WESTBOROUGH, Mass. - While Cyber Monday is one of the busiest online shopping days of the year heading into the holiday season, the Amazon in Westborough said with their systems in place, it's another seamless workday.
What You Need To Know
- The Amazon fulfillment center in Westborough said they saw about a 20% increase from their usual daily numbers on Cyber Monday this year. They call the shopping holiday a "high-volume event"
- The site opened just about a year ago and operates 23 hours out of the day as a Sub-Same-Day Delivery (SSD) facility
- On Monday, Amazon demonstrated new Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) technology which is being installed in delivery vans and utilizes artificial technology to help drivers sort packages
- The VAPR technology was developed by Amazon Robotics teams in Westborough and North Reading, MA and will be rolled out in 1,000 Amazon electric delivery vans from Rivian by early 2025
“Right now, we're in what we call a high-volume event," operations manager Klete Squires said on Monday. "Our goal for today is to process about 71,000 units.”
Squires said this year they’re seeing about a 20% increase in units on Cyber Monday compared to their numbers on a regular day, but he’s got faith in the Westborough distribution center’s team.
“Because we operate 23 hours out of the day, we're able to process the volume very seamlessly," Squires said. "Get everything out the door with minimal impact to our customers.”
From picking and packing to getting orders on the road in 45 minutes, Squires said the key is efficiency with the help of advanced technology.
And once the drivers are on the move, they’ve got some new help from artificial intelligence as well.
“This is the new technology that we are announcing that we started rolling out this helping driver find packages quickly," Amazon principal engineer Gaurav Kumar said. "Without this, they would have to manually shift through, and they create label match addresses and see if this the correct package or not.”
Kumar said Amazon's new Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval (VAPR) tech was manufactured in North Reading and Westborough, Mass. and it saves drivers about 30 minutes of sorting.
“Locally developed technology," Kumar said. "And originally, developed for our fulfillment centers where we adapted it for our vans. So now the delivery drivers can get the same benefit of A.I. that we use in our fulfillment centers.”
Squires said technology and hundreds of their team members makes for smooth sailing on Cyber Monday.
“Our commitment to the customer, the prime member, is we're going to get you your package in four to six hours," Squires asid. "I know of a package getting to a doorstep in an hour and 20 minutes; that's the fastest out of this building that I can speak to. But when it comes to the efficiency, we're able to do every order in five touches.”
