Locations/ Fulfillment Centers

Since its founding, Amazon has expanded its operation to different states in the US and other countries all over the world.  The company has more than 110 active fulfillment centers in the United States and has 185 centers globally. In the US, New Jersey has the 3rd largest number of fulfillment centers with 10. More than one million employees are employed in various fulfillment centers all over the world. Plans to develop an additional 33 fulfillment centers in the United States are underway since they majorly operate in North America. One of the main steps they have taken to lower carbon emissions directly is expanding the amount of fulfillment centers.  These new and improved centers will be called mini-fulfillment centers, they are about a tenth of the size of a regular center.  The reasoning behind these centers is to create a quicker and more efficient delivery system.  This will allow for same day delivery and enables the three functions of shipping, sorting, and delivery stations to all be under one roof and now requires less time and energy.    

 

Amazon has also installed more than 50 solar rooftops on fulfillment centers and sort centers around the globe that generate 98 MW of renewable capacity and deliver 130,000 MW of clean energy annually.  They have also begun plans to implement 100,000 Rivian electric vans by 2021, they will be used in place of the old delivery trucks that run on gasoline.  They included that these buildings will reduce the need for aircraft transport and distance traveled for deliveries which is a direct correlation to what we learned in chapter 15 about Nearest Neighbor heuristics.