The Wakefield Express got an exclusive tour around one of the online retail giant’s newest warehouses to see the sheer scale and size of the operation in the district.
The 500,000 sq. ft. centre holds millions of items to be picked, packed and shipped to customers across Wakefield, West Yorkshire and the entire country.
More than 300 people work daily at the Stanley warehouse, which opened on November 8, to deliver tens of thousands of parcels containing everything from books and electronics, to makeup and household goods a day.
Around 1,200 staff members have been recruited and more staff are set to be taken on in the next three years, with pay starting at £10.50 per hour for all full-time, part-time, temporary, or seasonal roles..
Advanced technology is on full showcase inside the vast warehouse, with almost every aspect of the operation assisted or controlled by some form of technology.
General manager of the warehouse, Dave Benfell, showed us around the fulfillment centre.
He said: “We opened in October and we currently have 1,200 team members, a number which is continuing to grow.
"Inventory is brought in through trailers which team members will unload. We’ve got three rows of receive stations where we check the items into the building and create a record in our systems.
"From there, items follow the conveyor system, where products will be taken to one of out of three robotic floors. Team members help store items and the robots will store them.”
Dave explained that when an order is placed, the picking process starts.
Team members carry a scanner which tells them the shelf location for their next pick. The picker scans the shelf barcode followed by the item. If everything is okay, the picker moves on to the next location.
The warehouse has multiple packing stations on site, with most of them on the ground floor level.
Dave added: “After picking the items will then be packaged confidentially.
"After that, the item goes to our auto-SLAM (scan, label, apply, manifest) station, which is the final verification process and where the package receives a shipping label and information for the carrier.
"It will then go on the shipping sorter, where packages will be divvied up in the most efficient way possible, to avoid unnecessary travel.”
Here are 13 pictures from inside the depot.
1. NYWE-16-11-22-AmazonPAP0-YOR
Hundreds of people are employed at Amazon's gigantic new warehouse in Stanley, Wakefield. Photo: Lee Boswell
2. Robotic tote depalletizer
Amazon uses a robotic tote depalletizer as a safer, more consistent and quicker way of unloading totes of items from pallets. Photo: Scott Merrylees
3. Computer automation and manpower
The warehouse uses a mix of computer automation and human manpower to be as efficient as possible. Photo: Scott Merrylees
4. 300 workers are on shift at any point
Around 300 workers are on shift at any point, with this number expected to increase in the following few months. Photo: Scott Merrylees