SAN FRANCISCO – An army of 15,000 robots is ready to roll as Amazon prepares for Cyber Monday, its biggest single order day of the year.
In 2014, Amazon customers ordered more than 36.8 million items worldwide--a record-breaking 426 items per second, according to the company.
This year, Amazon expects to surpass that.
To pick, pack and ship all those items, the company is launching a full-scale deployment of a robotic fulfillment system it first purchased in 2012 and tested in 2013.
In a twist on the typical pick-and-pack warehouse operation, instead of having the pickers go to the items, the items come to them.
They're brought on the backs of bright orange Kiva robots that look a little like flattened pet carriers on wheels.
Actually, the Kiva robots bring the entire seven-foot shelving unit the needed item is on.
Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million. The robots are one part of a complex software and hardware system that simplifies picking and packing at warehouses that can contain literally millions of items.
This shopping season, they will traverse the floors of 10 mammoth Amazon fulfillment centers in California, Florida, New Jersey, Texas and Washington state.
"The Kiva drive units are about a foot tall and weigh about 350 pounds. They can lift 700 pounds,' said Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president for worldwide operation and customer service.
The Kiva software determines what items each packer at a packing station needs and in what order. It sends instructions to robots throughout the warehouse and tells them to bring the shelving units that contain those items to the packer.
Following bar-coded stickers on the floor, the foot-tall Kiva robots make their way to the correct shelving unit and scoot under it.
The Kiva robot lifts up the 7 foot shelving unit just off the ground and carries it to the packer.
A line of shelving slowly passes by the packer, stopping just long enough for the correct item to be plucked from the shelf. Then the Kiva robot carries the whole unit back to its place, sets the shelving unit down and goes to get another one.
Hundreds of the robots, moving at a steady 5 miles per hour, crisscross the warehouse floor, bringing a steady stream of shelving to pickers who stand at their packing stations at the edges of the warehouse.
Instead of having to walk long aisles grabbing items, the items come straight to the person doing the packing.
This allows Amazon to double the inventory each fulfillment center can hold, in part because the Kiva units require smaller lanes to move around.
"This dramatically increases what's available locally, because we can get so much more inventory into one space," said Clark.
Kiva also eliminates the miles of walking Amazon pickers used to have to do, which brings the shipping process down to minutes instead of hours, he said.
"If you're singing The 12 Days of Christmas, your order could already be in the truck before you finish," he said.