Supply Chain Robots Rule the Zappos.com Warehouse

If you want a glimpse of the future supply chain [1] that's already happening (with robots and tons of cool automation), then you have to check out this video of Zappos.com [2]'s warehouse and fulfillment facility.

Zappos.com is an online retailer best known for selling shoes, an irreverent corporate culture [3] and its legendary customer service. The advanced supply chain [4] system that the company is using in part of its warehouse operations is from vendor Kiva Systems [5].

There are many interesting statistics to take away from watching this, but this one should be the most eye-opening: Using their non-Kiva-enabled order-management processes, Zappos.com can fulfill an order in as little time as 48 minutes or as long as three and a half hours. With the Kiva system: 12 minutes. Every time.

AMR Research's chief research officer, Bruce Richardson, offers an excellent overview and analysis [6] of Zappos.com's supply chain operations. And he also describes the Kiva robots perfectly: "The robots look like oversized, orange Roombas, the vacuum cleaning machines made by iRobot," Richardson writes. "They operate in a state of perpetual motion, delivering a never-ending queue of orders for the picker."

Here's the YouTube link to the Zappos.com video [7] as well.