How Amazon’s Edwardsville Fulfillment Center handles the holiday hoopla
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Everything inside Amazon’s Edwardsville Fulfillment Center is big. The facility itself is nearly 800,000 square feet, with a workforce of 700 people, and filled with approximately nine miles of conveyor belts.
“Think of the Arch. If you were to stack 12-and-a-half Arches, that’s how many conveyor miles we have in the building,” George Bowman, site general manager, said.
And they have a big job this time of year.
“In normal periods, basically from January to October, we process over 8.6 million units during that time frame. During peak, we go up another 1.6 million. That’s from October to the end of the month of December,” Bowman said. “1.6 million packages. On a daily basis, we got from 30,000 (packages) during January to October to about 50,000 packages a day.”
The Edwardsville facility serves a 220-mile radius and focuses on medium packages weighing between 10 and 50 pounds. Bowman describes a workflow here that ebbs and flows based on customer orders.
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“What we found was many times, people order late in the evening when they get off work,” Bowman said. “We process them overnight and begin to pick, pack, and ship them in the morning.”
Interestingly, according to Bowman, toilet paper comes in second place when it comes to shipping out of the warehouse. Before packages leave the Edwardsville facility, they’re sorted by zip code and either go to a delivery station or another sort center, all before they wind up at your home.
“We had our Black Friday and Cyber Monday weeks. Now, we’re starting to ramp up to our Christmas week period.” Said Bowman.
Bowman says the best way to ensure the secure delivery of your holiday packages is to plan to be home when your package is dropped off. You can also arrange to have your package delivered to an Amazon pickup locker. Amazon asks you to light the way and clear the path for your delivery driver. You can also tell Alexa to “thank my driver” and the device will send the message to your delivery person.
“As I look at boxes go by, I’m thinking about my kids and what I want to buy them. I’m a customer. The fact Amazon is focused on customers, I love that,” Bowman said.
A big commitment from one of the world’s biggest retailers.
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