13 Sep We know the Amazon warehouses of BCN1 and MAD4

• The logistics centre in San Fernando de Henares was the first to be opened by the company in Spain, while the one in El Prat de Llobregat is one of the largest in the country.
• All products go through four preparation phases before being shipped to their recipient.

Yesterday afternoon we attended a virtual tour guided by professionals who work in Amazon’s logistics centers in Barcelona (El Prat de Llobregat) and Madrid (San Fernando de Henares). A session in which we were able to observe the inner workings of the company’s logistics model.

In this post we are going to focus on the BCN1 logistics centre, as it is the largest in Spain. It has a surface area of 200,000 square meters, four floors high and needs at least 4000 workers to operate. A figure that falls quite short if compared to the number of robots at work, as they have 6000 machines active 24/7.

Jeff Bezos has relied on robotics to make 24-hour parcel delivery feasible and to develop a logistics system capable of preparing up to a million orders in a day.

What role do drives play in the logistics center?

Amazon Robotics’ 150 kg drives have the capacity to carry up to 1,500 kg of load, comparable to an adult hippopotamus. They are a kind of “roombas” with programmed QR codes, which rotate 360º, are autonomous and have 24 hours of battery life.

In addition, they are so intelligent that when they run out of electrical charge, they communicate by sensor with the nearest robot so that it can pick up the stock of products and thus move to the charging point. In addition, they need basic maintenance every 26 weeks and every 52 weeks they go through a deep maintenance check to be reconditioned. The goal is to avoid supply chain failures.

Seasonal product preparation and packaging system

During the preparation process, the products go through different phases classified as inbound and outbound, which has four stations: Receive, Stow, Pick and Pack.

• Receive: Workers check that the goods have arrived in perfect condition. In fact, if the items come with a defect, they go to the “damage” container and to the quality department. If the products are in good condition, they are scanned and placed on a totem with their corresponding barcode, black storage boxes. The code is scanned at the following stations.

All products pass through a 22.5-kilometre-long conveyor belt, which runs the entire width and length of the facility. In total, Amazon’s logistics centre in Barcelona has 56 loading and unloading docks, and has a storage capacity of more than 25 million products.

• Stow: Three-storey storage area, with two fields separated by a main hallway. In each field there are three zones: the motorway area is where the machines move quickly, the aisle area is where the racks are loaded and unloaded, and the parking area is where the robots come to pick them up.
• Pick: This phase corresponds to the “outbound” stage, the moment in which a customer buys a product and the picker selects it from the shelves based on the data recorded. In this case, a reference, name and location are added and they go back to the totem. All products must go in these boxes regardless of their category.
• Pack: Last station: once the orders have been received from the customers, they are packaged. The company’s smart machines have the ability to select the most appropriate package for each product through its barcode. And finally, the packages leave the belt in two directions according to their size, taking maximum care of the condition of the item until it reaches its recipient.

The logistics centre facilities are fully equipped with the best technology to save time and take care of every phase of the product preparation process. For Amazon, the most important thing is the customer’s shopping experience.