Amazon's logistics center in El Prat: more robots for non-stop electronic orders
Activity is frenetic in an increasingly automated plant
El Prat de LlobregatIt's very easy to buy on Amazon, but often you're unaware of everything that goes on behind the scenes. At the El Prat de Llobregat center, this is clear. With a constant flow of boxes loaded with products and finished packages moving from one conveyor belt to another in time with each online order, activity never stops, and any improvement in the logistics process is welcome.
This is where new technological solutions come into play for some of the many processes carried out at this center, which specializes in items that are neither too big nor too heavy, with increasingly longer aisles filled with food, such as milk, sugary drinks, and bags of chips. And diapers and cat food. While the plant covers 200,000 square meters—the equivalent of 40 football fields—70% is filled with robots that streamline the entire chain, from the moment the product batches arrive—they have everything imaginable—until the packages are shipped to each customer. The tech giant only shuts down for four hours in the early hours of Friday and Saturday for maintenance.
One of the new features incorporated at the El Prat center is a robotic arm that handles the repetitive and tiring task of picking up boxes and placing them on carts. It's a pilot program that Amazon decided to launch here, with an investment the company hasn't disclosed. If successful, it will be rolled out more widely, as happened with a depalletizing robot that breaks down incoming pallets and divides them into smaller, easier-to-process boxes. Testing began two years ago, and it's now installed in one of the center's initial phases. A tool is also being developed that creates custom-made paper bags for each order in just a few seconds.
"We are implementing technologies that transform operational efficiency and make our teams' daily work safer," explains the recently appointed director of this logistics center, Carlos Ordeig. Ordeig assures that this innovation will not involve any staff reductions. Currently, there are 3,000 workers at El Prat airport, and no further hiring is planned for this year. Across Catalonia, the multinational employs 8,000 workers, distributed among eight logistics centers and its Barcelona offices, where it laid off staff. nearly 800 workers last year. On a global scale, Amazon advertisement In early January, a new wave of layoffs is expected to affect 16,000 employees.