Key figures for the Augny siteAugny is one of Amazon’s eight distribution centers in France. Inaugurated in 2021, it is the most recent and also the most robotic in France.
- 50,000 m² on the ground for 182,000 m² in total over three floors
- 4,000 jobs per year, or around 3,000 full-time equivalents and 3,950 permanent contracts
- 350 to 400 temporary workers increase the workforce in the second half of the year
- 25 to 30 million products currently fill the site
- 52,000 mobile shelves equip this site, they are guided autonomously by robots
After the stroke of midnight, this evening, Flash Prime days begin on the Amazon site. This commercial highlight, which takes place from October 8 to 10, returns for its third edition and is reserved for members of the Prime program. A few weeks before Black Friday, Amazon promises “ several hundred thousand » discounted products. How to prepare for this expected sales peak?
Nearly 400 temporary workers recruited this summer
For several months now, logistics has been in the starting blocks. It all started in July: in addition to the 4,000 jobs at this distribution site located in Augny, near Metz in Moselle – for around 3,000 full-time equivalents – the site’s HR teams recruited nearly 400 temporary workers.
Objective: to initially replace the 20 to 25% of vacationers, then increase the workforce to deal, in order, with Flash Prime Days, then Black Friday, and finally the purchases that will follow until December to garnish the bases of the trees at Christmas. “All employees are trained to perform three different roles within the site”explain Pierre-Louis Debroise, the young director of this logistics site, engineer by training and pure Amazon product (see below).
The site’s activity is divided into four main parts: the teams receive products, store them, take them out to fulfill orders placed by customers online and send these packages to delivery stations in France, Germany and Luxembourg. . These will operate the last mile in order to deliver to end customers.
Stocks accumulated for a month to cope with the influx of sales
In Augny, the shelves are “nearly 85% full, compared to 70% during more “normal” periodscompares Pierre-Louis Debroise. To fill this Santa Claus 3.0 bag, teams located in France and Luxembourg rely on sales forecasts in order to evaluate the number of references to have in stock, and distribute them appropriately across the eight distribution centers. from Amazon, “because if an Alsatian customer is delivered from the Montélimar site, for us, it’s a failure”assures the director.
Stocks still on pallet and the site manager
Items arranged randomly in the 52,000 mobile shelves
Since September, this stock has been steadily increasing. During our visit, Thursday October 3, he counted between 25 and 30 million units. These most often come from the Amazon site in Senlis, in Oise, which distributes stocks to the eight Amazon distribution sites across France. In addition, certain suppliers directly supply this Lorraine site specializing in small packages, that is to say small packages and less than 10 kg. They are received and verified manually with the help of Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology which orchestrates the entire site. The references are then stored by the employees.
The method? The agent collects the references in bins and slides them into columns filled with various products without any connection between them. He places them where he can, that is to say where he finds room. White lights sometimes illuminate free areas, whereas purple lights indicate areas that are already full. Two cameras follow the path of the agent’s arms and thus identify where exactly the reference is located on the shelf. These 52,000 shelves move around autonomously thanks to small robots that drive them.
Storage in mobile shelves:
Its stocks are therefore sleeping quietly, for the moment, in the twists and turns of these approximately 182,000 m² of warehouse in Augny spread over three floors. Without doubt, starting this evening, these shelves will be emptied as orders are placed to deliver, most often within one day, to Amazon Prime customers.
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