that wouldn't have that opportunity. And so I think in both dimensions, we're going to see growth
And it's not just upskilling that's front of mind. A Senate committee report released in December reported conditions in Amazon warehouses were unsafe
and prioritized speed over safety. How much does safety play a role in your thinking about how robotics are going to play into Amazon's process
It front and center Before we start talking about productivity and efficiency we start with safety As we think about the opportunity within the fulfillment centers to innovate and improve we tend to look at the most challenging tasks Lifting manipulating
moving things. We're excited about what we've done and we have a new facility with some of our
newer generation technology that is 10x, the automation of our previous generation
Amazon is known for its relentless pursuit of efficiency and productivity. Of course
they're always trying to get packages to customers faster and faster. Robotics is really key to making
that happen. At the same time, safety is a huge concern for Amazon. Joe talked about how a lot of
worker functions, and especially the worker functions like repetitive movements that often
lead to injuries, are being replaced by robots. And I think Amazon acknowledges this, and they put a
lot of investment into upskilling, or this process of basically teaching workers new skills and being
able to give them new jobs. I mean, whether that's successful, I think, remains to be seen
and you'll still have fears of what replacement looks like for workers. But you can see that
robotics really will be the future in trying to replace a lot of the different areas that we do
associate with workplace injuries and risk. I asked Joe whether he did see a future in which
the warehouses or the fulfillment centers would be fully automated, and I think Amazon hasn't even
fully thought that through. But I think even for a company as innovative as Amazon, it's still
unclear what this might look like 10 years down the road. The great thing about Amazon, it so
operates in many ways like a startup, has a startup mentality of speed. You're able to innovate at a
speed and you don't get bogged down with bureaucracy over sometimes a big company. I mean, there have
been challenging times when I was sure this thing was going to work in some way and it didn't. And
the disappointment of your idea just didn't pan out. But to see the impact when you go globally
our products have made to our associates, that flywheel of driving customer selection
lower prices and speed, I get to see it real time. And so that's been pretty fun
It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity