FT Article - Amazon, Robotics10 Nov 2022 18:24
Amazon has debuted a new warehouse robot that can pick up and sort millions of individual unpackaged products, in a move that will automate more jobs as the US ecommerce giant faces pressure to significantly cut logistics costs.
The group said the robot, named Sparrow, is its first one with the capability to “detect, select, and handle individual products in our inventory”, a task that had previously been the exclusive domain of Amazon’s warehouse employees.
Sparrow, a robotic arm that harnesses computer vision technology to identify and pick up small products, was unveiled at an event in Boston on Thursday.
The ecommerce group said the robot would “benefit” its employees, who could now focus on less repetitive tasks in the company’s warehouses. It said 700 new “categories” of jobs had been created at the company related to robotics.
The introduction of its new warehouse robot comes as Amazon is under pressure to cut costs in its Online Stores division, on which founder Jeff Bezos built his empire, which has struggled to grow in 2022.
Last month, the tech group warned that consumer spending was in “uncharted waters” as it issued revenue forecasts well below Wall Street expectations, becoming the latest big tech company to warn of slower growth and higher costs.
The poor retail performance has led Amazon to backtrack on its aggressive logistics expansion plans. It has paused, or cancelled operating, at least 50 US warehouses, according to data from logistics analyst Marc Wulfraat. It has also reduced its workforce from a high of 1.62mn in March this year to 1.54mn at the end of September
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